Topl Spotlight #27: A Deep Dive Into Blockchain for Social Impact With Topl’s Erin Murphy

Topl Spotlight showcases innovators and changemakers who are reimagining economic systems through web3 technologies. Today, we’re excited to be highlighting Erin Murphy, the Chief Growth Officer at Topl. Erin leverages her decade-long experience in international development, focusing on micro-enterprise development and financial inclusion, coupled with her academic expertise from The Wharton School and Lauder Institute.

Can you introduce yourself and talk about your experience in web3?

My journey to web3 is one of those “meant to be” examples of how unique career opportunities can come your way if you’re open-minded and curious. Before grad school, I spent about a decade in the development aid sector, working on a range of projects across Eastern Europe and South Asia — basically about as far from the tech industry as it gets. But my years of on-the-ground experiences in emerging and frontier markets sparked my interest in finding more innovative, targeted, and sustainable methods of poverty eradication.

When I joined the Topl team in early 2021, my first role was as a product manager of our supply chain traceability product. Having previously founded a fair trade fashion brand, I was excited to build a solution that would facilitate socially-minded companies in achieving their various sustainability goals, which ranged from ESG monitoring through the justification of so-called ‘green premiums’ for their carbon-conscious products to more generally building trust with stakeholders. During this time, I soaked up every opportunity, whether through business development efforts or events attendance, to build relationships with individuals and organizations working to utilize web3 for social and environmental impact — and I found this atmosphere of innovation and optimism completely invigorating.

As we started to move toward the launching of our upgraded main net, I wanted to build a team focused on growing our impact project pipeline and our developer ecosystem. So, over a year ago, I joined Topl’s executive team as our Chief Growth Officer. Since then, I’ve worked alongside our tremendous team to dive deeper into high-growth markets, like LATAM, Africa, and Asia, to get a deeper understanding of the tools and resources builders need to bring their projects to life.

What sparked your interest in the intersection of blockchain and impact?

My first encounter with blockchain was during my time in Prague, where I happened to stumble upon Bitcoin. It wasn’t the cryptocurrency aspect that intrigued me, though; it was the broader capabilities of the technology. About a year later, I was starting a company focused on producing fair-trade and ethical goods and exploring several cutting-edge technologies that could be integrated into our operations.

One technology I was particularly excited about was Augmented Reality (AR). I had the idea of creating a virtual space where customers could experience the locations where our products were made. It was important because many couldn’t grasp the extreme poverty and desperation we were trying to address with dignified employment opportunities. Nepal, at the time the second poorest country in Asia, faces serious challenges, including high unemployment rates, especially among women. By showing them a facility providing fair wages, childcare, insurance, and daily lunches — workplace benefits that many people in the US might lack access to — I hoped to foster a deeper connection with our mission. I was proud of our work and wanted to share that with our customers.

Blockchain was another technology I was very interested in because I wanted to prove to my customers that I was doing what I said I was doing regarding my supply chain’s ethical and sustainable practices. I was looking at different solutions, and Topl came across my desk; I was preparing for a pitch competition and reached out to the company and asked them to tell me how to pitch it! Even today, I still do believe, despite some implementation issues, that traceability is one of the best use cases for proving blockchain’s utility beyond just decentralized finance (DeFi) applications — which are equally as valid but don’t speak to the whole potential of what can be achieved, especially for the millions and millions of people working in the production of our food and goods.

How do you think blockchain technology is transforming traditional economic systems?

Particularly in areas with a profound lack of institutional trust, such as among the rising middle class in the Global South, individuals often seek alternatives to their local currency or the dollar. In these contexts, blockchain — and cryptocurrencies specifically — can provide an alternative store of value to more inflated or volatile currencies.

The technology’s capacity to tokenize existing assets is another critical aspect of economic transformation. The World Bank estimates that 2 billion working adults worldwide have no access to financial services. Back in college, I became captivated by the works of economist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, who, amongst his many observations, has articulated two important principles with which I deeply resonate. First, Yunus says, “Poverty is an artificial, external imposition on a person. And since it is external, it can be removed.” So, essentially, if poverty is an artifact of human systems, we have a duty to see it eradicated.

