Topl’s $1 million grant program enters second phase for impact-driven blockchain initiatives, boosts with Sweetgum Labs

October 27, 2022 – Austin, Texas

The grant program’s purpose is to “fund a new direction for Web 3.0” by supporting projects centered around sustainability and positive impact.

Topl, a blockchain built for positive impact tracking, tokenization and monetization, today announced that it has opened the second phase of applications for its first $1 million grant program. In addition, the company revealed its first grantee, Sweetgum Labs, a rising star in regenerative finance (ReFi).

The grant funding will enable Sweetgum Labs to build an engaged community of individuals who want to better understand and control their carbon footprint – a catalyst for Topl choosing Sweetgum as its first grantee.

Topl is accepting a second round of applicants for its grant program through November 15, 2022. The program aims to fund designers, visionaries and change makers who want to use blockchain to change how business is done and how markets work – with impact as a key driver.

The recipients will be required to build on Topl’s unique layer zero blockchain protocol. However, they may incorporate other Web 3.0 technologies as needed. The funds will be used to drive concrete development milestones that deliver on the program’s guiding principle “to make the world a better place.”

Vera Wang, CEO and founder of Sweetgum Labs, said:

“We saw a lot of top-down approaches in the carbon footprint sphere, but there was no structure at the community and individual level – and that’s what made us get involved with Topl. Over 85% of us are concerned about climate change, but less than 35% of us have taken action.”

Wang continued, citing the lack of motivation, retail participation and social recognition of positive climate action as some of the main reasons.

Sweetgum Labs plans to use the grant to integrate with the Topl network and explore opportunities with DApps built on the Topl blockchain, to create meaningful synergies and ecosystem partnerships.

Sweetgum Labs plans to leverage the Topl blockchain with three approaches.

• Registration and sharing of individual environmental impact – ttransparency and traceability that is not achievable within traditional web 2.0 structures
• Tokenizing environmental impact – hyper-tokenization enables permanent recording of positive behavior and assigns value to environmental actions
• Enables interoperability and new opportunities – rrecording data on the chain makes it verifiable and usable by other parties, including carbon in the chain or data marketplaces

Chris Georgen, founder and CEO of Topl, said:

“Collaboration, organizing events together and sharing contacts and investor resources is the ethos of the sustainability-focused blockchain ecosystem. But we wanted to do even more for society.

“The Topl grant program is an important manifestation of the support and cooperation that is necessary to accelerate climate action. We couldn’t be prouder to support an amazing company like Sweetgum Labs with our first round of funding.”

Applicants can apply by completing this form before November 15, 2022. There are some requirements to keep in mind. Grant applicants must be legal entities and have technical skills – preferably internally – to build on the Topl blockchain. They must propose an impact-centric project and use the money to finance part or all of the building of a solution or project on the Topl blockchain.

About Topl

Founded in 2017, Topl is a layer zero blockchain protocol built from the ground up to power the next wave of financial transformation. The aim is to create markets and systems that ensure that the most efficient behavior is also the most profitable.

Topl’s technology has been used to track and verify conflict-free diamonds and fair-wage coffee and chocolate, issue and secure nature-based carbon credits and provide verifiable reporting for corporate ESG initiatives.

Consult

Philip Robertson, Partner at Impact Partners