October Edition of the Crypto Altruists Newsletter

👋 Hello, Crypto Altruists!

It feels like Q4 is shaping up to be one of the most dynamic moments of the year. On one side, there's already a lot happening around activations prior to Devconnect Buenos Aires (Nov 17-23). The event will bring together Web3 builders from across the globe, with 14 community hubs and 8 themed districts, turning Argentina into a living map of Ethereum collaboration.

On the other, the impact world is entering its biggest stretch of the year: up to 50% of all charitable giving happens in Q4, as organizations and communities rally around year-end campaigns. Thanks to initiatives like Giving Tuesday, giving season is when most organizations meet their annual fundraising goals.

It’s a time of movements for both technology and for impact, and we’re excited to be part of it. For us at Crypto Altruists, this quarter also marks an important milestone... but more on that below 👇

🌱 Featured: We were selected for Epoch 9!

We’re so thrilled to share that Crypto Altruists has been selected as one of 30 projects for Octant’s Epoch 9, a special funding round with $1M in matching funds that is dedicated to storytelling and content that grow the Ethereum ecosystem! 🥳

🔗 Check out our project page for more info and to support!

For those who aren't familiar, Octant is an open-source funding platform built by the Golem Network that lets GLM token holders direct a portion of staking rewards to public goods projects every eight weeks. Epoch 9, created in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation’s Strategic Funding Coordination team, was Octant’s most competitive round yet, with over 757 reviewer hours and four rigorous review phases.

Thirty creators were chosen, from journalists and filmmakers to educators and meme-makers, all helping shape Ethereum’s cultural and narrative layer.

For us at Crypto Altruists, this support will help unlock new formats, deepen our coverage of impact-driven projects, and expand our storytelling, bringing more visibility to those building Ethereum for good.

We’re incredibly thankful to everyone who believes in this mission and helps us keep telling these stories. 🌍

The allocation window is open from October 8-22. If you’re a GLM holder, your allocation helps sustain creators across the ecosystem, and every bit of support truly makes a difference. You can support our project here, and make sure to check out all 30 incredible creators 👇

💡 October impact spotlight

Ecosystem developments 🚀

• UNDP to launch Blockchain Academy for governments: The UN Development Programme will open a “Government Blockchain Academy” in 2026 to train public officials on blockchain, AI, and digital ID applications.
• MoneyGram makes stablecoins the backbone of its new app: Launching first in Colombia, the app runs on USDC and Stellar to let users receive, store, and send remittances in dollar-backed stablecoins, offering faster, more stable cross-border payments.
• Self launches ZK Residency in SF: Kicking off October 14, the three-week program offers mentorship, housing, and travel support for developers building ZK-powered identity apps. Applications close mid-October.
• Schelling Point heads to Buenos Aires on November 20: Gitcoin’s flagship gathering for public goods and coordination builders lands in Argentina for the first time during Devconnect.
• Coinbase-backed pilot gives $12,000 in crypto to low-income New Yorkers: Run by GiveDirectly, the Future First program distributes USDC through Coinbase wallets to 160 young adults to test crypto-based aid as a tool for financial stability and inclusion.
• World Bank launches blockchain tool to track development funds: The new FundsChain platform uses Hyperledger Besu to trace disbursements across World Bank–financed projects, boosting transparency and efficiency as it scales from 13 pilots to 250 projects by mid-2026.
• Atlantis launches Impact Certificate Minter across multiple chains: The new open-source protocol lets projects mint verifiable proof-of-impact certificates—mapped to UN SDGs—on Celo, Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism, helping changemakers transparently record real-world environmental and social outcomes on-chain.
• Algorand hosts 2025 Humanitarian Aid Payments Council in Berlin: The second annual gathering brought together UN agencies, NGOs, and fintech leaders to advance blockchain-based aid delivery and introduced the Aid Trust Portal, a transparency tool now tracking real-world humanitarian payments.
• Giveth opens applications for Gitcoin Grants 24: Hosting two domains—Developer Tooling ($200k on Arbitrum) and Interop Standards ($100k+ on Polygon)—Giveth invites projects advancing Ethereum’s infrastructure to join GG24 Quadratic Funding.
• Reflections from the Network State Conference: Edge City co-founder Timour Kosters shares insights from the 3,500-person gathering in Singapore, where builders, thinkers, and founders discussed how network societies are moving from theory to reality.
• The Solar Foundation accepted as finalist to the IEEE Connecting the Unconnected Challenge 2025: The Solar Foundation, a nonprofit organization that leverages blockchain to accelerate off-grid solar access in Africa, was selected as one of 32 finalists out of 292 applicants.
• Haraka launches Social Finance App "Bondy": The new app allows users in Kenya to save in USD, earn daily, and borrow instantly; and serves as the consumer application for Haraka's core mission: "to turn behaviour, trust, and networks into the foundation of financial freedom at scale"

