
Crypto Altruists · 2026-06-24 · 51 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
38 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
WYDE represents a fundamental shift in how crypto and blockchain can fund social causes. Co-founders Martin Sims and Aaron Rafferty have built an impact exchange where transaction-based fees are automatically directed to hunger relief - no separate donation required. The EAT token is the mechanism: every buy, sell, or transfer triggers a fee that flows to Feed the Children, an organization that reached nearly 15 million people last year. The model extends beyond crypto through the EAT Debit Card, bringing the same contributory consumption principle into everyday spending. What makes this compelling for nonprofits is the shift from chasing grants and one-off donations to sustainable, recurring funding streams. Sims brings finance expertise from serving as CFO of publicly traded companies, while Rafferty combines behavioral science and AI experience with an investment thesis around democratizing access. They're solving two problems simultaneously: nonprofits face drying funding, while donors increasingly distrust traditional philanthropy. Their vision extends further - imagining a future of smart currencies where you might hold a hunger token, cancer research token, or climate token that quietly does good in the background as you transact. The first Trade-to-Feedathon competition already generated funding for tens of thousands of meals. For B2B operators in nonprofit tech, Web3, or impact finance, this represents a new model for sustainable charitable funding.
Every time someone buys, sells, or transfers the EAT token, a portion of the transaction fee automatically flows to verified charitable grants for hunger relief through Feed the Children - no separate donation step required. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain for public verification of impact.
WYDE announced an exclusive national partnership with Feed the Children, an organization that reached nearly 15 million people last year. WYDE has already helped fund tens of thousands of meals through token transactions, with momentum growing from their Trade-to-Feedathon competition.
The EAT Debit Card brings the contributory consumption model from crypto into everyday spending, allowing regular debit card purchases - not just token trades - to automatically generate funding for hunger relief.
WYDE solves the nonprofit funding crisis by replacing unsustainable one-off grants and donations with recurring revenue streams generated automatically from transaction activity, eliminating the need to constantly chase new funding.
Martin Sims served as CFO of two publicly traded companies and brings expertise in finance strategy and structure. Aaron Rafferty has a background in behavioral science and AI, with early interest in Bitcoin and blockchain technology, focused on democratizing access to technology.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode surfaces a few genuinely useful framings - flipping the 90% fundraising burden on nonprofits, embedding impact into existing interchange fees rather than soliciting new donations - but the conversation is heavily padded with affirmations, repetitive vision-casting, and very little mechanistic depth on how the economic model actually sustains itself over time.
90% of their job, a lot of them, is fundraising. And and we look at that and we say, you know, is that um can that change, right? Can it actually be completely reverse where 90% of the activities is actually fundamentally trying to make sure you're allocating in the right way
we are the issuer, we have the ability to control where the 2% um transaction fee actually flows
The 'contributory consumption' framing and the pointed critique of crypto philanthropy as screenshot culture are moderately fresh angles, but cause-linked tokens and transaction-fee charity models have been attempted repeatedly in Web3; the episode acknowledges prior failures without offering a structurally differentiated thesis beyond branding and a nonprofit partnership.
most crypto philanthropy is a founder writing a check after a token rally and posting a screenshot
the the reason that nonprofit was actually created was more of a shelter for the you know dynasty capital, um, these like this this sovereign money
Martin Sims brings genuine CFO experience at two public companies and Aaron Rafferty has behavioral science and early AI startup credentials - both are real practitioners rather than pure thought-leaders - but they are running an extremely early-stage project with modest demonstrated output, limiting how much hard-won operational insight they can actually share.
I I worked um as a CFO of two publicly traded companies
we actually have uh a more uh like venture studio um called Standard. And we started that five years ago as well
The episode lands a handful of concrete figures (1-5% dynamic fee, 2% debit interchange, 60,000 meals funded, 18-month exclusive partnership, Coinbase's ~3% fee as a benchmark) but the majority of the conversation consists of asserted macro trends - trillions of transaction volume, Gen Z preferences, nonprofit funding collapse - without any cited data or named comparators beyond broad references to Tesla and Apple.
there's a 1 to 5% dynamic fee that comes off of the token
we've we've funded now 60,000 mills to date
The host almost exclusively asks setup questions and greets every answer with unchallenged enthusiasm, never probing tokenomics sustainability, the regulatory framework for debit card issuance, how 60,000 meals squares with a billion-meal ambition, or why prior cause-coin models failed; the result is a promotional conversation rather than an investigative one.
yeah, totally. Really cool. Great job uh kind of explaining that side of things.
