Intro to GoodDollar

This is the third episode of a five-part series on the best free to claim cryptocurrency projects on the market right now. The projects we will be researching and answering all the questions to finally decide on which of these projects have the brightest future in episode five are, Pi Network, Bee.com, GoodDollar and Idena. This episode is an initial intro and micro deep-dive into what GoodDollar is, some stats and general information and then my thoughts or concerns on the token at hand. I will be providing some opinions that may not be suitable to fanboy or fangirl ears. I think it is important to discuss topics of concern that would be important for a general user to know and understand. So, let’s get into GoodDollar and see what they are offering.  

What is the problem that GoodDollar is trying to solve?

GoodDollar is a people-powered framework to generate, finance, and distribute global basic income. Its goal is to provide a baseline standard of living and reduce wealth inequality through the creation of a universal basic income (UBI).

The Coronavirus pandemic, and following economic crisis has triggered fresh enthusiasm to assess new approaches to capital and liquidity distribution. Universal basic income – the idea of providing unconditional payments to individuals – has emerged as a key policy proposal in over 20 nations in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. This project presents a ripe opportunity to advance distributed, bottom-up approaches to basic income, which we believe can advance at a greater speed than federal implementations, 

In other words, GoodDollar is fighting poverty and income inequality through the use of blockchain and DeFi technology, and has tokenized the earnings from said DeFi protocols, specifically Bancor and Compound. 

How is GoodDollar going to solve this problem? 

The trickle-up economy. Wealth at the bottom of the income structure has more impact in smaller amounts than for people who are already living affluent lives. 

The value in the GoodDollar reserve comes from the interest that is generated from Supporters who stake cryptocurrencies in permissionless third-party protocols. Through the amassed reserve interest, G$ coins are minted and used to pay Supporters market-rate interest payments, while a daily amount of G$ is set aside to be distributed as basic income. Basically using the DeFi tools available, GoodDollar currently gives philanthropic-minded crypto nerds an opportunity to grow the wealth of GoodDollar UBI recipients. As of the middle of March, they have allocated almost $25,000 USD in GoodDollar to over 150,000 claimers. There have also been documented use cases of people crowdsourcing projects using GoodDollar. One user is planting trees for G$ and another has been taking donations in G$ to feed the hungry at a soup kitchen in Tel Aviv, Israel.  These are only a couple of examples, we have seen artists, small businesses and individuals making transactions in and for G$ as a store of value that people can use on a daily basis. 

How does GoodDollar reward it’s users?

The average GoodDollar user can fulfill 3 roles currently 

1. Claimers: People that “claim” a small basic income in G$ coins every day. They receive a daily share of G$ coins. Claimers can send/receive and buy/sell G$ coins. Referral marketing mechanism encourages early adopters to invite friends and family to the ecosystem and increases adoption and local utility of the G$ coin 
2. Supporters: Either individuals or organizations who buy into the trickle-up economy. Supporters “stake for good” to the GoodDollar protocol, through staking, supported cryptocurrency to their selected third-party protocols or mechanisms. Supporters receive reward payments in the equivalent value of G$ coins, which are immediately convertible to other cryptocurrencies without financial penalty. Supporters “do well while doing good” – receive market-rate returns while also making a positive social impact through support of the GoodDollar trickle-up economy 
3. Merchants: Accept G$ in exchange for goods and services. Conduct marketing promotions in G$. Integrate with a “plug-and-play” corporate social responsibility program

GoodDollar Key Facts and Figures

• Over 160,000 verified wallet holders
• Over G$ 20,000,000 (Between $15-25K USD) distributed since September 2020 in UBI 
• Initially funded by eToro founder and CEO Yoni Assia, 56,000 DAI in reserve contract. 
• Open Source Contracts and Back-end for transparency

Is there value in collecting GoodDollar?

Of the three tokens I have covered so far in this series, GoodDollar is the first one that people can actually collect, trade, swap, donate and buy/sell with. GoodDollar is an ERC-20 token native to the Fuse Blockchain, as well as Ethereum mainnet. All UBI claims are done on Fuse, because of the much lower transaction fees on layer-2 ETH chains than on Mainnet.

