Topl’s $1 Million Grant Program Enters Second Phase for Impact-Driven Blockchain Initiatives, Ramps Up 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 tracking, tokenizing and monetizing positive impact, today announced that it had opened the second phase of applications for its inaugural $1 million grant program. Additionally, the company disclosed 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 that want to better understand and control their carbon footprint – a catalyst for Topl selecting Sweetgum as its first-ever grantee.

Topl is accepting a second round of applicants to the grant program through November 15, 2022. The program aims to fund designers, visionaries and changemakers seeking to utilize blockchain to change how business is done and how markets operate – with impact as the key driver.

The grantees will be required to build on Topl’s unique layer zero blockchain protocol. However, they can 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 many top-down approaches in the carbon footprint sphere, but there was no structure on the community and individual level – and that’s what drew us to engage 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 actions 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.

• Recording and sharing individual environmental impact – transparency and traceability that is not achievable within traditional web 2.0 structures
• Tokenizing environmental impact – hyper-tokenization enables the permanent record of positive behaviors and assigns value to environmental action
• Enabling interoperability and new opportunities – recording data on-chain makes it verifiable and usable by other parties, including on-chain carbon or data marketplaces

Chris Georgen, founder and managing director of Topl, said,

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

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

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

About Topl

Founded in 2017, Topl is a layer zero blockchain protocol built from scratch to power the next wave of economic transformation. Its goal is to create markets and systems that ensure the most impactful behaviors are also the most profitable ones.

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

Contact

Philip Robertson, partner at Impact Partners