{"id":13082,"date":"2024-04-30T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/how-web3-helps-animals-with-games-donations-and-memecoins\/"},"modified":"2024-04-30T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T12:00:00","slug":"how-web3-helps-animals-with-games-donations-and-memecoins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/how-web3-helps-animals-with-games-donations-and-memecoins\/","title":{"rendered":"How Web3 helps animals \u2014 with games, donations and memecoins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day, dozens, hundreds, even thousands of playful<\/strong> NFTs<\/strong> and <\/strong>memecoins<\/strong> appear: in <\/strong>Web3<\/strong> our inner child wields grown-up finances yet spends with ease on true desires. And freely <\/strong>help<\/strong> those who need it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today we look at how the crypto industry provides platforms for philanthropy\u2014whose beneficiaries often feature in the logos of top projects and in countless memecoins. At ForkLog\u2019s request, Sergey Golubenko highlights the most interesting Web3 initiatives that help animals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea of organised philanthropy dates back to ancient Greece, when the first philanthropists supported people in the arts and sciences. In the Middle Ages, aid to the needy came mainly from the church and a few wealthy patron families.<\/p>\n

Today, public- and private-sector donations have reached a new order of magnitude. According to estimates<\/a> by Giving USA, about ~$500bn is donated annually to charity in the United States alone, with ordinary citizens accounting for 64% of that sum.<\/p>\n

One of the earliest crypto-philanthropy projects was the Pineapple Fund, founded in 2017. It was created<\/a> by an anonymous bitcoin whale with a fondness for pineapples. The fund donated 5104 BTC (~$55m at the time) to 60 different charities.<\/p>\n

These ranged from the Water Project<\/a>, which provides clean water to communities in Africa, to the Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/a>, which defends civil liberties in the digital world. All transactions remain available<\/a> via an archived version of the Pineapple Fund website.<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Various organisations report that only 3%\u20135% of charitable funds go to animal welfare. Most support falls into two areas:<\/p>\n

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  1. Aid for wild animals, with a focus on Africa.<\/strong> The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN<\/a>) estimates that more than 28,000 biological species\u2014animals, plants and fungi\u2014are threatened with extinction. Earth is going through what many call a \u201csixth mass extinction\u201d. Many scientists believe<\/a> current extinction rates rival those of the dinosaurs\u2019 demise. The uniqueness of today\u2019s die-off lies in its human causes: deforestation, pollution and poaching.<\/li>\n
  2. Support for companion animals in distress.<\/strong> New research<\/a> highlights the scale of the stray-cat-and-dog problem, putting the total at nearly 362m across just 20 countries studied. The data paint a bleak picture:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n