Crypto Altruists: Real-World Stories of Social & Environmental Impact with Web3

For Episode 237 of the Crypto Altruists podcast, we’re going to something a bit different. In this special solo episode, host Drew Simon reflects on the current state of crypto; its capture by bad actors, its association with extreme political movements, and its potential as infrastructure for democracy rather than authoritarianism. He issues a call to action for builders to commit to transparency, community ownership, and resilien...

For episode 236, we’re excited to welcome Jamie Green, COO of Superset, a crypto start-up on a mission to improve stablecoin efficiency & reliability. Before building in Web3, he worked across startups, venture, and the United Nations; including on programs supporting Syrian refugees with blockchain.

In this episode, we dive into why fragmented stablecoin liquidity across chains is one of the biggest bottlenecks to real-world ad...

For episode 235, we’re excited to welcome Mahesh Murthy, Founder of Karma, a platform helping ecosystems fund projects in the open, and helping builders turn real work into reputation that sticks. We explore what’s broken in crypto funding, why reputation portability is essential for builders, how their Grantee Accountability Protocol (GAP) and onchain attestations shift trust dynamics, and what it looks like when funding becomes m...

For episode 234, we’re excited to welcome Yaniv Tal, a legendary builder who has helped shape the foundations of Web3 as we know it. Yaniv is the co-founder and former CEO of The Graph, one of the most critical pieces of decentralized infrastructure in the ecosystem, powering tens of thousands of applications across Web3. Today, he’s building Geo, a project focused not on scaling transactions, but on rebuilding trust, knowledge, an...

For episode 233, for our third annual Year in Review episode, I’m excited to welcome Sam Flanagan and Abeera Akhtar from Web3ForGood. We reflect on the biggest wins, moments, and lessons from 2025, and what's ahead in 2026, a year that could be defining for how technologies like AI, blockchain, and zero-knowledge tools shape society for the better.

We discuss:

• 🌍 How Web3 quietly delivered real-world impact in 2025, from sta...

For episode 232, I’m excited to welcome Joshua Dávila, a longtime organizer, writer, and builder at the intersection of progressive politics and crypto. Josh is the host of The Blockchain Socialist podcast, the author of Blockchain Radicals, and a core contributor to Bread Cooperative, a worker-owned collective building real financial tools rooted in solidarity, not hype.

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

• 🥖 What it looks like to ...

For episode 231, we welcome Eric van Miltenburg, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Ripple.

We explore Ripple Impact’s mission, unpack their most ambitious initiatives including a $25 million RLUSD commitment projected to generate $1B+ in long-term impact, and look at how blockchain is reshaping philanthropy from one-off donations into sustainable, scalable systems of change.

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

• 🌍 How ...

For Episode 230, we welcome Djimo Serodio, Founder of Silvi, and Jon Ruth, Co-Founder of the Climate Coordination Network, two leaders helping reimagine how the world funds and verifies ecological restoration.

We unpack the newly launched Bioregional Reforestation Grants Round, the largest blockchain-native, outcomes-based reforestation funding mechanism to date, and explore why this may be a blueprint for the next era of regenerati...

For Episode 229, I’m thrilled to welcome Mark Pascall, Co-Founder of The Wellbeing Protocol and the newly launched hum.community a participatory funding platform that transforms how local communities allocate funds.

In today’s episode, we explore this question and the origins of The Wellbeing Protocol, the lessons learned from 15 pilot projects across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, and why hum.community is such a meaningful mil...

For episode 228, we have something special in store. In Web3, we spend a lot of time talking about potential: what blockchain could unlock for climate, aid, finance, or human rights. And those conversations matter because they help shape the future.

But today, I want to cut through the noise and focus on what’s happening right now.

All around the world, builders, nonprofits, and communities are already using crypto rails to move mone...

For episode 227, we're excited to welcome Joe Agoada, CEO of Sostento. Joe has spent his career fighting to ensure that no one falls through the cracks of the healthcare system, and under his leadership, Sostento has helped more than 350,000 people access care and supported over 4,000 frontline health workers across the country.

We explore today’s nonprofit challenges, how Web3 can help close care gaps, the future of blockchain...

For episode 226, I’m exited to welcome 0xJoshua and Penguin, Co-Founders of Azos, a third-generation DeFi protocol using blockchain technology to turn climate-positive assets into real financial infrastructure. Their stablecoin, AZUSD, is designed to hold a stable value while automatically directing capital toward environmental good.

In our conversation, we explore how Azos is making values-aligned money possible, what it means to m...

For episode 225 of the Crypto Altruists podcast, we’re excited to welcome Lindsay Poss, former Hoops Sagrado player and current Campaign Architect behind their groundbreaking new initiative powered by the Stellar network.

Through this campaign, Hoops Sagrado is paying basketball camp employees, vendors, and local partners in Guatemala using the Stellar Disbursement Platform and Beans App, enabling fast, transparent, and secure digit...

For episode 224 of the Crypto Altruists podcast, we’re excited to welcome Eric Alsop, Chief Technology Officer at Pesabase, a fintech platform using blockchain rails to simplify remittances, empower communities, and make financial access a reality across Africa.

In today’s conversation, we unpack what’s new with Pesabase’s latest platform evolution, how stablecoins and smart contracts can create better financial rails for underserve...

For Episode 223, we continue our celebration of Octant Epoch 9 with part 2 of our Storytelling on Ethereum series where we explore how creators, educators, and storytellers are helping to define Ethereum’s narrative and build the foundation for a new, decentralized creator economy.

In part 2, we dive into how creators are using Ethereum to reimagine ownership, funding, and creative freedom in the digital age. Joining me for this epi...

For episode 222 of the Crypto Altruists podcast, we kick off part 1 of a short series celebrating Octant Epoch 9. It's called Storytelling on Ethereum; featuring conversations exploring how we communicate Ethereum’s human story to the world, and how Ethereum’s tech stack and community ethos empowers creators to elevate their storytelling.

Since this is a special episode, we’re changing things up and joining me are two amazing c...

For episode 221 of the Crypto Altruists podcast, we’re excited to welcome I. Christwin, Co-Founder of M3tering Protocol and Switch Electric. His journey into Web3 began with a simple question: how do we make clean power reliable, affordable, and investable where it’s needed most? That question led to M3tering, a protocol that coordinates rooftop solar using smart contracts, stablecoin prepayment, and token incentives; and to Switch...

For episode 220 of the Crypto Altruists podcast, we’re excited to welcome Bayley Wang, Co-founder & CEO of PrismaX, a robotics intelligence platform building an open coordination layer between humans and machines. PrismaX’s thesis is simple and bold: the bottleneck in robotics isn’t just hardware anymore, it’s coordination. If robots, humans, and AI are going to collaborate safely and at scale, we need transparent rules, shared...

Welcome to Episode 3 of Growing Good on Solana, our three-part mini-series where we dive into the Solana impact ecosystem and highlight visionary builders using Web3 to reimagine what’s possible for people and the planet. 

This series is made possible thanks to support from Superteam Canada and their sponsors. Superteam is helping onboard a new wave of builders into the Solana ecosystem, and we're thrilled to be part of that mi...