eToro launches GoodDollar for social good
Citing the fact that the 42 richest people on Earth have more wealth than the poorest 3.7 billion, social trading platform eToro is supporting the social good through a new project. The Israel and London-based company’s new initiative, GoodDollar, is a non-profit, open source project that seeks to reduce income inequality with a new cryptocurrency, reports Julie Muhn at Finovate.
eToro has injected $1 million into the project
eToro says it has injected $1 million into the project and is calling for more firms to join in. GoodDollar leverages smart contracts, which help parties exchange money, property, shares, or any unit of value.
Overall, the project aims to use a new cryptocurrency to establish universal basic income (UBI) by paying “social interest” to individuals who have less.
To reduce wealth inequality, GoodDollar will operate on four basic principles: it’s available to anyone, exchangeable with other currencies, has low transaction fees, and is fairly distributed across wealth segments.
“We believe that we can create a mass-market cryptocurrency that is engineered to reduce inequality and provide a UBI. Engineers, product designers and economists are currently developing the prototype. Today is just step one on a long, ambitious journey,” says Yoni Assia, eToro CEO.
Aside from building a user base, the most challenging aspect GoodDollar may face is maintaining a cryptocurrency that is neither inflationary nor speculative. GoodDollar will also need to come up with a global know your customer (KYC) alternative and design a structure to govern the cryptocurrency.
Founded in 2007, since then, the company announced that clients can now invest directly in shares on the platform, and raised a $100 million in Series E round in March, more than doubling its funding to $162 million. Most recently, eToro began supporting IOTA and Binance cryptocurrencies.