Second, he points out that the number of people without access to credit is nearly equal to those lacking food or clean water. Therefore, he believes that access to credit should also be considered a human right. In many places, accessing capital means relying on local, informal lending practices, as formal banking and financial institutions are out of reach. This capital often comes at a high cost, both in terms of interest rates and personal safety. Despite the potential risks associated with easy access to credit (such as the 2008 housing crash and the debt burden of the average American), access to credit can be a defining factor in a family’s well-being, education, and, of course, socioeconomic mobility. Blockchain technology presents a unique solution here. It allows people to use what they have — land, crops, livestock, jewelry — to establish alternative records for creditworthiness, a crucial advantage in areas where conventional banking and financial services are scarce or unattainable.

Then, there’s the ability to coordinate people across markets. Where access to capital exists but is limited, it presents an opportunity to extend the reach of a project, product, or venture to a wider, global audience. If you’re a cooperative of farmers producing coffee or tomatoes, an investment of $5,000 could offer returns anywhere between 5–12% — sometimes returning more than the S&P 500. With blockchain, such possibilities are not just hypothetical but increasingly attainable, marking a significant shift in how small-scale projects can access and leverage global capital.

What has your journey been like with Topl? Can you share some key lessons?

I led the development of a supply chain traceability product, recognizing its potential as an excellent use case for blockchain and a means to integrate various types of impact. Supply chains encapsulate the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) parameters. On top of that, you can reach a range of industries and markets. So, from a sheer financial perspective, this focus makes sense when trying to prove the legitimacy and utility of an emerging technology, as supply chains are, in essence, the backbone of the global economy.

Later, Topl shifted its focus to expanding our mainnet and updating our network. During this transition, I was honored to found and lead the Growth team. In its early stages, this team was essentially a business development and marketing engine. Given our impact-focused protocol, many potential partners needed an introduction to blockchain. However, the challenge was that these prospects were being oriented towards a soon-to-be outdated version of our network. This created a bottleneck in our process; we could engage various groups, but they would inevitably face the hurdle of transitioning to the new network. Realizing the difficulty these impact projects faced in getting off the ground, we identified two critical areas for development: a best-in-class developer experience and a robust developer community/DAO.

The first, developer experience, is crucial for any business development or growth initiative. The projects we collaborate with often share a strong alignment with our mission. Their affinity for and trust in the Topl ecosystem mean that once the decision-makers greenlight a project, their technical teams should be able to hit the ground running. Due to our chain’s unique nature and its intricacies, it’s essential to provide comprehensive documentation and robust tooling.

And second, considering the time most projects take to build, having a community of developers — motivated by the Topl chain, the community, or other like-minded projects they see in the ecosystem. Imagine a group of developers and ambassadors, adept with the Topl stack, actively engaging with our core tech team, and gaining valuable experience. This approach enhances their resumes and allows them to enjoy the rigor and challenges of creating impactful solutions. Since it’s not feasible for us to provide high-touch onboarding for every interested project, it’s logical and mission-aligned to engage others in this effort.

This summer, our developer workshops in Asia attracted many students and professionals from the web2 sector, many of whom are likely under-compensated for their skill sets but also perhaps not stimulated by the work. We wanted to share opportunities for them to advance their careers, gain exposure, or earn money the way they want to. Many of these participants didn’t come from privileged backgrounds; several had moved to urban areas to study computer science and found the prospect of working for large tech firms unappealing. If they can engage in projects that pique their interest, offer valuable learning experiences, and provide financial rewards, it’s a win-win for everyone.

What’s been your biggest achievement at Topl?

Our Impact Tokenization Pilot! This initiative, wherein we developed impact token standards alongside eight nonprofit and social impact for-profit partners working in areas such as water sanitation or peace-building, is actually why I joined Topl in the first place. My belief, and I know others working in the impact space share it, is that there’s financial value creation in generating positive impact.

