Things are looking good for Ethereum. Now that the merge is complete, a huge weight (measured in tons of CO2) has been lifted from the collective consciousness of the Ethereum community. And the world is watching to see what this community does next.
Right now, the ecosystem has a unique opportunity to show skeptics what Ethereum can do: how a foundational layer of trust on the open internet can be used to solve the big coordination problems we haven’t solved yet.
The road to serenity is long, and Ethereum’s impact is still small on the scale of institutions, societies, or human economies. In recent years, we have collectively become very fond of this term public goodbut we must remember that “public” means we are 8 billionroughly.
This is why the EF Scholarship Program was created: to provide a platform for people working towards the long-term vision of Ethereum as a public good for all humans.
If Ethereum is to be the future of human coordination, we need to make sure that future is fairly That being said, we are pleased to announce seven exceptional individuals who are thinking and working with this long-term vision in mind.
Meet the second cohort
If you missed the first cohort, you can learn more about their projects here!
Each EF Scholar has been selected because they are pursuing a personal quest that represents a Possibility of a boom thanks to Ethereum.
What this means exactly is that you have to be a little flexible. Some are expanding Ethereum’s usefulness to a new group of people, or learning first-hand from a community why Ethereum isn’t useful to them (yet). Maybe the guy is looking at larger challenges that will affect the existing Ethereum community, now or in the distant future.
No matter what the project, no matter who the collaborator is, over the next 6 months they will be advancing their learning, implementing their project, and generally helping to advance Ethereum in this messy and complicated human world.
Presentation of colleagues
Abhishek Bhattacharya
Abhishek is co-founder of Brú FinanceBrú Finance works with a partner organization called Whrrl, which provides crop loans to over 18,000 farmers across India. Whrrl uses a private permissioned blockchain, but for his Fellowship project, Abhishek will oversee and learn from the launch of a new system to a public chain that uses decentralized liquidity for farmers, and explore what this system could look like on a global scale.
Gabriela Guerra
Gabriela founded Bloinxa startup that implements blockchain-based tandas (also known as cundinas, susu, hui, arisan, quiniela, stokvel and others around the world) – informal savings circles. Gabriela believes that blockchain can have real benefits for the world’s unbanked population, and that savings circles are a good starting mechanism. During her fellowship, Gabriela will conduct pilot projects in Mexico and Venezuela and use the research to help improve Bloinx on a larger scale.
Geoffroy See
Geoffrey is co-founder of the startup PokoHe has extensive experience on the legal and regulatory side of blockchain, as well as an entrepreneurial education initiative and the burgeoning field of DAOs. For his fellowship project, Geoffrey will explore the interface between DAOs and governments, particularly how governments looking to create new frameworks and laws can learn about the unique needs and capabilities of decentralized organizations.
Karam Alhamad
Karam is an entrepreneur, fintech visionary, international development professional, and human rights advocate. Karam founded ZeFian educational platform and community focused on promoting blockchain education and research tailored to the Syrian context. For the fellowship, Karam will conduct research that advances practical and culturally sensitive understanding of how blockchains can address challenges in conflict situations.
Marcus Alburez Myers
Marcus is a Guatemalan entrepreneur focused on addressing today’s pressing challenges. He is currently Founder-in-Residence at Entrepreneur First, Europe’s leading accelerator, where he leverages the power of web3 to empower marginalized communities. Through his work with Lamina POPa low-cost housing design project in Guatemala, Marcus will explore the real-world barriers to financing physical assets for DeFi and apply his findings to develop a possible solution for housing finance.
Marie Davies
As a legal researcher and technologist based in the Cayman Islands, Mary has been addressing a pressing question: If life extension technology does not come to fruition in the coming decades, what will happen to your cryptocurrency when you die? There is currently no decentralized or trustless solution to this question, which is problematic. Mary’s fellowship will explore new cryptographic mechanisms that could allow us to transfer assets trustlessly after death, in a legally compliant manner.
Mihajlo Atanackovic
Mihajlo leads the digital transformation journey of one of the world’s largest non-formal educational youth movements – the World Organization of the Scout Movement with over 57 million members worldwide. To prepare the Scouting movement for web3, it is embarking on an ambitious project involving the digitization of badges, the exploration of DAOs for the different levels of the movement and how Scouts could use new coordination mechanisms for the grassroots organization.
The Next Billionaire Team at Devcon VI
If you are interested in the Fellows’ projects, we hope you will attend the Fellows’ conferences in person or live. If saving the world (or trying to) is something that interests you, Contact us or tag us on Twitter @EFNextBillion
PS No, it’s not the Ethereum Protocol Exchange — this is another collaborative initiative across the same border. Maybe in the future we’ll do a crossover episode.
