Ethereum’s prospects are brightening. With The Merge now behind us, a significant burden (measured in tonnes of CO2) has been lifted from the Ethereum community’s moral responsibility. Observers worldwide are keen to see the next steps this community will take.
Currently, the ecosystem holds a rare chance to demonstrate to skeptics the potential of Ethereum—a foundational layer of trust on the open internet that can address the major coordination challenges yet to be tackled.
The path to Serenity is long, and Ethereum’s influence is still relatively modest compared to human institutions, societies, or economies. In recent years, we have grown fond of the term public good, but we must remind ourselves that “public” encompasses all 8-billion of us, give or take.
This is the purpose behind the EF Fellowship Program: to create a platform for individuals working toward the long-term vision of Ethereum as a public good for everyone.
If Ethereum is to become the future of human coordination, it is essential to ensure that such a future is fairly distributed. With that in mind, we are excited to introduce seven remarkable individuals who are considering and working with this vision in focus.
Introducing the Second Cohort
If you missed our first cohort, you can learn about their projects here!
Each EF Fellow has been selected for their personal journey, which signifies a potential for Ethereum-inspired prosperity.
The exact nature of that potential is somewhat fluid. Some fellows are broadening Ethereum’s accessibility to new demographics, while others are gaining firsthand insights into why Ethereum might not be beneficial for certain communities (yet). It’s possible that a fellow may be investigating larger challenges that hold implications for the current Ethereum community, now or in the long run.
Regardless of the project or the fellow, over the next six months, they will be advancing their knowledge, implementing their initiatives, and contributing to fostering Ethereum’s outreach into the intricate, complex world of people.
Introducing the Fellows
Abhishek Bhattacharya
Abhishek is a co-founder of Brú Finance. Working with a partner organization named Whrrl, they provide harvest-time loans to over 18,000 farmers across India. Whrrl operates on a permissioned private blockchain; however, as part of his Fellowship project, Abhishek will oversee and learn from the launch of a new system using a public chain that leverages decentralized liquidity for farmers, exploring its global application potential.
Gabriela Guerra
Gabriela is the founder of Bloinx, a startup that utilizes blockchain to create tandas (also known by various names globally, such as cundinas, susu, hui, arisan, quiniela, stokvel, etc.)—informal savings groups. Gabriela believes that blockchain technology can provide significant benefits to the unbanked populations around the world, and starting with savings circles can be a viable approach. During her Fellowship, Gabriela will run pilot programs in Mexico and Venezuela, leveraging the findings to enhance Bloinx for broader applications.
Geoffrey See
Geoffrey is a co-founder of the startup Poko. He has substantial experience in legal and regulatory aspects of blockchain, as well as in entrepreneurial education initiatives and the emerging realm of DAOs. For his Fellowship project, Geoffrey will investigate the interaction between DAOs and government bodies, focusing on how the latter can understand the distinct needs and abilities of decentralized organizations when shaping new regulations and frameworks.
Karam Alhamad
Karam is an entrepreneur, a visionary in fintech, an international development expert, and a human rights policy advocate. He established ZeFi, an educational platform and community promoting blockchain literacy and research rooted in the Syrian context. During his Fellowship, Karam will conduct research that enhances understanding of how blockchain technology can address issues within conflict-affected areas in a practical and culturally-informed manner.
Marcus Alburez Myers
Marcus, an entrepreneur from Guatemala, is dedicated to tackling pressing societal challenges. He currently holds the position of Founder-in-Residence at Europe’s premier accelerator, Entrepreneur First, where he utilizes the power of web3 to support marginalized communities. Through his engagement with Lamina POP, a project focused on low-cost housing design in Guatemala, Marcus will be examining the tangible obstacles to financing physical assets in DeFi, aiming to develop solutions for housing finance.
Mary Davies
Based in the Cayman Islands, Mary is a legal researcher and technology specialist who has been delving into a vital question: What happens to your crypto assets after you pass away if life-extension technologies do not advance in the coming decades? Presently, there is no trustless or decentralized resolution to this issue, which poses a challenge. Mary’s fellowship will investigate new cryptographic mechanisms that could facilitate the trustless transfer of assets post-mortem in a legally compliant manner.
Mihajlo Atanackovic
Mihajlo is guiding the digital transformation of one of the biggest non-formal educational youth movements globally— the World Organization of the Scout Movement, which boasts over 57 million members worldwide. To prepare the Scout Movement for web3, he is embarking on an ambitious undertaking that involves digitizing badges, exploring DAOs across various organizational levels, and investigating innovative coordination methods for grassroots mobilization.
The Team Next Billion at Devcon VI
If you’re curious about the fellows’ projects, we invite you to attend their presentations live or via live-streaming. If you’re passionate about making a difference (or attempting to), reach out to us or tag us on Twitter @EFNextBillion
P.S. No, it’s not the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship – that is a different fellowship initiative on a similar frontier. Perhaps in the future we’ll have a crossover episode.