Early on in my time at Topl, we had these somewhat lofty conversations about using SDGs and redefining value through tokens. As we started working with more impact projects, we wanted to build mechanisms for activities that generate positive impact — beyond just carbon metrics — to also yield financial returns. Though the SDGs have their limitations, they provide us with 200+ sub-targets and are a broadly recognized framework, both of which we found helpful when thinking about mapping impact data to tokens that would resonate with institutional and retail investors. We built a critical mass of people ready to dive deep into these mechanics, openly sharing data with us and investing time in our pilot. It also brought together different parts of the team; for example, the tech team played a crucial role, working with us through token standards, token ontology, and data schemas. We’re now moving the project into its next phase to better understand critical go-to-market requirements, such as distribution channels and pricing.

What do you think the blockchain for impact space needs more of?

Patience, both on our side and the investors’ side. There’s a lot of enthusiasm, but it’s accompanied by a tendency to rush things, to make quick fixes in the name of achieving growth or impact. However, if our goal is to disrupt existing economic systems, we need to appreciate these systems’ profound, almost anthropological implications.

Our industry is not just about restructuring the pathways of financial transactions. There are layers of relationships, community contexts, historical backgrounds, and cultural nuances intertwined. Overlooking these factors means we may end up creating products that don’t address the core issues, or worse, we could end up with products that nobody knows about or even ones that unintentionally entrench inequalities. And, in doing so, we risk leaving many people behind.

Beyond carbon credits, at this point, we still need examples of impact implementations that are truly scalable or replicable. This might be an inherent aspect of impact work — it’s often specific to a particular community and might not be applicable elsewhere. What’s evident right now is that so many experimental or pilot-based approaches focus on limited groups or use cases. And many of these efforts aren’t set up to be sustainable — it’s simply not feasible to distribute smartphones globally to facilitate access to our products.

We need to reconsider how web3 can be adapted to fit within the pre-existing economic, social, and technological structures. Take informal employment, for instance. This sector employs hundreds of millions of people worldwide, each with their unique socio-economic conditions. These complexities might not neatly fit into the web3 bounds, and we need to acknowledge and adapt to these realities.

How do you stay on top of things happening in the space? Who do you follow?

There are quite a few newsletters I regularly read, such as TLDR Crypto, MilkRoad, and CoinMarketCap. In addition to reading finance news giants like Wall Street Journal and The Economist and listening to crypto classics like Bankless and Unchained podcasts, I really love the Crypto Altruism and ReFi podcasts to get more targeted insights on my interest areas such as financial inclusion and social and environmental impact. I’m also generally a global news fiend and read and listen to as much BBC, Telegraph, and Al Jazeera content as possible.

What excites you the most about the future of web3?

After years in economic development, I’ve learned there’s no silver bullet to ending poverty. But web3? It might just be the closest thing we’ve got to a silver starting point. The ability for people to demonstrate their skills or assets and to access capital through new forms of trust could help us introduce a whole new paradigm for wealth distribution.

We’re not quite there yet; the role of crypto in different markets is still ambiguous. But imagine if communities could present their economic value to the whole web3 world, or better yet, to everyone, just like the Internet. That could lead to smarter decisions all around. Early on, we need to show that investing for impact is a legitimate asset class. Picture a future where I might simply say, “I invest in East African agricultural co-ops, not just because it fits my impact preferences, but also because it’s profitable.” Web3 makes this possible.

Web3’s potential to stimulate economic mobility extends beyond finance — it opens doors in supply chain management, education, and capital access. It empowers individuals, particularly those from less privileged backgrounds, to showcase their skills or academic achievements in a way that traditional systems may not recognize. This democratization of opportunity allows for more inclusive participation in the global economy, fostering a scenario where, regardless of their origin, people can access a vast array of opportunities.

The implications of our current exclusionary financial order are profound and far-reaching, as evidenced by global challenges like resource shortages and conflicts, where financial insecurity and limited mobility fuel societal fractures and violence. By enabling financial access and educational opportunities, blockchain technology could be instrumental in creating a more stable and peaceful world.

Curious to learn more about Erin? Follow her on Twitter or find her on LinkedIn. And to explore similar content and stay up to date with Topl, make sure to join our Discord. 🍃