Philippines: Cleaners of Polluted Beaches Get Paid in Cryptos
by Fintech News Philippines December 10, 2018A pilot project seeking to show transparency in the flow of money via public blockchain was formally launched last week in Manila rewarding cleaners of polluted beaches with the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH).
Dubbed “Bounties for the Oceans: Philippines Pilot – Sustained, Verifiable Plastic Cleanups”, the initiative came from Bounties Network, and ConsenSys Social Impact in partnership with local e-wallet Coins.ph, and mobile Ethereum wallet Trust Wallet.
Through Coins.ph, people participating in the cleanup can exchange their ETH into Philippine Peso and use the money to pay bills or buy groceries.
Held last December 1 and 2, the cleanup drive’s pilot location was in Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat & EcoTourism Area Manila, a nature reserve situated south of Manila Bay. Participants were guaranteed to receive payment in ETH (a digital currency similar to Bitcoin) worth up to Php550 per day.
Though the pilot has ended, interested persons can still contribute to the bounty, which will continue paying people on the ground to keep Philippine oceans clean.
According to Bounties Network cofounder Jeff Vader aka Simona Pop, the campaign’s goal is to demonstrate feasibility, and hopefully, kickstart a powerful world-changing trend where blind trust is no longer a concept but “proof of action is”.
“Our goal with the bounty-based cleanup in Manila is to re-engineer the flow of money and its distribution patterns, bridging the gap between social entrepreneurs, non-profit/NGOs and the general public,” Pop wrote. “Fostering widespread and long-term behavioral shifts on a global scale will directly benefit communities, like Manila, that are intensely and increasingly affected by plastic waste. This new mechanism could also help create new jobs and vastly reduce the burdensome administrative costs afflicting most charity models today.”
Bounties Network launched its first bounty-based social impact project last June in partnership with MakerDAO, on World Oceans Day. The company reported cleanups across the world followed suit, from the US to the UK, from Canada all the way to Venezuela and even Tasmania.
Ethereum as a digital ledger is touted as perfect for international payments since there is no single entity or organization administering it, letting anyone contribute to bounties happening across the globe.
The Bounties pilot initiative in the Philippines was conducted a few weeks after the cleanup of Boracay, a famous island destination that was shut down by the government for six months since April due to rehabilitation work.
Image from Bounties Network
