Social impact solutions power our societies. They drive the work of government and civil society leaders around the world. But the field of public problem-solving is plagued by unnecessary duplication, complication, and frustration due to the scarcity of reliable information on what works and what doesn’t. The same knowledge deficit often prevents successful pilot projects from achieving the scale required to benefit entire populations.

Over the last three years, the Blockchain Trust Accelerator has received countless requests for examples of projects that harness blockchain for social impact. Unlike fintech and commercial applications where there is a clear financial imperative to catalogue different use cases, solutions that benefit society are often understudied. Perhaps ironically for a technology grounded in the idea of decentralization, the absence of a central, curated repository of reliable information has slowed the adoption of blockchain in use cases like digital identity, humanitarian relief, remittances, agriculture, and microlending.

The Blockchain Impact Ledger was created to fill an information gap in the blockchain for social impact space. Without a trustworthy source of aggregated data about how blockchain is used in social impact projects, it is difficult for organizations interested in leveraging this powerful tool to learn from, and potentially coordinate with, other aligned initiatives.

Given the rapid pace of change and varying definitions of terms in the blockchain and social impact spaces, we expect the ledger to be a living document that will evolve as the landscape changes. We have published our methodology to ensure users of our research have a clear understanding of the basis for including information in the ledger. The methodology addresses both why we selected specific data points to include and how we define key elements. For example, since “social impact” can be challenging to assess, each listed project is tagged with one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Blockchain Impact Ledger complements research released by the Blockchain Trust Accelerator in the Blueprint for Blockchain and Social Innovation. Together, these two resources will help organizations and social impact leaders think through how to address global challenges with the support of frontier technology.

The Blockchain Impact Ledger is a research project managed by the Blockchain Trust Accelerator at New America and made possible by support from Social Alpha Foundation. The Blockchain Impact Ledger (BIL) is designed to be an informational tool, and neither BIL nor any output derived from BIL constitute investment advice.

This initial version of the Blockchain Impact Ledger is a deliberately early iteration, or a minimum viable product (MVP). It is not yet a comprehensive list of projects, nor has the categorization been completely finalized. We invite your feedback via these linked Google Forms on both the categorizations and other projects to evaluate for inclusion as we inform the next version of this resource, scheduled to be released in the fall.

Provide Feedback

• Provide feedback on the Blockchain Impact Ledger
• Suggest other projects to evaluate for inclusion

The Blockchain Impact Ledger solves the key information deficits facing those working to harness blockchain for social impact: the lack of quality data on where and how blockchain is being used to deliver solutions, and the lack of clarity on whether the benefits from those solutions can scale beyond the hype. The data in the ledger is gathered and vetted by researchers at the Blockchain Trust Accelerator (BTA) at New America. Sources are generally public and include organization websites, white papers, press releases, and news articles. Researchers also conduct interviews with some organizations to gain a deeper understanding of their work. Entries to the Blockchain Impact Ledger are verified by a member of the organization responsible for the project, or are otherwise noted as unverified. The Blockchain Impact Ledger will be updated regularly to incorporate feedback from the blockchain and social impact community and reflect changes within the blockchain and social impact industries. We welcome general comments on the Blockchain Impact Ledger and nominations of specific projects to evaluate for inclusion.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Approach

The Blockchain Impact Ledger is intended to be interactive, in part because the space itself is evolving. The launch version in May 2019 is intended to spark community input on how the ledger can evolve into the most useful tool for the space. Our team took a page from “The Lean Startup” methodology approach: We see this first iteration of the Blockchain Impact Ledger as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)—a bootstrapped solution delivered to begin a feedback loop and product iteration.

The Blockchain Impact Ledger fully embraces iteration and revision. The blockchain space is evolving rapidly, and categorizing projects remains a significant challenge. We plan to launch the next version of the ledger in Fall 2019. As part of our commitment to transparency, we will also share updates on Medium throughout the process.

Criteria for Inclusion

For a project to be considered for inclusion, it must be:

• Active: The project must be an operational technology deployed out of a testnet and being utilized by a target audience.
• Blockchain-based: The project must utilize distributed ledger technology.
• Generating social impact: The project must align with at least one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In a future iteration of the Blockchain Impact Ledger, we hope to include a repository of blockchain organizations in white paper stages and projects that have been retired, so we can connect early development organizations with experienced groups and learn from their successes and challenges.

