Welcome to the Center for a Digital Future
Summary
The Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) is launching a new resource for understanding how Web3, blockchain, and emerging technologies are shaping the future: this site, the Center for a Digital Future,
This site, as an independent project of CCI, will be the home for ethnographic research documenting the real-world impact of these technologies.
A key tool launching with the new site is the Impact Base, a repository of over 70 case studies documenting real world Web3 use cases and their impacts, vetted through our primary research methodology.
Web3 is for Everyone
We stand at the threshold of a nascent financial and technological ecosystem that holds immense promise. Web3 and blockchain-powered tools and services have the potential to transform access to opportunity for people and communities, through the creation of new incentive structures, reduction of transaction costs, and the creation of powerful new governance and community development tools.
There is a need to understand how Web3 tools and services – and the other emerging technologies with which they intersect, including AI – are impacting people and communities today. Policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and people and communities using emerging Web3 technologies must be supported with evidence-based understandings of the potential benefits and externalities.
The Center for a Digital Future is a new home for understanding how Web3, blockchain, and emerging technologies are shaping the future. As a project of CCI, the Center for a Digital Future partners with foundations, industry leaders, and researchers to produce leading edge, impact-focused research on how blockchain, Web3, and emerging technologies are being used and their social and economic impacts. We are launching with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
We launch today with our signature tool, the Impact Base, and look forward to publishing forthcoming research on equity and inclusion in Web3 and emerging use cases in developing economies.
The Impact Base
The Center for a Digital Future is launching with a signature new tool – our Impact Base.
The Impact Base Documents Web3 use cases from around the world, providing a first of its kind collection of primary research on real world impacts happening today. Projects accepted for inclusion in the Impact Base are vetted and presented for consideration by CCI’s global audience of industry leaders, regulators, legislators, and the public for the sole purpose of research and education. To support a wide understanding of the opportunities and pitfalls presented by emerging Web3 technologies, we have sourced a wide range of over 70 projects spanning industries including finance, IT and data, business, education, philanthropy, telecommunications, environmental uses, healthcare and insurance.
We sought case studies that show how Web3 projects are improving lives, communities, and businesses — specifically projects demonstrating:
Impact: Solves a problem and creates tangible economic, social, environmental or business impacts for people using or engaging with the project.
Inclusion: Creates new access or opportunity.
Community focus: Addresses the needs of a specific community or socioeconomic group.
All projects considered for inclusion are then evaluated against our core impact criteria, which considers: project status; relevance to real world problems; economic, social, and environmental impacts; inclusion; reputation; traction to date; financial soundness; and corporate responsibility. Please read more about our evaluation process here.
Every case study featured in our Impact Base has been subjected to our vetting process, presenting research on each case study’s problem statement, how the problem is being solved, how the solution works, who is being served, project milestones and traction, and economic, social, and environmental impacts to date.
Join the Conversation
It is our ambition that anyone using the Impact Base can benefit from the research presented. Policymakers and regulators can learn about innovation happening in their region that is relevant to their constituents, while industry builders and leaders can learn about impactful projects to inform their work and communities can learn about potential opportunities to harness emerging technologies to address their needs.
We welcome your feedback, research ideas, and case study submissions. Please get in touch with us to learn more about our forthcoming research and to submit your project for consideration in the Impact Base.