Crypto Altruists content & updates 💚

• 🎧 From World Computer to World Ledger: Matthias Seidl (growthepie) and Leon Waidmann (Onchain Foundation) on Ethereum’s 10-year evolution into the “World Ledger” powering stablecoins, identity, and real-world impact.
• 🎧 From Crypto to Community: Telaga Charity’s Mission to Transform Impact in Indonesia: Ashen of Telaga Charity shares how blockchain transparency and creator-driven philanthropy are reshaping giving in Indonesia, making crypto donations traceable and accountable.
• 🎧 Decentralized AI, Robotics, and Blockchain as Infrastructure for Humanity: Bayley Wang of PrismaX explores how decentralized AI and robotics can serve humanity by keeping humans in the loop, rewarding collaboration, and ensuring technology stays community owned.
• 🎧 Tokenizing Solar Power: The Future of Decentralized Clean Energy: I. Christwin of M3tering Protocol shares how blockchain, stablecoins, and smart meters are powering community-owned solar networks across Africa, creating transparent, fair, and decentralized clean energy systems.
• 📦 Crypto Altruists Starter Pack: Ethereum Public Goods Infrastructure: A curated collection of podcasts on Ethereum’s public goods stack featuring Octant, growthepie, Protocol Guild, Gnosis, Privado ID, and more. It is your essential guide to how Ethereum builders are funding, growing, and sustaining the digital commons.

Recommended resources 📖

• Vitalik Buterin: “Low-risk DeFi can be for Ethereum what search was for Google”: In a new essay, Vitalik argues that stable, transparent DeFi primitives—like payments, savings, and collateralized lending—can become Ethereum’s sustainable revenue engine while aligning with its values of openness and global financial access.
• IMF’s Finance & Development examines stablecoins and digital finance: This issue delves into how stablecoins, tokenization, and payment-rail innovations are reshaping global finance—addressing stability, privacy, and the evolving roles of public and private money.
• Ethereum Foundation expands its privacy initiatives: The EF announced a new Privacy Cluster uniting researchers and engineers to advance privacy tools like Semaphore, MACI, zkEmail, and the Kohaku wallet, cementing privacy as a core layer of Ethereum’s roadmap and one of the key ecosystem narratives for 2025.
• Rise Up Morning Show: Running Monday-Thursday at 8am EDT, the Rise Up Morning show helps everyday people become safe, confident crypto users. Their Epoch 9 project Ethereum in Plain English aims to make sense of Ethereum to everyday people by weaving its past and present of technical innovation into accessible, real-world narratives and a broader social context.
• Ethereum Daily Newsletter: We came across this clean, well-curated daily briefing covering key ecosystem updates from infrastructure and protocol upgrades to onchain experiments, L2 developments, and impact projects.

🌟 Project highlight: Golem Foundation

Since it’s epoch allocation season and we’ve been talking about Octant, it’s a good time to spotlight Golem Foundation, the organization behind its creation. 🤝

Golem Foundation was established to build on the early Golem Network, one of the first decentralized computing projects launched on Ethereum. The original idea from 2016 was simple: anyone could share unused computing power, creating a global, permissionless marketplace for compute. 💻

Over time, the Foundation’s focus expanded beyond the network itself, exploring how decentralized infrastructure can sustain not only technology, but also the communities and public goods that make it possible.

That exploration led to Octant, a platform that channels staking yield into community-directed funding rounds. The Foundation has staked 100,000 ETH from its treasury, and each epoch, GLM holders can lock their tokens to participate in decision-making.

Together, they choose how to allocate rewards between claiming ETH or donating it to projects that strengthen the ecosystem. The mechanism has already distributed more than 1,400 ETH to public goods initiatives, and with each epoch, new experiments are emerging around participation, allocation strategies, and incentive design.

At Crypto Altruists, we see this work as especially interesting because it shows a pathway from early Ethereum experimentation to a more durable infrastructure for funding and coordination that builds not just technology, but the economic and social mechanisms that allow it to last.

💡 Bring Web3 into your nonprofit's mission

At Crypto Altruists, we help nonprofits, foundations, and impact organizations cut through the noise and explore blockchain in a way that’s practical, mission-aligned, and grounded in real-world use cases.

Whether you’re curious about crypto donations, AI & transparency tools, or how Web3 can strengthen your programs and services, our tailored consulting services and interactive workshops meet you where you are, no jargon, no hype. Let’s work together to unlock the opportunities that make sense for your cause.

Book a call with us today to start the conversation. 🤝

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See you in the next edition! 💚