Welcome to the July Edition of the Crypto Altruists Newsletter!

👋 Hello, Crypto Altruists!

It seems that, finally, stablecoins are taking the front seat. Across the wave of summer conferences—Berlin Blockchain Week, Istanbul, EthCC—conversations have touched on everything from modular architecture to public goods funding and shifting global regulations. But stablecoins keep coming up as the thread tying many of these discussions together.

Stablecoins are no longer seen as a niche DeFi tool, but a real infrastructure set to unlock the next wave of crypto adoption.

Our friends at Web3ForGood have been saying this for months. They’ve shown how stablecoins are already being used to move funds across borders, pay contributors, and deliver aid (as well as how some of the important regulations around stablecoins are developing).

The difference now is recognition by the broader space (just check out this Stellar campaign). More people are beginning to understand that if crypto is going to serve broader communities, it will likely be through tools that are simple, liquid, and already working.

That shift brings important questions. What does good UX look like in this context? How do we protect privacy while staying compliant? How do we design for places and people who have never had access before? We’re excited to see some of these conversations develop, and as always, we’ll be following closely.

Let's dive into some of the updates from this month... 👇

🌱 Featured: Interested in Growing your Nonprofit's Impact with Web3? We're Here to Help!

Over the past year, we’ve spoken with dozens of nonprofits, foundations, grassroots movements, and social impact teams trying to make sense of Web3. The questions are often the same: Where do we start? How do we know what’s actually useful? How do we break through the noise?

That’s why we now have a dedicated space for our consulting work. 🙌

From crypto donations and impact measurement tools to workshops and strategic advising, we help nonprofits explore Web3 in a way that’s grounded, relevant, and mission-aligned.

If you’re curious how these tools could fit into your work, or whether they should at all, you can now learn more here, send us a message, or book a call with us directly. We’d love to hear your feedback & what you’re working on!

💡 July Impact Spotlight

Exciting developments 🚀

• Web3forGood launches new global research initiative on Crypto Off-Ramps in Humanitarian Settings: Complete their 5-minute survey to help shape a more practical, inclusive crypto infrastructure for crisis zones and underserved regions.
• GSR Foundation backs Mercy Corps Ventures via Lido Impact Staking: In a new model for philanthropic finance, GSR Foundation will direct Ethereum staking rewards to Mercy Corps Ventures, supporting the Crypto for Good Fund and advancing yield-based, onchain funding for global impact.
• Bitget joins UNICEF’s Game Changers Coalition to deliver blockchain education to 300,000 youth: Through a new three-year partnership with UNICEF Luxembourg, Bitget will support digital and blockchain skills training across nine countries, with a focus on adolescent girls and underserved communities.
• Ecocertain Rewards launches new funding round for verified ecological impact: Running July 7–21, the Celo Support Streams round offers 4,978 CELO in rewards for individuals and groups documenting real-world environmental work via "Ecocerts"—verified with GPS, images, and DeepGov AI scoring.
• Greenpill Dev Guild maps next phase for regenerative Web3 stack: With pilots underway for staking, funding tools, and onchain impact attestations, Greenpill is testing whether impact can fund itself—laying the groundwork for a community-led, regenerative crypto economy.
• Ethereum Foundation reorganizes ecosystem development cluster for real-world adoption: New teams focused on acceleration, funding, and local ecosystems aim to better support builders, public goods, and community growth across the Ethereum network.
• Bybit commits humanitarian aid to Eastern Cape flood victims: In partnership with Gift of the Givers, Bybit is providing emergency support to communities affected by devastating floods in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, highlighting the role of crypto platforms in disaster response.
• Octant announces winners of Design for Ethereum contest: From 173 submissions, seven projects were selected for standout design contributions to Ethereum tooling and infrastructure, supporting teams like EAS, Aestus, and Defiscan.
• Many see stablecoins soaring to $2T in ‘a handful of years,’ says Ripple CEO: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicts massive growth for stablecoins, citing regulatory tailwinds like the GENIUS Act and announcing BNY Mellon as custodian for Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD, which just surpassed $500 million in market cap.
• JPMorgan launches blockchain carbon credit platform: Through its digital assets arm Kinexys, JPMorgan is piloting a tokenized carbon credit platform with S&P Global, EcoRegistry, and others, aiming to improve transparency, traceability, and efficiency across the voluntary carbon market.
• Moonwell’s Founder Calls for Better Crypto UX: Crypto Altruists' Tereza Bízková interviews Moonwell founder Luke Youngblood on designing human-centric financial systems. They cover passkey wallets, fee abstraction, cross-chain UX, and the shift from crypto-native tools to global accessibility.
• Allo Capital releases new podcast on Deep Funding and AI-driven grantmaking: Devansh Mehta joins Owocki to explore how Ethereum, AI, and financial primitives can reshape open source funding, including sybil resistance, prediction markets, and composable capital allocation.
• Azos launches its decentralized finance (DeFi) collateralized debt position (CDP) stablecoin protocol: The protocol allows users to deposit various tokenized assets such as green bonds, carbon credits, and renewable energy certificates in order to secure credit in the form of the AZUSD stablecoin.

