Scarlett Wilson
For UNICEF’s Giga NFTs program to connect more schools globally, the popularity of NFTs is fueling fundraising experiments.
The widespread use of the Internet is largely welcomed in developed nations. The truth is that the World Wide Web is still not accessible to around 2.9 billion people.
According to data from UNICEF, the majority of those without internet access live in developing nations, and children are still at a disadvantage because local schools do not have internet access.
With the help of a partnership with the International Telecommunication Union that resulted in the launch of Giga in 2019, a project led by UNICEF is addressing this issue with a novel approach.
At the Blockchain Expo in Amsterdam, Gerben Kijne, head of blockchain products at Giga, described the company’s Project Connect effort. To connect schools in underdeveloped nations to the Internet, Giga has achieved great progress.
Project Connect was used to map the schools and the relationships between them as the initial step in the procedure. On an open-source map, Giga utilizes machine learning to search satellite pictures and locate schools. Over 1.1 million schools in 49 nations have had their connectivity information identified so far, with a third of those schools.
The second phase in the process was to develop a new fundraising drive that makes use of the world of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and non-convertible tokens after finding numerous schools that needed internet connections (NFTs).
Kijne revealed Giga’s Patchwork Kingdoms project in an interview with Cointelegraph after delivering his keynote address at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam. In March 2022, Giga attempted to capitalize on the popularity boom that NFTs have had in recent years by launching its NFT-driven fundraising experiment.
To introduce a collection of 1,000 procedurally generated NFTs printed on the Ethereum blockchain, Giga has partnered with Dutch artist Nadieh Bremer. To depict people with and without an internet connection, NFTs were created utilizing Giga’s school data.
Around 240 Ether more was spent on NFT in total. It costs $700,000 in total, all of which was used to wire up classroom computers for internet access. Kijne concurred that looking at a different method of philanthropic fundraising came before the enhanced value.
Kijne thinks that NFTs can create a stronger connection between donations and fundraising, emphasizing how they can be used to track when monies generated are “monetized” to pay for internet connectivity as well as to measure the impact of donations through ownership of a specific school’s NFT.
The NFT-based fundraising effort provided a wealth of information. Kijne notes that creating a community before the launch might have increased support. Community members play a part, as is evident in the NFT space, but opportunistic NFT investors are constantly present and seeking opportunities to benefit from fresh launches.
Despite this, the initiative has received praise for its success and presents a fascinating use for blockchain-based NFTs as a transparent, community-building fundraising tool. The public auction in March 2022 raised $550,000 and was completely sold out in three hours. Secondary sales on OpenSea contributed an additional 20% of the funds raised.