I personally claim my GoodDollar every day, it has been THE project that has gotten me back into cryptocurrency, and it has a positive track record of actually making people’s material conditions improve.

They have a ways to go before it will be a mainstream cryptocurrency, traded all over the world on exchanges, but the real world wealth creation and utility is one of GoodDollar’s crowning achievements to date.  

A few concerns….

1. Because GoodDollar is an ERC-20 based token, cashing in and out of GoodDollar is expensive and oftentimes too expensive for the average user to be able to convert to a currency that may be more widely accepted such as Ethereum. 
2. GoodDollar has decided on using the Fuse Layer-2 solution (similar to ZK or Loopring) for the UBI program, this is good thanks to the low fees on Fuse. 
3. There is a required Zoom video verification that all new claimers must pass. This has caused some issues for users with older or obscure Android devices.
4. Because of the free nature of the project, and the obscure chain it is housed on, there is often confusion about where someone is actually holding their G$. (Ether Mainnet/Fuse Net)
5. Again, because of the free claims, many marketplace ads are for other free programs, referrals, affiliate marketing. Not always a bad thing, just depends on if you find value or fulfillment in doing mindless tasks for little reward.
6. Probably the biggest outward facing issue GoodDollar faces is market adoption. Many thousands of users, login and claim G$ every day, but the market price of the token is generally below .0003 on Fuse and 0.0002 on Uniswap (mainnet). For certain users, the price is too low to be seen as valuable, especially when daily payouts range in the 20-25 G$ a day range. 
7. The average user who claims every day for a month gets approximately $0.16 USD in GoodDollar. According to current market rates. 

Conclusion

GoodDollar is one of the clear leaders in the UBI-token, free-to-claim crypto space for a couple of reasons;

1. ERC-20 compliant token & contracts
2. Actively traded token on at least 2 markets, (Fuseswap & Uniswap)
3. Great community of users, claimers, supporters, and marketplaces. 
4. Fully transparent as to funding sources, code, and contracts.
5. Leverages existing DeFi protocols to create value for UBI recipients
6. Reasonable KYC
7. Large Growth potential with Fuse.
8. Could eventually be bridged to whichever chain makes the most sense in the future because of the ERC-20 token and smart contracts.

One of the biggest issues I personally see in the GoodDollar program is its inherent reliance on Fuse as well as outside investment to grow the overall UBI payouts. $0.16 per month is not going to get too many people excited. However, it is important to note that GoodDollar often trades on the marketplaces and p2p trades at a much higher rate than the “official” market rate. This token is somewhat of an anomaly in that respect, because instead of looking at the official price on FuseSwap, users often just agree to a rate in which they can both accept rather than relying solely on the markets. In my personal experience, and as a relatively privileged Canadian, my average exchange value puts GoodDollar closer to around 5-10 cents each rather than the market rate. 

The reliance on philanthropic sources of funding and the idea of Supporters is somewhat unique as well. The UBI payout is determined through what could best be described as an “endowment” model of funding. Investors, Philanthropists, and Corporate Social Responsibility Programs are the primary funding source behind GoodDollar. This has advantages, a big donation means massive gains for the users. But it also has some disadvantages, if donations dry up, or big financial supporters leave the project, the estimated returns would shrink. 

For myself, I am very bullish on GoodDollar over the next 6 months to a year. I believe that the market rate could hit 1 cent with one or two big partners and that means massive gains for both investors and claimers alike. 

Drop Time!

NFT Drop for this episode! Opens at 1730 Central Time on 03/30/21 Max Mint 500. 

https://wax.atomichub.io/drops/13056

Only 1 WAX each and all proceeds go to the CAIT project.

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Good$ News Podcast is a daily Breaking News and Financial podcast related to the cryptocurrency GoodDollar based on the Fuse Blockchain. These episodes are designed to be a bite-sized analysis of GoodDollar’s daily financial statistics and any other GoodDollar related News or Rumors.
Disclaimer: I am not employed by the GoodDollar Organization or eToro, GoodDollar’s executor. This is not meant to be financial advice. I am not a licenced financial advisor nor am I an expert. I am still learning about Crypto and in some situations, I may be incorrect, and if I am, I’m sure I will hear about it in the comments section. This show is meant to be informational and entertainment, NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.