Design Decisions

The Blockchain Impact Ledger is designed with user experience at the forefront. To accelerate the development process, we elected to utilize an existing platform as the foundation for an efficient, searchable MVP, even though relying on an existing infrastructure necessitated some tradeoffs. Once we confirmed the format of the Blockchain Impact Ledger, we conducted product scoping interviews to better understand the pain points of our target audiences and how they currently search for blockchain for social impact projects. The results of the interviews informed which data fields can be filtered and searched. For instance, many individuals and organizations exploring or using blockchain search by the industry or “social cause” of the organization, as well as the geography in which the organization operates, and the scale of the project. These became key data fields. Others claimed that they prefer to work with one type of blockchain over another, or with open source projects due to grant requirements. These criteria, along with commonly-searched data fields like the name of the project or the description, were included. Other fields that were less critical for searching and sorting were added to an expandable window for each entry, making the table easier to read and navigate.

Selecting the Data Fields

The data fields we use to describe each blockchain project are also a result of market research and scoping interviews. The BTA evaluated the utility of categories used by other blockchain databases, such as Blockchan.ge and the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research. We also looked at existing industry frameworks and resources used to categorize technology, such as Crunchbase, the Global Impact Investing Network, the TONIIC investment network, the UN, WEF, the WHO, the United States State Department, NIST, ISO, and IEEE to provide continuity with existing classification systems.

After collecting these various frameworks, we asked prospective target audience members about how they categorize blockchain for social impact projects and the types of data that are most interesting to them when conducting research. We used data collected from the interviews and selected the existing frameworks that most closely resembled the data requested by the interviewees. Other data fields not mentioned by the interviewees were collected so the BTA could conduct trend analyses in the future, such as Launch Date and Headquarter Location.

The data fields included in the MVP are not exhaustive, and we will add new fields and consider editing existing fields in subsequent versions of the Blockchain Impact Ledger. Some data points, such as consensus mechanisms, have been recorded in our research but are not included in the MVP due to scoping interview feedback. We invite you to provide feedback on both existing and prospective data points, and explore additional ways to supply meaningful measurements for our audience. A more in-depth explanation of each field is available this link.

Selecting the Projects for Inclusion

The initial projects for inclusion in the Blockchain Impact Ledger were selected as a result of existing resources and constraints we faced in developing the MVP. In January 2019, the Blockchain Trust Accelerator published the Blueprint for Blockchain and Social Innovation, a report designed to advise public sector and nonprofit leadership on exploring blockchain technology to address social challenges and governance inefficiencies. To illustrate potential applications, we wrote a number of case studies on blockchain organizations operating in the social impact space and mentioned additional projects in similar industries. These projects, along with additional projects which have already interfaced with the Blockchain Trust Accelerator and New America, were selected as the initial organizations included in the MVP.

We want to build a diverse representation of the blockchain for social impact community, and encourage organizations to reach out to us for consideration. The Blockchain Impact Ledger MVP includes a link for organizations to submit information about projects they would like BTA to evaluate for inclusion, and we welcome suggestions for additional projects to evaluate.

Gathering the Data

After determining the initial projects, we gathered publicly available information. We contacted each organization for which we could identify contact information and asked them to verify the publicly sourced data. We also emailed a list of precise definitions for each of the data fields to reduce ambiguity in terminology. We provided a short window for response and recognize that it may not have been sufficient in all cases, which likely contributed to the number of “unverified” entries in the MVP. In addition, unknown data that could neither be found through independent research nor furnished by representatives of the organization were indicated as "unknown." Verification requests beyond the MVP will be given more lead time. During the open comment period, we plan to crystallize the set of data points and definitions.

Beyond the MVP, we will also investigate alternative methods to verify the information provided by the candidate organizations. During our product scoping interviews with leaders of blockchain organizations, funders, and broader blockchain for social impact enthusiasts, we discovered that a lack of independently verified information about organizations was a major pain point in conducting research, particularly considering the hype surrounding blockchain technology.

