“Environmental conservation by all people through blockchain” — A talk with Youree Lee, CEO of W-Foundation
An Interview Article published by The Block Post, Financial News
Innovative Idea of Rewarding Environmental Conservation Activities with Cryptocurrency; ‘HOOXI’ app to be released in October
‘Ping~!’ HOOXI mobile application (app) has just sent you a pop-up notification alert. It says you can reduce electricity usage by spreading out aluminium foil on the shelves of your refrigerator. You immediately clean out your refrigerator, taking care to spread out the aluminium foil on the shelves and snapping a quick photo (‘a proof shot’) of your handiwork, which you immediately upload on the HOOXI app. The HOOXI app tracks this and your other environmental conservation activities and determines that you qualify to receive a number of W Green Pay (WGP) tokens as reward. You look forward to accumulating more WGP tokens and using them in stores like Starbucks or exchanging them for cash.
From October 2018, anyone and everyone can become a guardian of the environment with the HOOXI app. W-Foundation will bring blockchain technology to the HOOXI Campaign, W-Foundation’s national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction campaign. W-Foundation will be launching the mobile app ‘HOOXI’, which will issue WGP to app users who carry out environmental conservation activities defined by the app. By using the HOOXI app and being paid to do good, the public is expected to become more proactive in their daily efforts to reduce GHG and conserve the environment, leading to heightened expectations in the market that WGP will prove to become an exemplary user case for real-life application of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
The W-Foundation behind the HOOXI Campaign is an international non-profit organization founded in 2012. W-Foundation runs nature conservation projects and relief works for climate refugees in Tanzania and Malawi in Africa, Tuvalu in the South Pacific, and the Philippines and Cambodia in Southeast Asia, and so on.
The HOOXI Campaign intends to create a platform that enables the public to participate in market-driven efforts to reduce GHG emissions, which has so far been limited to large corporations and institutions. Through the HOOXI app, the campaign will aggregate data on the public’s carbon reduction activities and reward the public’s efforts by providing app users with WGP.
Blockchain’s Encounter with ‘HOOXI’, the Environmental Conservation Campaign
Youree Lee, CEO of W-Foundation, emphasized that the key to encouraging the public’s broad-based participation in the HOOXI Campaign lay in the use of blockchain technology. She is confident that a blockchain-based reward system, that induces the people to voluntarily contribute to conserving the environment, can create a broad-based momentum that will make a difference to the campaign.
“After brainstorming ideas on encouraging people to participate in the campaign, we agreed that the best approach will be to provide WGP as compensation for their nature conservation and GHG reduction efforts,” Youree explains. “In many cases, people don’t know how exactly to participate in environmental conservation activities. We will position the HOOXI app to play the role of an encyclopedic depository of information regarding environmental conservation,” she added.
The HOOXI app is being developed in collaboration with various corporate partners and organizations including Hanyang University. What is worthy to note is that a gamification element is being incorporated into the HOOXI app — for example, environmental conservation scores of users in the same region can be grouped together to facilitate competition among users within a region and similarly for users in companies or in other social groupings.
The app also tells users how each of their activities impact environmental conservation. Youree said, “Using pop-ups and other means, the HOOXI app will share useful information on what the users can do to conserve the environment, such as using mugs instead of paper cups and spreading aluminium foil on refrigerator shelves.”
In addition, the HOOXI app will allow users to share photos of environmental conservation activities that they have performed and at the same time, solicit responses from other users — similar to how people use Instagram and Facebook. In order to induce active participation, the app will also provide customized environmental conservation missions that are tailored to each user’s geographic area, gender, prior activities, among others and provide WGP when those missions are completed.
WGP Received for Conserving the Environment, Can Be Used to Pay for Purchases
The WGP received through these environmental conservation activities can be used in many ways. W-Foundation plans to operate a WGP exchange platform called W Exchange. W Exchange will allow users to easily convert WGP into fiat currency. It will, however, not be necessary for WGP holders to convert WGP into fiat in order to use it, as they will also be able to use WGP directly to purchase goods at a discount at ‘HOOXI Mall’, which will be sponsored by corporate sponsors of W-Foundation.
Youree said, “How easily WGP can be used, as a direct payment instrument, will be a key component of the HOOXI Campaign’s success. We are working with several partners to bring to market viable payment solutions for WGP, including solutions for prepaid cards, credit card cash-backs, online and offline merchant sales.” She added, “As a good case in point, we are expanding our partnership with leading global FinTech players like Zeex that allows everyday shopping with crypto in a simple, intuitive, and decentralized way by using gift cards. Based on such network, WGP holders will be able to shop at more than 400 leading brands, such as Amazon, Starbucks, iTunes, Google Play, and more. We will continue to enhance usability of WGP worldwide.”
Several of Korea’s National Assembly members are keen to support W-Foundation’s initiative. Two recent events — the December 2017 ‘Declaration Ceremony for National Campaign to Reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG)’ and the April 2018 “Launching Ceremony for Committee for National Campaign to Reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG)’ — were held at the National Assembly and widely attended by Korea’s key law makers.
HOOXI Campaign is supported by over 200 Korean celebrities and public figures.
Original article on Naver.
