Mission-Driven: The Good Initiatives Fund

8SQRD Pool is a mission-driven Cardano stake pool. The Good Initiatives Fund (TGIF) was created to support non-profit, charitable, and non-government organizations using rewards from our staking pool. Our first mission for social good is to fight anti-Asian racism. 

Blockchain for Social Good

Blockchain for social good is not a new concept, but an emerging one that takes advantage of this breakthrough distributed ledger technology to create positive social impact (1,2). Social good is simply a possible positive outcome of using this technology if intentions, efforts and energy are directed in a such a way to achieve this. While there are many scenarios where blockchain can be used to achieve social good, for example, greater transparency, the reallocation of rewards to contribute to charitable causes is particularly interesting.

Briefly, rewards for participation are often influenced by the economic and incentive models are often built into the protocols of many blockchain platforms. Rewards through mining, staking, or governance participation are a few examples of how participants are incentivized to take part in each platforms’ efforts to verify transactions and to decentralize and secure their networks. Rewards in the form of platform-native coins or tokens are the bounties of their participation. There is a growing trend where we see the use of rewards for donation to charities within the blockchain community. Cardano is one such community.

Cardano for Social Good

Cardano’s proof-of-stake mechanism is a good example of how network participants are encouraged to pool together and stake their ADA to achieve rewards (3). What’s the incentive? Delegating and staking as a pool increases the chance to receive consistent ADA rewards. Think of it as an interest or a “Return on ADA” (ROA) for your participation (4). The greater the number of delegators and stake, the greater the odds and fighting chance there are to create a block reward consistently. The saying, Vires in Numeris, the translation into Latin of the English motto “Strength in Numbers” (also Bitcoin’s motto) aptly describes the creation of small pools of delegators and stakers in the Cardano system to achieve rewards.

With Cardano’s endorsement of mission-driven staking pools, it creates the ripe conditions for delegators to make financial choices using their ADA for positive social impact. The Cardano Foundation has recently shared that US$500 million worth of ADA has been delegated to charity-focused mission-driven pools (5). Thousands of pool operators have decided to forgo personal profits and redirect ADA to charitable initiatives and organizations that they support. This type of altruism and show of community spirit is heart-warming and the main reason for our whole-hearted support for participating in the Cardano ecosystem. We are on board.

The Good Initiative Fund (TGIF)

Motivated by Cardano’s community and giving spirit, our staking pool at 8SQRD looks to utilize Cardano’s delegating and staking feature to generate rewards to support social good initiatives. Put in another way, we are a mission-driven pool. A portion of pool-owner rewards will be allocated to a pool of funds that will responsibly contribute to humanitarian efforts that create positive social impact.  

Our charitable pool of funds, aptly titled, The Good Initiatives Fund (TGIF) was created to transparently separate rewards that go to 8QSRD operations and those that go towards charitable causes.  TGIF endeavors to make regular donations to non-profit, charitable, or non-government organizations. Ultimately the goal is to use our staking pool as a sustainable way to generate revenue for TGIF, which will then allow recurring contributions to good causes. As our pool grows and rewards become more consistent, we will happily share our full philanthropic strategy here on our website, which will identify specific organizations we wish to support, a donation schedule, and details of donation amounts. There are a number of organizations we wish to support, but, our first mission is to stand up against racism.

First Mission: Fight Anti-Asian Racism

With the recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in North America, we felt an urgent need to turn our attention to support groups that fight anti-Asian racism. As such, TGIF donations will go towards initiatives that support the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Your support and delegation to our pool will support the following initiatives that we currently endorse:

• Stop AAPI Hate: https://stopaapihate.org/
• Fight Covid Racism: https://www.covidracism.ca/

As a new, single-pool operator, our first block reward will allocate a portion of pool-owner rewards to TGIF with a donation commitment of a minimum of C$100 that will be made to Stop AAPI Hate (6). Simply by delegating your stake to 8SQRD Pool you’ll be supporting The Good Initiatives Fund and the fight against anti-Asian hate. 

We hope to have your support. Vires in Numeris.