Crowdfunding is a concept that since its inception, has really "kickstarted" how individual entrepreneurs can get capital to fund their projects. Most people are probably familiar with the term or maybe even participated in an event, but what exactly is crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding in it's simplest form, is the process of funding a project through many small donations rather than from one or two large investors. Crowdfunding can be used to raise capital for either a small one off project with a niche market or a large business start-up with an innovative new product - there is no bias, as-long as it is a product that "the Crowd" wants. Crowdfunding first appeared around the mid to late 1990s and was used in the music, gaming and film industries, before quickly becoming the go-to method for entrepreneurs to get their ideas out there and gain financial backing for their projects.
Although it has become widely used by start-ups across many industries, crowdfunding is not without its problems. Like many industries, crowdfunding platforms take a cut of about 5% which takes money away from the product and in turn, more money from investors pockets. Access to crowdfunding platforms is also dis-proportionally distributed to North America and Europe, with 70% of funds going to campaigns from these countries. Current platforms and methods suffer from trust issues, in that once the money passes it's funding goal and is released to the project, the investor can lose out if the project fails or doesn't meet its milestones.
Thankfully blockchain technology brings a solution to theses problems, as it has and will do to many other industries, and with the development of the Acorn Collective platform the world of crowdfunding is set to be rebuilt from the ground up. The Acorn Collective will release a truly global crowdfunding platform and extend access to any legal project in any country around the globe. Local workshops and reach out campaigns will be set up in developing nations to raise awareness of the funding source and help to provide access to it, opening the world up to great entrepreneurship from every country. The platform will be free to use, charging zero fees to ensure projects receive all of the funding they have worked so hard to achieve.
The issue of trust is a non-issue with Acorn. The use of blockchain facilitates total transparency and funds can be locked up and released to the project as it hits certain milestones, potentially giving investors a partial refund if it fails. The platform will also offer access to integrated partners to provide social media, marketing and content creation to help projects succeed in their fundraising goals.
The shake up is coming - Crowdfunding is just one of the industries that will be changed forever.
Thanks for reading, you can check out the Acorn Collective project here and join the telegram here to stay up to date. Follow me here or here to check out my blog and read more like this
Badman Crypto (Phil Stephenson)
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