The Big Issue, a street newspaper sold by homeless people in the UK and other countries, is launching a blockchain-driven platform to promote the impact of investment, reports The Financial Times on Monday, November 18.
Three investment companies – UK Standard Life Aberdeen, United States Columbia Threadneedle and AllianceBernstein – will become part of The Big Issue as the founders of the platform called The Big Exchange. According to the FT, it will offer 30 to 40 social and environmental impact funds and will start working within six months.
Potential investors will be charged a small fee to use The Big Exchange. Once registered to the platform, they will be able to choose from a range of award-winning proposals with a gold, silver or bronze score based on their correlation with the 17 UN sustainable development goals.
The minimum investment should be $ 640, but Nigel Kershaw, president of The Big Exchange, plans to reduce it to £ 2.50 ($ 3.20) – the same price as The Big Issue.
As for the FT, the platform has already raised about $ 1.3 million from three of its founders and FNZ, a company based in London. Over the next five years, The Big Exchange plans to attract up to $ 3.8 million.
Blockchain is widely used for social needs, especially in the field of charity. As explained earlier by Cointelegraph, crypto-related technologies, and in particular blockchain, could help increase transparency for donations and international transactions, while reducing commissions on money transfers.
For example, the major cryptocurrency Binance recently managed to raise $ 1.41 million in various types of ERC20 tokens for those who suffered from devastating flooding in Japan in mid-July.
Furthermore, blockchain solutions have been used to promote social activity. The manufacturer of household cleaning products SC Johnson and the environmental organization Plastic Bank have partnered in October to open several plastic recycling centers in Indonesia, offering tokens to collect waste.
[ad_2]Source link