When Andre Eikmeier wrote about the state of his startup Good Empire in Might, the venture was in a troublesome place.
He had laid off his full crew of 12, suppliers have been ready patiently to be paid, and the tax workplace was hovering round for its lower.
Some native information shops reported this as the top for Good Empire, penning pithy columns that poked enjoyable on the Adelaide Hills-based founder’s ambitions to “save the f**king world”.
However Good Empire by no means died. As an alternative it has morphed right into a crypto venture referred to as G Revolution which kicked off correctly final week with the launch of its ERC-20 token G coin.
“Issues have actually rotated once more,” Eikmeier advised Startup Every day, including that he’s had “a flood of charities and corporations signing up for the beta” since that heartfelt, sincere piece just a few months in the past.
G Revolution is, in Eikmeier’s phrases, “a decentralised influence economic system” powered by the G tokens individuals can earn by doing actions and making donations.
It begins with the Good Empire app, obtainable on Android and iOS. When you be a part of, you’ll be able to join challenges aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals: hug a tree, decide to not utilizing disposable espresso cups, or just do one thing good for one more human.
File your act of kindness and also you’ll be rewarded with some G coin.
It’s what Good Empire is looking “impact-to-earn”, a reference to the “play-to-earn” crypto video games that always lose sight of an vital function in gaming – the half the place you could have enjoyable – in favour of incentivising gamers with the prospect of incomes money through crypto.
Subsequent will come the Good Emporium, a market for purchasing merchandise with G tokens (paying for a part of your renewable vitality invoice or shopping for a Patagonia t-shirt are sometimes talked about alongside the long run Good Emporium).
The token had “a secure launch,” Eikmeier stated, and is slowly constructing momentum – which maybe means one thing given curiosity within the crypto world has cratered because the market crashed final yr, precipitating the collapse of the Terra-Luna stablecoin and big exchange FTX, whereas regulators close in on Binance.
Eikmeier isn’t involved about moving into the crypto recreation throughout a crypto winter, moderately he’s attempting to construct a basis in hopes for the following bull run.
“Lengthy-term supporters with a correct impacting funding mindset – that’s what we’re right here for. They usually’re gathering,” Eikmeier stated.
On the time of writing, every G coin is valued at a fraction of a cent making the entire venture (there are 100 million G cash) value round $261,000 (US$175,000).
Solely 370 wallets maintain G coin, in line with Etherscan, together with wallets for a liquidity pool and token locking mechanism.
G Revolution has all of the hallmarks of any variety of crypto initiatives that have been spun up throughout the 2020 bull market. There’s a white paper, promotional Twitter posts from accounts with Cryptopunk profile pics, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), and a Telegram channel.
After all, there’s additionally the promise of NFTs.
Eikmeier stated these “have the help from a number of the greatest international charities” and will likely be purchasable utilizing an quaint bank card moderately than the extra complicated, much less user-friendly crypto approach.
“[It’s] going to be very fascinating to see how they go along with the advertising help of charities they’re paired to,” Eikmeier advised Startup Every day.
The place G Revolution differs from the final bull run’s token frenzy is Eikmeier’s earnestness; he’s a recognized entity, not some pseudonymous grifter prepared to tug the rug on artificially inflated costs.
Sure, G Revolution has echoes of the “making the world a greater place” mantra spoofed by HBO’s Silicon Valley, and there’s definitely an extended street to go from 370 G coin holders to Eikmeier’s goal of 100 million customers – however isn’t ambition to scale and make change the entire level of tech startups?
Even when Good Empire doesn’t “save the f**king world”, at the least its founder and early supporters can say they gave it a crack.
