What Happens When Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence & Impact Investing Meet?

Technology is constantly improving our world. Not only that, technology is helping us as we improve our world. This is why it’s so important that impact investing, a new but important field of investment, links itself with the advantages FinTech has brought to the table.

Impact investing sets out to use investors’ funds to enable environmental and social development, helping to improve the world. A very important field of investing, it is set to be a major player in 2018.

FinTech knows the importance and potential in this area and entrepreneurs in this field are working with the technology to ensure impact investing reaches its intended targets.

This week I will be detailing how elements of FinTech are being used to help impact investing thrive.

Impact investing targets areas that very much need solutions and delays in uncovering and enacting these solutions can have dire consequences. This is why blockchain technology is an important element when working with impact investing.

One way this technology offers a solution to the fundraising conundrum so common in causes: impact cryptocurrency.

In this case, the blockchain is used to create a cryptocurrency tied to a cause and the ICO is then used to gather the needed funding.

RootProject, for example, is using its cryptocurrency (ROOTS tokens) and its decentralized ecosystem to encourage people to both donate funding to its causes and contribute knowledge to fellow ojects/causes.

The Impak coin is another cryptocurrency tied to impact investing, calling itself “The first cryptocurrency coded to grow the impact economy” and aiming to increase funding for impact entrepreneurs.

Given the incredible interest surrounding cryptocurrency right now, there is real potential in impact cryptocurrency. Of course, this is not the only way to use the blockchain for good. (Come back tomorrow to learn more.)

As part of the technological revolution we are starting to reanalyze what we define as money. With so many cryptocurrencies available, the (common) money of the future is not yet set in stone. What can be counted on is the importance of blockchain in this new world order, and this is good news for impact investing.

Through impact bonds and cryptocurrency, blockchain and impact investing are revolutionizing investing and money.

A great example of what can be done by using the blockchain for impact investing is Plastic Bank. Their goal is to minimize the amount of plastic in the oceans and have set out to achieve this by monetizing plastic waste, calling it Social Plastic®. By incentivizing plastic, Plastic Bank has created unique work opportunities in areas that deal with high levels of poverty.

Think about it: Plastic Bank is helping to ease both poverty and pollution. It is investments in areas like this that will truly change the world.

Blockchain technology is helping impact investing live up to its potential by making it accessible to the many people who would want to contribute. This is incredibly necessary, as an investment opportunity without investors would never get off the ground.

Science fiction may have bred in us a reason to fear artificial intelligence, but once you become aware of its amazing potential in impact investing this fear should be replaced by excitement about its potential.

AI is giving us new ways of managing data, and the better (and quicker) we can manage data the more energy and time we can spend making a positive impact on the world.

DataKind serves as a great example of the amazing things we can do when we properly harness AI. The company partners with groups seeking solutions to our most pressing challenges, then unleashes data scientists and AI to fully explore what can be done. This company has made a real impact by helping increase financial inclusion in Africa and China, helping businesses and households in India access solar power and forecasting water demand in California, among others.

You can see why AI is such an important tool for impact investing. Impact investing targets areas that really need solid solutions and AI mines the available data to root out what can be done.

Uncovering the solutions will help future generations who suffer from similar crises.

Technology gives us a great amount of power and we should be doing what we can to use that power for good. The good news is that many people know this and are striving to ensure this is what happens. Thanks to events like Sustainatopia, these brilliant minds have the chance to meet and work together to help push humankind in the right direction.

I know how fantastic the world could be if we use the amazing tools we’ve discovered and created to make the biggest, most positive impact we can. The results of the team-up of impact investing, blockchain and AI will come to be examples of the great things we can do when we collaborate. The ability to quickly and easily bring positive changes to the world may just be FinTech’s finest hour.