GoodDollar Basic Income Wallet: Community Support

The GoodDollar Basic Income Wallet Was Launched On September 7 And Within A Fortnight Over Two-Thirds Of The World’s Countries Were Claiming – Proving The Demand For A New Financial Solution

After almost two years of experimenting and building, the GoodDollar basic income wallet was launched on September 7 – and both the demand and enthusiasm for the project from the community in the first fortnight has exceeded the team’s wildest expectations.

Only two weeks in, the GoodDollar basic income wallet has …

• led to 30,000 wallets being opened
• seen almost 20,000 Claimers pressing “claim” every day to receive GoodDollars
• welcomed new community members from 133 countries – that’s over two-thirds of the world covered (68 per cent, if we’re being exact)
• welcomed over 800 users on GoodDollar’s official Telegram channel
• triggered the creation, by community members, of at least 7 Telegram groups, including groups for languages, “Hackers” of developers who want to build more tools to support the GoodDollar ecosystem, and a marketplace group
• enabled thousands of transactions using GoodDollar – 70 a day, on average – meaning that people are starting to experiment in using G$ for goods and services

Worldwide Demand

As of September 21, the GoodDollar basic income wallet had generated new users in 133 countries – considering there are, at the last count, 195 recognised nations, we are humbled and delighted to have generated interest in over two-thirds of the world.

Community Reaction – What You Think About The GoodDollar Basic Income Wallet

The initial reaction to the GoodDollar basic income wallet, from all over the globe, has been so heartening – thank you to all members of our growing community for the deep level of understanding and enthusiasm for the project.

Here are some comments from the main Telegram channel – please note we have been granted permission to use all quotations.

We contacted “Voroperez” and discovered he is Salvador Pérez, a 51-year old based near Valencia in Spain who has a PhD in social economy and helps build social enterprises.

“I found GoodDollar in the early days of the experiment, when I was researching about universal basic income with cryptocurrency,” he says.

“I was convinced that this is an opportunity to build something interesting. I hope GoodDollar will become a real tool to allow people to change the world. GoodDollar is not the objective; it is just the tool, and I hope many people will agree with it, and will work to construct a world with equity, justice and dignity for life, for all kinds of life.”

Germany’s René Patrick Sauerwein, 43, heard about GoodDollar from a friend “who lives in Paris and is a DeFi enthusiast”. He tells us: “I had a look, read through the GoodDollar white paper and claimed my first GoodDollar coins the same day. GoodDollar appeals to me because I am aware of flaws in the current financial system, and believe that a UBI is capable of balancing out some of the discrepancies and support those in need.”  

René is a supporter of Germany-based basic income projects and also the German political party BGE – short for “Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen”, which translates to “unconditional basic income”.

He adds: “Basic income would take off monetary pressure, could end child labour, and sexual exploitation of poor women. It would grant a financial basis and support people who now – under given circumstances – might even get involved in criminal actions just to support their lives. Being a humanist and a constructivist thinker myself, I believe in the powers of unconventional ideas and their capability of turning things around and simply make life better for those in need.

“My hope is that GoodDollar is a cornerstone, or will at least serve as a basis of studies for a proof that shows the positive impact a UBI can have, and will pave the way into a better future.”

Many members of the GoodDollar community have shown an incredible determination to assist others on the Telegram channel, creating new groups and pointing newbies to vital information. One such valued member is Frenchman Bertrand Juglas, a 42-year-old DevOps engineer who “also works on Ethereum blockchains”.

He says: “I heard about GoodDollar a long time ago, even before the face-verification integration. The project appeals to me because of the UBI and DAO [decentralised autonomous organisation] concepts used. I hope GoodDollar becomes a new community currency usable worldwide. And as a developer, I hope to build web interfaces that makes it easier for non-technical people to interact with the GoodDollar smart contracts.”  

New Groups – New Markets

We love our community, and are thrilled to see that community members have taken the opportunity to create Telegram groups to explore possibilities and further trading solutions, and channels depending on location or language.

The new Telegram groups – all spawned by progressive and helpful community members – are as follows:

• GoodDollar Market
• GoodDollar Africa
• GoodDollar UK
• GoodDollar Espanol
• GoodDollar Balkan
• GoodDollar Hackers

A Word From Our Founder

Yoni Assia, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of eToro – main sponsor of the not-for-profit GoodDollar, has been thrilled at the interest in the project. So much so, eToro has staked an additional $50,000 so more GoodDollar coins are minted and growth is encouraged.

One week in, he had this message for the community:

Thank You – From The Core GoodDollar Team

Like Yoni, we are all pleasantly surprised by the reaction to the GoodDollar basic income wallet – and we look forward to seeing how things developed, powered by our progressive community.

Product Lead Tomer Bariach says: “What has mainly pleased me has been the community engagement. I have never experienced such a supportive anonymous environment. We are developing a product that is 100 per cent transparent and have reached well over 100 countries around the world so far. Even though we launched a couple of weeks ago, the people who use it feel like a community that has been active together for years.”

Looking further ahead, Tomer continues: “It’s been amazing to see how people in the community are bringing up new ideas of where the product should go. And what I’m mostly looking forward to is reaching decentralisation, where the ownership will fully move to the hands of the community.”

Liav Gustein, who works on Product Design and User Experience, echoes those words, and adds: “It’s been an overwhelming experience. An awesome community emerged in a second, and are super active and passionate about this project, and they are working on their own to develop the GoodDollar ecosystem.”

Finally, Amit Baram, Creative Lead, sums our feelings up, when he says he is “absolutely ecstatic about the response we are receiving”. He says: “It has not only exceeded expectations as far as user growth and GoodDollars claimed but also with the thriving community, the positive response in our groups and social channels.

“And the kicker: we are seeing quite a lot of activity around developing new ideas and tools to complement our protocol and deliver new products around G$ very early on. So I am cautiously optimistic about our future potential – but also quite giddy.”

Thanks again to our community for your fantastic support so far.

How To Get Involved

• Sign up to begin to claim G$
• Follow GoodDollar on Twitter and Facebook
• Join our Telegram group
• Sign up to receive the weekly GoodNews on basic income and open finance