eToro announces GoodDollar experiment to reduce wealth inequality

• GoodDollar experiment to research how to reduce wealth inequality using blockchain
• GoodDollar is an open source community project
• eToro announces $1m in funding and calls for more ‘brains, ambassadors and funders’ to join the experiment

Global, multi-asset, investment platform eToro today announces the launch of the GoodDollar experiment with $1 million in funding from the company. The company is calling on more partners to join the initiative which aims to reduce wealth inequality using new technologies underpinned by blockchain. The experiment will research implementing a cryptocurrency that pays social interest to those who have less, and is continuously distributed to any verified participant for free, creating a global, open, universal basic income (UBI).

Yoni Assia, eToro Co-founder and CEO, said: “The success of new technologies should not be measured only by their ability to power new industries and disrupt old ones, but also on their ability to affect positive change in the world. Too often the tech world focuses on generating commercial value, rather than societal value. Technology should be used to tackle the great challenges of our time. This is especially true of blockchain, which has been harnessed in many creative ways, but hasn’t yet been used to tackle our really big challenges.”

The GoodDollar experiment is an open invitation for the global community to rethink the existing economic framework. GoodDollar aims to create a non-speculative cryptocurrency that aims to find ways to reduce wealth inequality on a global scale. It is geared towards a global UBI distribution mechanism that is deployed via smart contracts.

Yoni Assia continued: “Inequality is the crucial economic challenge of our time. In 2017 just 1% of the world’s population owned more than half of the wealth. With the rise of technology unemployment, the tech industry needs to find solutions for those with less to participate in the economy and pursue their purpose.

“We see a growing interest amongst tech entrepreneurs, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who understand the challenge of global wealth distribution and want to create a research framework for how technology can help solve this issue.

“The merging of blockchain technology, growing support for UBI and the realization that wealth inequality must be reduced, may finally converge into a new global economic system that would give all humans the financial freedom to pursue their purpose and happiness.”

eToro Co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia first shared the idea of addressing wealth inequality a decade ago in an article published in November 2008 entitled ‘The Visible Hand’. Yoni’s vision is now being made a reality by a team based across Tel Aviv, London, and wherever the right expertise exists.

Yoni Assia added: “We believe that we can create a mass-market cryptocurrency that is engineered to reduce inequality and provide a universal basic income. Engineers, product designers and economists are currently developing the prototype. Today is just step one on a long, ambitious journey.

“I would like to invite more partners to join this important experiment. We’re looking for experts in the fields of decentralized identity, governance, local and global adoption of financial products, and wealth distribution. We are also on the hunt for ambassadors to help spread the word about the project, and for funders to help us deliver GoodDollar. So if you’re passionate about using technology for social good, please get in touch.”

* Source: Credit Suisse Wealth Report, November 2017. As of October 2018, 0.7% of addresses hold as much as 87% of total bitcoin in supply – source: BitInfoCharts, October 2018.

Further information on GoodDollar, including how you can get involved, can be found here.

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