🐯Market Trend
1. The importance of protecting endangered wildlife
The number of endangered species is constantly increasing. Between 2007 and 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) updated its red list several times a year, with 16,900 species listed as endangered in 2022. That's more than double the number in 2007. According to the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), endangered species that live primarily on land and in freshwater are threatened by the destruction of their habitats or are being pushed out by invasive species.
Recently, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in its first report on "State of the World's Migratory Species" (2024), warned that one in five of the world's migratory wildlife species that live across borders, including migratory birds and whales, is threatened with extinction. Of the 1,189 species classified as critically endangered by the Convention of the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), 44 percent are declining, and 22 percent are threatened with extinction despite being protected, according to the report. Factors that threaten extinction include indiscriminate exploitation of soils and their consequent degradation and fragmentation, climate change, pollution (including light and noise), and the introduction of invasive species. In particular, human activities such as hunting, fishing, and over-capture were identified as the biggest threats, affecting 70% of CMS-protected species.
The extinction of animals is largely due to human activities that have changed the climate by capturing animals indiscriminately, destroying their habitats through indiscriminate environmental development, and emitting pollutants. The extinction of species can have a serious impact on the ecosystem as a whole. Since all living things on earth are intertwined by eating, and helping each other, the extinction of one species could lead to the extinction of another. This would also affect one species on earth, man, and eventually render it uninhabitable.
2. The proliferation of blockchain-based donation platforms
The culture of online donations using blockchain technology and platform influence is spreading. According to the 2023 annual report released by The Giving Block, a U.S.-based blockchain-based fundraising platform, donations in virtual assets exceeded $125 million (about 163.7 billion KRW) last year, the second-largest donation in history despite the turbulent times in the cryptocurrency market.
Prior to that, UNICEF, an international relief organization, and Women for Afghan Women (WAW), the largest women's rights organization in Afghanistan, raised funds by selling their own NFT artworks. The Korean Committee for UNICEF held a campaign to donate digital assets to the earthquake recovery in Turkey, and collected a total of 14 BTC.
Most donors want to love their neighbor as themselves (philanthropy), to give without the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing (anonymity), and to ensure that the donor's good intentions are properly conveyed (a trustworthy donation organization). Blockchain technology can make these donors' wishes more reliably realized.
Incidents such as false donations and embezzlement of donations have occurred that have weakened the culture of donation, highlighting the issue of transparency of donations in society. When these issues break out, some donors want to know if their donations are being used where they need to be. Blockchain can solve this transparency issue. In the blockchain donation platform, all donation data is recorded on the blockchain, distributed storage, and managed, so the transparency of transactions is guaranteed, so you can check when and where your donation is spent.
Recently, the most dramatic changes have been seen in the growing interest and demand for blockchain-based social infrastructure services and virtual assets such as NFTs. In line with the trend of social services entering the online environment and being activated, the donation culture centered on non-profit organizations (NPOs) is also gaining momentum. In particular, the transparency can be guaranteed through a platform that combines blockchain technology, which is greatly welcomed by donors.
The main factors for the activation of donations through blockchain-based platforms are not only the transparency of donation collection and execution, but also the expansion of the participant base and the lowering of entry barriers due to various projects that provide easy and fun donation contents.
According to the Donation Trend Report released by the Social Welfare Joint Fundraising Association, there was 23.8% increase in donations for people in their 20s immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, which was the highest among all age groups. Moving away from simple donation methods, various ways to participate in donations with individual efforts, such as dance or walking challenges, donation runs (non-face-to-face donation marathons), and purchase of donated goods, have led to the response of the MZ generation, where value consumption is important.
Recently, there has been a continuous spread of donation activities in which people participate in donations by purchasing NFT contents of projects with social value. The emergence of donation platforms using NFT content has been evaluated as increasing participation and interest by sniping at the tastes of the MZ generation, who are accustomed to using digital content and want to exert a positive influence.
Blockchain technology lowers the cost of trusting members of society. Blockchain technology, which allows transparent management of all transactions, goes well with donations. Using blockchain technology, it is possible to check who gave the money and where the money went. Of course, there are still issues that need to be solved, such as agreements between countries or organizations, and it may take some time for the infrastructure to be laid at the base of society, but it is expected that the most important problem of 'trust' in donation activities can be solved using blockchain.
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