Crypto Altruists content & updates 💚

• 📖 Universal Basic Income and Crypto: 5 Ways Blockchain Makes UBI More Efficient, Transparent, and Scalable: This updated explainer breaks down how Web3 tools like stablecoins, smart contracts, and decentralized governance are transforming UBI delivery.
• 🎧 Crypto Altruists Episode 207 – Redefining Philanthropy: Funding Impact Through Ethereum Staking Rewards: Jaydeep Korde shares how Lido Impact Staking turns Ethereum staking rewards into a funding stream for projects like UNICEF and GiveDirectly—blending transparency, sustainability, and long-term impact.
• 🎧 Crypto Altruists Episode 208 – growthepie: Scaling Ethereum, Public Goods Funding, and the Path to Alignment: Tobias Schreier, Co-Founder of growthepie, breaks down key trends across Ethereum and Layer 2s, from public goods funding to AI agents, and shares what impact builders should consider when choosing where to deploy.
• 🎧 Crypto Altruists Episode 209 – ReFi Hub: Bridging the Climate Finance Gap with Tokenized Real-World Assets: Christian Chegne, Co-Founder of ReFi Hub, shares how their platform is using tokenized infrastructure to make climate investing more transparent, inclusive, and scalable—funding solar, EV charging, and more through on-chain participation.
• 🎧 Crypto Altruists Episode 210 – Truebit: Solving the AI Black Box and Verifying Climate Impact with Blockchain: Jason Teutsch, Founder of Truebit, explains how verifiable computation can help tackle AI opacity, rebuild trust in digital systems, and enable proof-backed climate and impact data using blockchain infrastructure.

Recommended resources 📖

• Stablecoins: The Future of Finance: A report by myosin explores how stablecoins are becoming foundational to the Web3 economy. It covers key models (fiat-collateralized, crypto-backed, algorithmic), highlights their rising use in emerging markets, and examines the regulatory, design, and adoption questions shaping this “quiet transformation” of global finance.
• The Collapse of VC and the Rise of On-Chain Startup Funding: This breakdown by AKINDO explores how AI and blockchain are reshaping startup capital—from the fall of traditional venture funding to new models like Buildathons, milestone-based grants, and one-click, permissionless investing.

🌟 Project Highlight: Self Protocol

What if verifying your identity onchain didn’t mean giving up your privacy? That’s the idea behind Self Protocol—a new identity primitive in the Celo ecosystem that uses zero-knowledge proofs to confirm you’re a unique, real person without revealing personal information.

Launched in early 2025, Self allows users to verify their identity once through Self Pass—for example, by scanning their passport’s chip in the Self mobile app—to generate a reusable cryptographic proof of personhood. Apps or token networks can then check this proof onchain to ensure a user hasn’t already claimed access, participated, or registered, without ever seeing the user’s actual data.

The system supports selective disclosures: users can prove they meet specific criteria (such as being over 18 or residing in one of 174+ supported countries) without revealing anything beyond a simple yes/no attestation. Through Self Connect, a verified phone number can also be linked to a wallet, enabling actions like sending digital assets via phone contacts rather than wallet addresses.

For users (who do have a passport), Self could lower the friction of participating in gated systems—whether that’s for fair token launches, age-restricted finance, or community governance—without needing to repeatedly submit identity documents or share personal data.

According to the Celo Foundation, the project’s core goal is to help ensure that “the internet of the future is run by humans, not bots.” In that sense, Self is part of a broader push to develop decentralized identity tools that are verifiable, composable, and under user control.

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See you in the next edition! 💚