However, in analyzing methods to verify data, we encountered critical challenges that prevented us from including more advanced verification in the MVP. For instance, technical information can be prohibitively difficult to verify without assistance from the candidate organization’s engineering team. Furthermore, asking the candidate to provide references both risks introducing bias and creates a practical bottleneck in terms of verification processes that we could not accommodate in the limited time for the MVP. While we will continue formulating verification mechanisms, we hope that comments and suggestions sourced from the public comment period will also spur innovative solutions to this challenge.

Data Management

Managing and growing the Blockchain Impact Ledger will include adding new projects that meet the stated criteria, “retiring” projects that no longer meet the criteria, and updating information about projects already listed. We plan to release updated versions of the Blockchain Impact Ledger quarterly.

About the Blockchain Impact Ledger

The Blockchain Impact Ledger was created to fill an information gap in the blockchain for social impact space. Without a trustworthy source of aggregated data about how blockchain is used in social impact projects, it is difficult for organizations interested in leveraging this powerful tool to learn from, and potentially coordinate with, other aligned initiatives.

The Blockchain Impact Ledger fills that gap, and complements research released by the Blockchain Trust Accelerator in the Blueprint for Blockchain and Social Innovation. Together, these two resources will help organizations and social impact leaders think through how to address global challenges with the support of frontier technology.

About the Blockchain Trust Accelerator

The Blockchain Trust Accelerator (BTA) is the world’s leading platform for harnessing blockchain technology to solve social impact and governance challenges. Established in 2016, BTA brings together governments, technologists, civil society organizations, and philanthropists to build Blockchain pilots that benefit society. BTA projects and research help organizations and institutions increase accountability, ensure transparency, create opportunity, and build trust in core institutions.

Team

Tomicah Tillemann leverages innovations in technology and finance to help organizations solve complex global challenges. He serves as founder and director of the Blockchain Trust Accelerator at New America and chairman of the Global Blockchain Business Council. From 2010 to 2014, Tillemann served under Hillary Clinton and John Kerry as the Secretary of State's Senior Advisor for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies. Tillemann led a team of experts that translated over 20 promising ideas and technologies into successful policy initiatives on behalf of two Secretaries of State. He also established and chaired the State Department's Global Philanthropy Working Group. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Council, the United Nations World Food Program Innovation Council, and the Board of Trustees of the Lantos Foundation.

Allison Price is the executive director of the Blockchain Trust Accelerator (BTA), a program of New America. The BTA is committed to advancing blockchain technology through research and innovative pilot projects designed to address some of the world’s most persistent challenges like transparency, identity, and corruption. Prior to diving into the global frontier technology community she served in senior public affairs positions with the Department of Justice and the Peace Corps. Price has also worked at the intersection of public policy and communications for Obama for America, the Center for American Progress, Gillibrand for Congress, and Stonebridge International. She earned degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the London School of Economics.

Dahna Goldstein is a senior fellow with the Blockchain Trust Accelerator at New America. She is a social entrepreneur and advisor to social impact organizations. Goldstein was the founder and CEO of PhilanTech, which created PhilanTrack, an online grants management software solution designed to reduce the transaction costs of grants administration to redirect grant dollars to program and service delivery to achieve greater social impact. When PhilanTech was acquired by Altum in 2014, Goldstein served as director of philanthropy solutions at Altum. Prior to starting PhilanTech, she worked for venture philanthropies, including Ashoka and Blue Ridge Foundation New York, and produced interactive eLearning programs for Global Education Network and Harvard Business School Publishing, including the award-winning "What Is a Leader?" program. Goldstein teaches Blockchain at American University and has taught Technology Entrepreneurship at Georgetown University. She earned degrees from Williams College, Harvard University, and New York University, and was named one of Newsweek’s "13 Women Entrepreneurs to Bet On" and one of BusinessWeek’s "25 Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs."

Ben Gregori is a policy analyst at New America, where he researches the application of blockchain technology in the public and nonprofit sectors. Gregori is a recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies, where he earned a Master of Arts in International Political Economy. He conducted research on the challenges faced by government in creating and deploying effective policy in evolving technology landscapes, with particular attention to governance. Prior to graduate school, Gregori was a digital marketing executive at LinkedIn. He earned a double Bachelor of Arts from UC Berkeley in Political Science and Classical History.