Today, investors show immense interest in sustainability. As impact investment becomes widely adopted, we may see a more balanced and robust economy. Thus, experts are claiming that if we want to achieve the United Nations’ seventeen sustainable development goals, we need all organizations to participate in this economic shift.
One investor is Connected Worldwide’s founder, Mesut Bilgili, who describes it as an open collaboration platform. The initiative provides a platform for pioneers of the purpose economy. In this way, they plan to use web3, mobility, and collaboration to assist individuals in addressing elevating global concerns.
We discussed what it takes a make a positive impact, how he sees the future, and their blockchain project, the Good Protocol.
I heard you say connecting people will change the world, but the Internet already connects us. Can you elaborate on this? What is your goal?
We moved from the industrial to the information age, and now, we have arrived at the so-called experience age. Ultimately, today, we are efficient at producing goods and distributing information. Are the necessary tools in place? Yes, but it’s a matter of how we use them. Although we could utilize our global industrial capacity in many good ways, we geared it towards the overconsumption of cheap products. Similarly, social media could bring us together and help us solve our emerging problems. Instead, it turned into a source of disinformation. Now we have web3 technologies, yet the day’s highlight is the get-rich-quick schemes.
Our civilization possesses the intelligence and resources, but we need to use them effectively. Some readers may not know of the term purpose economy, but when Aaron Hurst coined it, he talked about organizing the economy around creating purpose for people. The purpose we carry, which is internal, and the impact we make, which is external, determines the state of the world. Now, enough people indeed carry the right intentions. So, they want to make a positive impact, but how many products and services are designed for them out there? When we talk about the target audience, we mean demographics, like age, gender, location, or spending habits. Can you tell me how many companies seek the wholesome people of this world as their target audience today? Still, they will at some point. Similar to how some people bet on e-commerce two decades ago, I am betting on this paradigm change. If a dystopian future is not our goal, we’ll inevitably have a more wholesome economy, and Connected Worldwide will be there to bring the economy participants together.
How do you plan to achieve it?
In the future, decentralized organizations will play a vital role. Everyone loves superhero movies where one person saves the world, but realistically, if we will achieve anything, it needs to be through collective work. So, instead of trying to provide all the answers in one place, the goal is to create a decentralized structure where social enterprises can launch their own solutions. Also, in this way, the enterprises are the stakeholders and can join the decision-making process. The technology is present because Web3 allows such. Now, it’s a matter of how we utilize said technology. People hear buzz words like “community driven” or “independent”, but it means nothing unless it’s a community of people wanting to make a positive impact. Thus, we are building Good Protocol, a blockchain for social good.
What makes Good Protocol different from any other blockchain projects?
Most of today’s public blockchain projects are permissionless. This means you can build high quality apps on them, but anyone can use them for fraudulent activities. As a result, there is a gold rush, wild-west type of mentality. Instead, however, we propose a hybrid model. The Good Protocol will be a public blockchain, but only social enterprises can build decentralized apps on it. People will know that the d-apps they use, developed on Good Protocol, have a social benefit. So, we have all these people who care and want to make conscious decisions, and we have many social enterprises that try to positively impact the world. But they are spread worldwide and get drowned out by the noise. Good Protocol will cut the noise, keep the fraudulent activities away, and, more importantly, offer a socially responsible economic model.
Can you talk about this economic model?
Ok, so what is the number one use case of today’s blockchains? The answer is financial instruments. There are more financial products on blockchains than any other d-app. Why is this the case? Because everyone is looking for an alternative—and blockchain startups can take advantage by offering lucrative returns. But this, by itself, doesn’t build an economy. Instead, it’s more like a casino. The same concept applies: few people win, the majority loses something, and the house always benefits.
However, in our proposed model, the value comes from the impact of people. On the one hand, we will have social enterprises that build mutually beneficial business models on top of Good Protocol. But when people use these apps, transactions naturally occur. To complement the social element, a portion of such transaction fees is spent on social causes. Meanwhile, another part is invested back to help grow the ecosystem. It’s a circular economy but hosted in a digital form.
What is the technology behind it?
We don’t want Good Protocol to be an island. Soon, people will need to transfer their assets from one blockchain to another. Good Protocol has a niche, but if it’s going to serve a purpose, it needs to form part of a bigger puzzle. This led to the decision to use Parity’s Substrate framework, as their multichain vision matches our mission.
When are you launching?
We will launch the testnet after the summer. In the meantime, the social enterprises, devs, volunteers, and anyone who wants to become a part of Good Protocol can join our community platform. Early adopters will receive free governance tokens as a reward. So, in a sense, they will become the founding members of Good Protocol. All they need to do is sign up and help us make a positive impact.
