Many have noted that Steem has great potential for funding projects and groups to achieve their goals. Now we have a real life, working website for Steem - called Fundition - that aims to disrupt the existing crowdfunding industry.. Let's take a look!
Online crowdfunding has a come a long way in a short space of time. The idea generally involves people who have great ideas can post them to a website, along with relevant information and potential supporters can learn about the project and then offer money to help bring the idea into reality. Supporters are typically rewarded with perks that motivate them to support the idea, such as an early delivery of a product that is being developed or advanced tickets to the show that is being funded. Wikipedia states that "In 2015, a worldwide estimate totaling over US$34 billion was raised by crowdfunding" - which is clearly a huge amount of money that would have previously had to have been found from wealthy investors, loaned from banks/governments or simply would never have been found for projects at all.
The merging of cryptocurrency and crowdfunding is a logical progression for the funding of projects since cryptocurrency and the associated decenteralistion of systems/people both share the same powerful template as crowdfunding - namely, the leveraging of the power of a large number of people to cause change.
Blockchain Innovation Meets Community Creativity
Fundition combines the power of the tried and tested Steem blockchain, it's associated community of millions of users (social networking technology is built in to Steem by design) along with the world changing crowdfunding model that allows anyone to become an investor in exciting and innovative projects. What's more, in keeping with the innovative spirit, it is possible for project backers to support projects without even paying any money - since projects can be supported by backers giving upvotes on the Steem blockchain which result in projects receiving payouts from the Steem rewards pool directly, rather than from the direct pocket of the backer themselves.
Is this magical money? Well, no, not at all! The money from the Steem rewards pool is generated each day from a process of token creation that occurs every day on the Steem blockchain and the amount varies as the price of Steem tokens varies. In a sense, the more that the world comes to value the Steem blockchain and token, the more that crowdfunding projects can be supported on Fundition. There is already a whole lot to value about Steem - since it is one of the fastest blockchains in existence (3 second transaction times), it has zero fees and already carries more traffic and transactions than the other largest cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin) combined! In short, Steem is the super awesome crypto currency that much of the world still hasn't discovered - but soon will.
Decentralised, 'no fee' Crowdfunding for All!
One of the truly rewarding and exciting features of Steems tried and tested social network and payout features is that the blockchain is decentralised, with no single entity being in control of it. This allows for unprecedented co-operation and creativity since its users are free to voluntarily work or not work as they choose to - without the pressure of 'management' and control.. Creativity needs to be free and the truth of this is in evidence by the huge number of apps and services already available to Steem users.
Who Funds The Project?
Existing crowdfunding platforms involve a corporation which carefully controls which projects make it to their website, which projects get promoted and who are legally responsible for the money and transactions involved. They also take significant fees from the projects that are attempting to get funded and just like the way that charities often take almost everything from the money they raise FOR THEMSELVES - this can leave a sour taste in the mouth of those involved. Fundition offers a quantum leap in this regard, since there are no fees as the Fundition team takes no cut of donations!
How is this possible?
Currently, the Fundition account on Steem is operating with the benefit of a 'delegation' of over 1 millions teem tokens - which means that Fundition can upvote posts on Steem and generate significant payout rewards for them - drawing from the Steem rewards pool directly. I am told that the Fundition team gets paid by them using their delegated Steem Power to upvote themselves each week, according to their own activity levels. Does this sound totally different to the mainstream, corporate way of doing things? It should! Steem was built on anarcho-capitalist principles, meaning that each individual has power to act in ways that reflect their own will, yet within a collective arena that brings all the individuals together in a way that minimises control of one individual over another. If a Steem user or project wants to upvote itself and receive payouts, it can!
Delegations are a way for Steem to be 'loaned' to other accounts for the purpose of using it to upvote posts and direct rewards - so the backer of the Fundition project has not actually given anyone any money of their own - rather they have just allowed the Fundition team to use to it upvote posts on Steem and to direct payouts to the post's authors. Although I don't know for sure, it appears that Steemit Inc. have delegated the Steem to Fundition (correct me if I am mistaken!).
So in short, Steemit Inc., the creators of Steem and Steemit have apparently directed some of the value of the blockchain towards this project to reward those involved in creating a crowdfunding platform. Simple-ish! ;)
So what is decentralised Crowdfunding?
The idea is that the world gets to directly fund projects either by sending donations (which can be cryptocurrency or fiat currency in nature) to the the creator of a project on Fundition or can upvote the post for the project on Steem to direct rewards from the Steem reward pool to the project creators. There is no central control hierarchy taking a cut or getting in the way. Only minimal control are in place to maintain the legality of the website and to prevent fraud.
Promotion of projects is still largely down to the project creator, but has the benefit of the exposure gained simply by it being on the fundition website and Steem blockchain among a community of millions of people (actually currently about 70,000 weekly active voters).
More About Fundition
The fundition site currently boasts 183 projects and over 12,000 backers - not bad given that the site has only been live for a few months and has not had any significant global promotion yet.
There are numerous categories such as arts, charity and education - with each project taking a similar format to the one we see on existing crowdfunding sites. Perks and rewards are offered and a running total is kept for how much funding the project receives.
Project owners can make regular posts to receive new upvotes and gain exposure on the Steem blockchain. Since there are numerous sites that use Steem as a backbone/database, this means that projects on Fundition may be seen on many sites - including busy.org, steemit.com, d.tube and more - which is a nice boost for small projects that need exposure without costs.
I am definitely interested to support Fundition and to leverage Steem's many great qualities to help creative projects to change the world and to also help the world recognise Steem for what it is - an undervalued, powerful emerging technology whose tie has come!
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
If you are interested in finding out more, please visit the following:
- https://fundition.io/
- mailto:info@fundition.org
- https://discordapp.com/invite/ys7Nv7m
- https://busy.org/@fundition
- https://steemit.com/@fundition
- https://www.facebook.com/funditionofficial
- https://twitter.com/funditionio
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaTNHseUn7uNsM7MmtArORg
- https://www.instagram.com/funditionofficial/