If you take a look at the news or your social media feeds, it can feel like our world is facing the “perfect storm” of crises – from a global pandemic to unceasing climate change, to the exploitation of creators, the insecurity of our data, and more. What gets less attention, though, are the incredible humans tackling these crises – and how they are using technology to do so.
We had the chance to meet many of them last month at the ACTAI Global Barbados summit, including Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, to share our vision of how NFTs can help solve these problems and build a more equitable and engaged future.
Across the week, our co-founders Bill Tai and Amanda Terry spoke to more than 50 entrepreneurs, technologists, athletes, conservationists, and artists from 10 countries about their experience building a dynamic, impact-driven community through our NFT collection OnChainMonkey. With holders ranging from crypto OGs to celebrities to world-famous conservationists and more, OnChainMonkey has raised funds for coral revitalization, Ukrainian refugees, internet connectivity and more – and was recently recognized as a World Changing Idea by Fast Company.
NFTs are also reinventing the music industry. We heard from Jared Christopherson, co-founder of “green” music blockchain OneOf, and Grammy-nominated singer Shontelle Layne, about how artists can use NFTs to connect with their supporters directly and help create a more engaging and fair industry. This is one of the causes that we hope to support through the OCM DAO – learn more about the DAO here.
NFTs, of course, are not possible without blockchain – we were honored to share the stage and learn from the incredible global and local blockchain entrepreneurs, including Kimberly Adams, whose company Bridge Network is helping move NFTs cross chain; Lily Dash, an esteemed lawyer and blockchain innovator since 2017; Grace Wong, founder of Liven; and HE Gabriel Abed, Barbados’ ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, who joined us via Zoom.
The highlight of our trip was meeting the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley. She is a leader for the entire region, and in her tenure, she has helped turn Barbados into a haven for tech entrepreneurs and digital nomads. Our Barbados OCM holders will be excited to see her walking around Bridgetown in her OCM merch!
PM Mottley spoke passionately about the existential crisis of climate change for the Caribbean and beyond. An island nation, they will be affected strongly by rising ocean levels and changing temperatures.
To drive the point home, ACTAI Global’s ocean panels were held in the best climate classroom there is – the water. Out on a catamaran, we watched sea turtles swim as we heard from the co-founder and Chief Reef Officer of Coral Vita, Sam Teicher, about how technology can save our oceans. (If you’re unfamiliar with them: Coral Vita won the prestigious Prince William Earthshot prize for their work restoring dying reefs by growing resilient corals in months instead of decades). Coral Vita was one of the first projects we supported at Metagood/OnChainMonkey, and we look forward to doing even more together in the future.
We left Barbados feeling inspired and energized to share these causes with our OnChainMonkey community. We’ll share more about the next OCM charity project soon – stay up to date with us on Twitter and Instagram!
If you’re interested in joining us, check out the available OCMs for sale on OpenSea, Mintable, and Nifty Gateway. Our holders receive exclusive invites to IRL and online events like ACTAI Barbados and can meet other impact-minded technologists, investors, celebrities and more in our members-only Discord.