The cryptocurrency market was founded on the idea of detaching from government oversight and involvement, which presents a unique opportunity in the wake of the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade. Industry proponents say crypto could prove its utility with its focus on anonymity if more users donate to pro-choice causes and organizations. But so far, donation levels have been tame compared to the amount given in support of Ukraine after Russia's invasion. Robert Heeger, President and CEO of Endaoment, joins Closing Bell to discuss crypto fundraising efforts and more.  

Closing Bell

Crypto Activists Fight For Reproductive Rights Through NFT, Decentralized Projects

cryptocurrencies and Blockchain based projects were developed in the spirit of detaching from government oversight. Now, industry experts say fundraising and donations to pro choice efforts in the wake of the reversal of roe v wade is the perfect opportunity for the young industry to show its utility. But compared to other recent charitable efforts like funds to support Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion, the crypto community's response to roe hasn't been as robust joining us now to talk about this Robbie Hager, president and Ceo of endowment Robbie welcome. Let's start with the efforts that are happening in the crypto space. How are people fundraising people are fundraising in all kinds of ways from a boarding your N. F. T. S by sending them to the zero address and generating donation through destroying an N. F. T. Or all the way through to just giving the coins that you have in your wallet. Um, we're seeing douse form, we're seeing, you know, compose a bill addresses being stood up. We're seeing new N. F. T. Artwork auctions. We're seeing uh, people like lens protocol participating in specialized mints on their social media network to create. Matic based donations to help fund the organizations and causes that really need support really badly right now to fight some of these legal challenges that they're involved in post the post the reversal of road and wait. A really interesting factor that comes into play here is government surveillance now comes into play as people may may cross state lines to get an abortion. But how can the anonymity of the Blockchain based crypto system entice people to raise funds for those pro choice efforts. You know, I think one of the things that the Blockchain affords to individuals is the ability to be able to make a transaction without identifying who they are. Um, and one of the big reasons why we had endowment set up a legal abortion dot if a uh, fully anonymous and destination for people to just send assets to from any wallet is so that they can go ahead and show their support for this really important social cause without having to go through any K Y C. Steps or without having to hit any donation minimums. It also allows for us to do things like programmatic donations where there actually isn't any individual involved in the donation and in the process of moving the money from one smart contract to a wallet address that will ultimately be distributed to non profits in the abortion space and abortion rights and reproductive rights space. And so these are sort of exciting new tools that give people more options and more ways to participate in the response to these kinds of major fallout events, donation levels as I mentioned before are much lower compared to efforts to support Ukraine. Why do you think that is? It's important to remember that all of these donations are coming in as Crypto assets and over the past six months, Crypto assets have fallen about 75% in dollar denominated terms. And that makes a big impact on the total amount of money that gets fund raised through these kinds of charity fundraisers that are happening entirely in crypto backed assets, right? So it's not like people are sitting on dollars and giving dollars, they're giving ethereum or they're giving Bitcoin or they're giving um, you know, ripple or light coin or any of these other assets that have all depreciated greatly over the last six months. And so two things happen as a result from that. One is that people see their unrealized gains fall dramatically. And so it feels like they have less money to give away. And two is that the things that they are giving away the coins that they are giving away are now worth less. And so it takes more coins to make larger donations? And those two factors combined result in lower donation amounts, but what isn't lower is the amount of engagement, the amount of conversation, the amount of outrage and, and and just overarching activation that's happening in the crypto community to do something about this, not only at a dollar level, but also at like a community organizing and global awareness level as well. Some are saying this could be a missed opportunity for the crypto space as donation levels remain low. Do you agree Robbie? You know, I think it's an opportunity for us to showcase the ways that the technology that we have at our disposal offer us new ways to create revenue streams for donations. And it allows us to focus more on the creative just in the same way that bear markets are great for builders because it lets them turn off the noise and just focus on what's new and exciting about the technology. This is also true for crypto donation efforts, where we now get to highlight and get more creative and have to use more of our communal organizing power to generate the same kind of impact. And so for me, it's not it's not a missed opportunity. It's it's in fact showcasing the continuing commitment of this cohort of individuals around the world to put their voice out there about what they think is just and unjust in the world and to make a difference. Even if those dollar amounts aren't quite as large as what you know, the media has come to expect from the Cryptocurrency industry. What matters more is that we're creating a new generation of philanthropists, a new generation of activists who are leveraging technology in new and exciting ways and when ultimately we see the adoption of crypto reach new heights, that's going to mean landmark amounts of new donations. So we're really excited about what we're seeing. Many big tech companies like facebook are censoring even deleting posts offering abortion pills. What can the crypto space due here Robbie that big tech isn't doing, or even allowing at this point, you know, centralization offers an opportunity for censorship, um that is antithetical to the core ethos of the internet. And what I think is most exciting about what we're seeing in the crypto space is just a diversity and range of ideas and creativity that's coming out of the woodwork in order to raise money for reproductive rights. Um in order to come up with new solutions for how to fund people who need access to this kind of care. And so what we know is that because of the innate accessibility of these technologies that if you come up with a creative solution to help people get access to reproductive rights, there is no centralized entity that can stop you. And that to us is very exciting. I think obviously we want to see people use that power with great responsibility. Um and we haven't seen um or at least I personally haven't seen a lot of people using it to distribute sort of ad hoc medical care. And I can understand why companies like facebook are looking to prevent people from giving out non professional medical care. Um but beyond that, I I think the concept of having this sort of unfettered access to this technology to come up with new ways to capitalize people who are otherwise unable to get access to certain services is part of the promise of crypto Robbie Hager President and Ceo of Endowment. This was a really fascinating conversation Robbie. Thank you so much for your time