Slush Festival Keynote: How Can the LGBT Community Leverage Blockchain?

The LGBT Community has an agenda for equality and has long included revolutionists; today technologist Christof Wittig, CEO Hornet joins those to share the strategy of the LGBT+ Foundation at Slush Fest, Helinski–the Ted Talk like organization for building a radically positive culture for pushing things forward. For entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Slush is the global focal point for startups and tech talent to meet with top-tier leaders and media. In 2018, Slush gathered 20,000 attendees, 3100 startups and 1800 investors from over 130 countries for the two-day summit in Helsinki. Wittig details what’s the coming blockchain powered agenda for the foundation and how blockchain presents strong tools to empower LGBT+ community.

 

Wittig, runs Hornet, one of the largest gay social networks in the world, with 25 milllion users .  talked at Slush, sharing a keynote questioning does the LGBT Community need its own blockchain project and an LGBT Token.

 

 

Many people talk about “pink money” but measuring and leveraging the pink economy is not so straightforward. These days, the spending power of the LGBT+ community in many Western countries is a significant economic driver not to be underestimated – something that many companies supporting anti-gay policies and homophobic rhetoric have noticed lately. Needless to say, LGBT+ customers believe in voting behind brands with their money.. Would the global LGBT+ community be a country, it would be the fourth-largest economy in the world with an estimated GDP of USD 4.6 trillion. Pink dollars are often thought of by marketers as a new market to win over with lucrative pockets, but as a community we should think about what the merits of measuring our entire pink economy are and what kind of ecosystem should we build.  And this economy has just acquired its own blockchain token.

 

LGBT Foundation: Using Blockchain to Shed Light on Pink Economy

 

LGBT Foundation launched in January. Is built to leverage technology toward equality for all, it is also taking a more pragmatic step towards demonstrating the might of the progressive pink economic ecosystem. This will be done through the introduction of LGBT Token, a token based on Ethereum and the ERC20 Standard, powered by OST, the Simple Token. By using the token, the users will be able to verify their LGBT+ identities and demonstrate their consumer decisions and the purchasing power of pink economy directly. The token will offer a great opportunity to generate resources to provide financial support to the more vulnerable LGBT+ communities, especially those out of reach of more traditional ways of receiving aid and money transfers.

 

Privacy in the Time of Pink Economy

It has been quite a year for privacy breaches, to put it mildly. In the advent of GDPR, many of us are becoming more aware of our rights to data ownership, and the ways our data can and cannot be used by other parties.

 

“People are increasingly distrustful of governments and corporations, and see a decentralized, autonomous solution to their challenges as a viable alternative”, Wittig says. “At Hornet, we have a long track record of managing a now 25 million strong user base with technology in a safe manner, and making it fun and simple to engage”, he continues. As Wittig states, people who understand the logic behind the decentralization of blockchain also understand that it can be the very solution to many data privacy issues. Educating people about the way blockchain functions is the answer to the concerns they may have. “Every day I am surprised by new ideas that can be implemented on this framework”, Wittig admits. “One example came from an NGO which is distributing HIV medication in Uganda. If you’re identified as LGBT in there, that could be your death penalty.  At the same time the organization has to ensure that the medication falls into the right hands, and doesn’t end up on the black market. It’s a perfect example on how LGBT Token can become part of a viable solution to track distribution and prevent embezzlement without endangering the lives of the recipients”, he explains.

 

Interested to find out more about the LGBT Token? Read more of the recent developments of the project join the telegram group