[Web3 for Good] Hawai’i Marine Life
This is the first in a new series of Profiles, showcasing people who are participating in Web3 to make a positive difference in the world.
Here we find out why people are involved in Web3 beyond profit… starting with HawaiiMarineLife.eth
Q1. Tell us a bit about yourself and what motivates you in life?
My name is Chris Hendrickson but I go by Hawai’i Marine Life in Web3 which is also the name of my passion project. I have a degree in Biology and Chemistry and I spent 5 years working in biotech before transitioning to the non-profit and political space. I pivoted careers because I wanted to directly impact the planet by making the world a better place for animals, specifically animals raised for food. I worked in Farmed Animal Protection for 5 years in various capacities including being the Campaign Manager for the Proposition 12 campaign in California which, at the time, enacted the strongest legal protections for farmed animals on the planet.
After the campaign ended, my wife and I made our shared dream a reality by moving to Maui, the island where we got married and later, were blessed with a daughter. While on Maui, I got completely obsessed with being in the water and seeing hundreds of different species of fish. That evolved into working to film every species and I started sharing my experience with others on social media, thus Hawai’i Marine Life was born.
The mission of Hawai’i Marine Life is to highlight the beauty of Hawaiian oceans and species to inspire conservation for future generations. Given my background in animal protection, I wanted to show people, all over the world, the natural and beautiful state of our planet and highlight what we have the potential to lose if we do not correct course when it comes to protecting our oceans and planet.
What motivates me in life is protecting those who cannot protect themselves, and making sure we save our incredible planet for others, like my daughter, to enjoy and cherish for future generations.
Q2. What brings you to Web3?
I have been in Web3/Crypto for almost a decade. I got into crypto through libertarian philosophy and the general advocacy for minimal government involvement in people’s daily lives. Since money is so integrally tied in with the country and government, having an alternative store of value like Bitcoin backed by tokenomics and the blockchain seems like an incredible advancement in monetary fundamentals. As crypto evolved, blockchains like Ethereum were created which can effectively write and enable smart contracts thus laying the foundation for Web3 and NFTs. Other blockchains like Polygon, VeChain, and Tezos have evolved too which allows a diversity of choice and competition in the market.
Overall, I believe that sovereignty, autonomy, and self-ownership are vital to an actualized existence. As humans have spread to cover basically the entire planet, the results of our actions are no longer isolated to just humans but to all species. Because humans are responsible for their impact on all life on this planet, I think it is of the utmost importance that we consider our impact on others, both human and non-human as non-human animals’ autonomy is getting vastly diminished. In an effort to ensure that others are protected, we must utilize new technology to help in ways that we couldn’t before and I believe Web3 has the potential to do that.
Q3. What opportunities do you see in Web3 that relate to your mission of sustainability?
Sustainability is an evolving concept that only recently have humans had to deal with since we now operate on a global scale and impacts from humans in one part of the world can directly impact innocent humans and animals in another part. The fundamental ability for people to connect with and communicate in real-time allows the sharing of information in a way that has never been enabled before. Being able to have trust and transparency of information is imperative for people to make conscientious and knowledgeable decisions in life.
What Web3 and Blockchain technology does, is allow information to be stored in a way that it cannot be changed or modified, people can see who published it, at what time, and it is not open for manipulation. This solves the problem of trust in reporting. When an environmental disaster happens, information about that event can be hidden from the public unless a whistleblower or trusted news outlet covers the event. With Web3, reporting of data and actions can be stored on the blockchain allowing transparency in the processes of those interacting with the environment.
Scientists and researchers can not only publish the raw data of their research but can supplement it with peer review and approval. We can literally see, step by step, the process by which information about the planet is being created and use that information to guide our decisions. Species population counts can be published in a way that anyone can access and the data cannot be changed. The validity of the count is obviously still questionable, but the credibility of the author publishing, the supplemental methods, and details of any peer reviewers, that get published alongside the results, can lend credibility to the validity of the study.
How this all related to Hawai’i Marine life, is that my videos capture behavior, ecological composition, and outright beauty of our natural world. Telling the story of a million fishes is difficult, but telling the story of one is inspiring. We have all seen Finding Nemo, right? Showing an individual in a larger population allows people to build an emotional connection and once that emotional connection is made, inspiration can happen and change can be made.
Q4. If you had to pick one thing to change about how web3 operates right now, what would it be?
Frankly, I would love Web3 to be safer, easier to access, and more secure. To even get involved, there is a non-trivial amount of information to be learned and steps that need to be taken to even get in the door. Then, once you are in, it feels like one is constantly having to look out for bad actors, fraudulent links, and fake websites. Not a day goes by that someone isn’t scammed out of their assets. I think as Web3 evolves, people will be using the technology, without even realizing they are using it. This is the only way it is ever going to lead to mainstream adoption.
Web3, as a term, was coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood in 2014 and only recently caught on in the culture around 2021 when NFTs were first booming on the culture. The industry is extremely new so when people see a picture or video they purchased to support Hawai’i Marine Life, I want a tool that has it just show up like every picture or video on a streaming service. The difference is that they will own that asset and it will serve as proof that they have supported the project.
Q5. Where do you see your personal efforts best placed to change things in the space right now?
I am not a coder, so the technical side of Web3 is vastly outside of my wheelhouse, I am a biologist and videographer. My best efforts to change things are to be an advocate for what I am passionate about, protecting animals. I can learn as much as I can about Web3, and connect with as many people as possible so I can inspire people to care about not only profit but helping others. The videos I take and stories I tell will be immortalized on the blockchain. We only know dinosaurs existed because we have fossils and those only exist because of sheer luck in chemical, geological, and biological processes. With Web3 and blockchain technology, we can be intentional about what we choose to make important and memorable.
Hawaii Marine Life will serve as a permanent record that these species existed and that we have/once had a thriving planet, teeming with an incredible diversity of life. I want a future that is even better than today but stuff outside our control happens. If we inspire enough people and put in practices that protect others rather than harm them, I believe we can create a better and brighter future, using whatever new technology we can, including Web3, to make it happen.
Many thanks to Chris for taking the time to respond to these questions — we hope you find his work inspiring for your own efforts. Together we can make Web3 a better place for all, not just for profit.
If you have any suggestions or would like to be profiled as part of this Web3 for Good series, please do send a DM on Twitter to @FutureSightE
