13 organizations and communities watching blockchain for good

UPDATE on 12.09 - adding B4SJ

Countless startups and organizations are now trying to harvest the power of blockchain for good — at PositiveBlockchain we have listed around 600 (submit yours to the list here).

If you are in that space or simply curious, you may want to know where to find information and who to follow online!

Here are 14 organizations and communities watching blockchain for good:

1/ Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC): An initiative of ConsenSys, the famous blockchain software tech company based in Brooklyn, NY. ConsenSys develops, consult and support decentralized applications built on Ethereum. The BSIC itself incubates, develops, and implements blockchain products and solutions that can address social and environmental challenges across the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It counts in 2018 more than 215 coalition members, mainly startups in blockchain for good, international organizations and investment funds. The BSIC organizes the Blockchain for Social Impact Conference in new York one of the largest conferences in that place worldwide. Missed the events? You can listen to the Nov 2017 panel podcast on the Blockchain Talks by Rebel Method or the live stream here for the June 2018 edition. The BSIC also co-organized in April-June the online Decentralized Impact Incubator with TopCoder (600+ participants in 2018).

• Web: https://www.blockchainforsocialimpact.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ethereum4impact
• Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/fr-FR/blockchainforsocialimpactny/
• #BSIC #Ethereum4impact

2/ UN Blockchain — Multi-UN Agency Platform: A group of UN individuals working for various UN organizations that have voluntarily gathered as one to make the world as one, and explore the potential of blockchain technology for the causes that UN serves. The website offers different resources, list of relevant articles, a calendar of UN events related to blockchain.

• Web: https://un-blockchain.org/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UNBlockchain

3/ Blockchain Initiative for Social Good: a free membership group promoting the use of Internet-of-Value and Blockchain technology for good social and environmental outcomes. It is run by the not-for-profit Centre for Citizenship, Enterprise and Governance (CCEG) a global open source international Think Tank on the Movement of Value.

• Web: https://www.bisgit.org/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bisgit_iov
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/191341374618709/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8560826

4/ Blockchain For Good (BC4G): Industry focused Think Tank bringing bright minds together to discuss developments of blockchain for good. The website doesn’t tell much for the broad audience but the twitter is active and worth following!

• Web: https://www.blockchainforgood.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BC4G_org

5/ Stanford Graduate School of Business: the School has published several articles and studies focusing on Blockchain for Social Impact like this one under the auspices of the school’s Center for Social Innovation. Worth reading!

• Web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/blockchain-social-impact

6/ Blockchain at UNICEF: the United Nations Children’s Fund is very actively working on integrating blockchain technology and supporting programmatic applications in their working areas. UNICEF has published its own Multisig contract on Ethereum a has announced in January 2018 funding for Blockchain-based startups through the UNICEF Innovation Fund.

• Web: http://unicefstories.org/blockchain/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/UNICEFinnovate
• #UNICEFinnovate

7/ Future of Blockchain, World Economic Forum Council: as reminder the World Economic Forum is a non profit foundation “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas”. There are now doing exactly so with a council on Blockchain. At tho-chairs are the President of Estonia and the CCO of Bitfury Group.

• Web: https://www.weforum.org/communities/the-future-of-blockchain
• #WEF

8/ Blockchain Commission for Sustainable Development and Blockchain for Impact (BFI): the Blockchain Commission was established at the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 to develop a multi-sectoral framework to support the UN system. They see blockchain as an “opportunity for national and international institutions to defend the rights of those they represent, and to accelerate our collective progress towards meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals”. The Commission has launched Blockchain for Impact (BFI) in May 2018, a collaborative convening, advocacy and action platform series of impact-oriented events and task forces designed to deliver profound and positive social impact around the world. Goal is also to develop pilot projects that would be scaled worldwide. Looking forward!

• Web: http://blockchaincommission.org/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlockchainSdg
• #BlockchainSdg

9/ EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum: the Commission has launched the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum with the support of the European Parliament, represented by Jakob von Weizsäcker responsible for a recent report on virtual currencies. The call for contributors ended in April 2018. Some resources are already available on their website, but since it has just started we can expect much more in the upcoming month such as a map of Blockchain initiatives. Interesting to note that several universities, blockchain hubs and ConsenSys will “operate” the Forum. Although the scope of research and activities may not be limited to pure social impact topics, we can assume that it will beneficiate the broad blockchain communities! The two first working groups including members can be found here. In a group effort for digital collaboration, the Forum has launched a community platform using mobilize.io for people to join outside the working group. As you can guess, data privacy is one topic already high on the agenda there #GDPR.

• Web: https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/eublockchain
• #EUBlockchain

10/ Blockchain Solutions for the Poor: A linkedin group worth following, initiated by the Dr Jane Thomason a global ambassador for blockchain for social impact.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8589766

11/ Blockchain for Good: another community group for people to connect and share ideas about.. Blockchain for good!

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/blockchainforgood/?ref=br_rs

12/ Blockchain For Social Justice (B4SJ)

A collective of social justice minded individuals from various sectors coming together to support the development of blockchain projects that serve the most vulnerable. The B4SJ is very active in SF, get in touch with them!

• Web: https://www.b4sj.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/B4SJCommunity/

And of course:

13/ PositiveBlockchain.io: the open-source database, media platform and community exploring the potential of blockchain technologies for social and environmental impact. The database currently lists about 580 projects and startups using blockchain techs for good. Learn more here

• Web: http://positiveblockchain.io
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/positiveblockchain/
• Telegram: https://t.me/positiveblockchain
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/positiveblockchain-io/
• Email: hello@positiveblockchain.io

We missed a major organization or community watching blockchain for good? Comment below or notify at hello@positiveblockchain.io