🌐UNICEF turns to blockchain for a good cause

Good Morning, Switchers 🌞

👋Welcome to Switch Daily.

Reports suggest CoinSwitch is shutting down…

…its old shop and moving to a new, improved, slicker-looking one. 

Yes, we got a makeover, and yes, we want to flaunt it. 😛

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Here’s what we’ve got for you today: 

• Market pulse

• Gitcoin x UNICEF

• News off the press

• Meme of the day

Market pulse 📈

The market is dull as dandy 🫤

The crypto top ten had a bearish Thursday session. DOGE was the first of the top ten to fall into negative territory. The market's focus shifted from the Fed to the economic outlook on Thursday, with China and US indicators sinking the NASDAQ Index and the cryptocurrency market. The bearish session reduced the crypto market cap to $805.48 billion, an $18.90 billion loss on the day. 

DOGE slid by 3.85% to lead the way down, with BNB (-3.32%) and ETH (-3.14%) close behind. ADA (-2.60%), BTC (-2.47%), MATIC (-2.89%), and XRP (-1.92%) also struggled. Chiliz (CHZ), on the other hand, rose by 4.46%.

C'mon, aren't you gonna let your friends in on how the market is performing today?

UNICEF 🤝🏽 Gitcoin = Good Cause

The last few weeks have been daunting. Everything we see or hear in relation to Web3, crypto and blockchain echoes bad news. That’s when we came across this story like a breath of fresh air, a ray of sunshine and a doughnut coated with lots of hope. 

Here’s what it is, Gitcoin has partnered with UNICEF to revolutionize philanthropy using the blockchain network and the power of communities. 

First of all, what is Gitcoin?

Gitcoin is a platform that connects open-source projects with funding opportunities. It allows developers and users to contribute to projects they believe in and earn rewards. It also hosts various events and challenges, such as hackathons, to encourage collaboration and innovation in the open-source community. 

And we all know who UNICEF is, right? United Nations Children's Fund is an organization that protects children's rights and provides them with essential services like healthcare, education, and clean water, yep, the same UNICEF.

Here’s how this partnership works:

 Blockchain = transparency, better transparency = better philanthropy.

• The contributions made by the public for various causes are documented. 

• While matching the funds, the number of contributors is more important than how much funds have been raised. 

• For example, suppose ten people have contributed $1 each to cause A and one person has contributed $15 to cause B, then cause A will be matched with the private pool coz ten people have supported the cause. 

BTW, this way of raising funds has a name and it is called Quadratic Funding. 

Quadratic funding is a more democratized way of raising funds because the projects are chosen by a large group of people or local communities. 

So far, Gitcoin has helped many web3 projects get funded using the QF method. But the UNICEF alpha round is the first of its kind to experiment with whether the QF tools could impact funding for public good based on public interest. 

UNICEF chose ten projects for the alpha round and contributed 50 ETH to a matching pool. StaTwig, Somleng, XCapit, Kotani Pay, Pixframe Studios, Simple Map, Treejer Protocol, Bioverse Labs, Rahat, and AEDES are among the companies participating in the grants round, which runs from December 9 to December 21.

This collaboration could set off a chain reaction of events that will revolutionise philanthropy as we know it, making it more transparent and accountable while giving power back to the communities that receive aid.

What’s brewing? ☕

🫱🏽‍🫲Stellar and UNHCR join hands to provide Ukraine with cash via USDC

On December 15, Stellar Development Foundation announced a collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to offer USD Coin USDC on the Stellar network as a form of cash assistance to Ukrainian refugees.

💰Aztec Network lands big money from A16Z

Aztec Network, a private layer-2 chain, announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by venture capital firm a16z crypto on December 15. A Capital, King River, Variant, SV Angel, Hash Key, Fenbushu, and AVG are among the other investors in the round.

👗Warner introduces a Digital Fashion Startup DressX

Warner Music Group is continuing to form metaverse alliances with startups, this time inking a deal with DressX, a company that creates digital fashion wearables both on and off the blockchain, which was announced on Thursday.

Meme of the day!

Thank You,

See you later, folks. 👋

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