Such a cool model.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
For episode 256 of the Crypto Altruists podcast, we’re excited to welcome Martin Simms and Aaron Rafferty , co-founders of WYDE , a social impact exchange built on Base , the Ethereum Layer 2, where transaction-based fees are directed into verified charitable grants for hunger relief. They call themselves an "Impact Exchange," and the model is built on a concept called "contributory consumption," where everyday financial activity like crypto trades or even debit card purchases generate charitable impact by design, rather than relying on one-off acts of generosity. At the core of it is the $EAT token . When someone buys, sells, or transfers it, a portion of every transaction flows toward funding meals. And it's all recorded on the blockchain for public verification, so you can actually see the impact happening in real time. WYDE recently announced an exclusive national partnership with Feed the Children , an organization that reached nearly 15 million people last year, and they have big hopes of growing that number. They've already helped fund tens of thousands of meals. They've run their first "Trade-to-Feed-athon," a trading competition that generates funding for meals.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
1 - > SPEAKER_02: Today you'll discover how WIDE is turning 2 - > everyday financial activity into thousands of meals for those in 3 - > need, the mechanics of the EAT token, where a portion of every 4 - > trade flows directly to hunger relief with no extra donation 5 - > required, how an exclusive national partnership with Feed 6 - > the Children is helping turn cryptocurrency transactions into 7 - > real charitable impact, and how WIDE is reimagining crypto 8 - > philanthropy, moving beyond one-off donations, to a 9 - > sustainable model where every transaction funds hunger relief 10 - > automatically.
11 - > Welcome to Crypto Altruists, where we explore the 12 - > intersections of Web3 and Social Good to the stories of 13 - > impact-driven builders and offer actionable insights to empower 14 - > your journey into the world of blockchain for good. 15 - > I'm your host, Drew Simon. 16 - > Now, before we dive in, please remember that this is not 17 - > financial or legal advice, and always do your own research on 18 - > any of the projects or investment opportunities that we 19 - > discuss.
20 - > Welcome, welcome back to the CryptoAltruist Podcast. 21 - > So excited to have you here today. 22 - > Thanks so much for joining. 23 - > Before we dive in, I hope you'll give me a bit of your time as I 24 - > want to share something exciting.
25 - > We're thrilled to be participating in Octin Epoch 12. 26 - > It is our third time participating in Octin. 27 - > Couldn't be happier. 28 - > And for those who aren't familiar, Octin is one of the 29 - > most innovative public goods funding platforms in Web3.
30 - > They've put up a lot of money to support projects building in the 31 - > Ethereum ecosystem, whether it's public goods, you know, tech, 32 - > education, and we're so excited to be one of uh the projects 33 - > taking part in this round. 34 - > And there are many ways you can support Crypto Altruist in this 35 - > round. 36 - > If you hold GLM, you can lock it on Octin and allocate your 37 - > rewards to us during the allocation window. 38 - > You can also contribute directly with ETH.
39 - > Every bit of support helps us keep producing this podcast and 40 - > showing the world the good of crypto. 41 - > There is also 200 ETH and matching funds available this 42 - > round to amplify the power of your donation. 43 - > So that's no small amount there, and you know a little donation 44 - > can go a long way. 45 - > So we've put all the links and details in the show notes.
46 - > So if you're able to, we'd be grateful for your support. 47 - > And the round runs until June 30th. 48 - > So thank you so much for your time, and let's get back to why 49 - > we're all here, to hear the exciting story of Wide. 50 - > So I'd like to start this conversation off with a 51 - > question.
52 - > What if the simple act of trading, buying, selling, or 53 - > just spending could feed a hungry person? 54 - > Not through a separate donation, not through a roundup at 55 - > checkout prompt at your grocery store, but built right into the 56 - > mechanics of the money itself. 57 - > That's the idea at the heart of today's episode. 58 - > I'm joined by Martin Sims and Aaron Rafferty, the co-founders 59 - > of WIDE, that's WYDE, a social impact exchange built on base, 60 - > the Ethereum Layer 2, where transaction-based fees are 61 - > directed into verified charitable grants for hunger 62 - > relief.
63 - > They call themselves an impact exchange, and the model is built 64 - > on a concept called contributory consumption, where everyday 65 - > financial activity, like crypto trades or even debit card 66 - > purchases, generates charitable impact by design, rather than 67 - > relying on one-off acts of generosity. 68 - > At the core of it is the EAT token. 69 - > When someone buys, sells, or transfers it, a portion of every 70 - > transaction flows towards funding meals, and it's all 71 - > recorded on the blockchain for public verification.
72 - > So you can actually see the impact happening in real time. 73 - > It's really cool. 74 - > Wide recently announced an exclusive national partnership 75 - > with Feed the Children, an organization that reached nearly 76 - > 15 million people last year, and our guests today have big hopes 77 - > of growing that number. 78 - > They've already helped fund tens of thousands of meals, and 79 - > they've run their first trade to Feedathon, a trading competition 80 - > that generates funding for meals for those in need.
81 - > And recently they announced the Eat Debit card, extending the 82 - > model from crypto into everyday spending. 83 - > But what really gets me excited is the bigger vision. 84 - > Martin and Aaron talk about a future of smart currency where 85 - > you might hold a hunger token or a cancer research token that 86 - > quietly does good in the background as you go about your 87 - > life. 88 - > It's an ambitious idea at the intersection of blockchain and 89 - > social impact.
90 - > And today we're gonna dig into all of it, so let's dive in. 91 - > Martin and Aaron, we got two folks here from Wide, which is 92 - > actually a project I just was recently exposed to, but I don't 93 - > know how because it's doing some really incredible work that 94 - > aligns so much with what we're building, and I can't wait to 95 - > dive into it. 96 - > So, Martin and Aaron, thank you so much for being here today and 97 - > for sharing your experience and your story.
98 - > SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Drew. 99 - > Yeah, glad to be here. 100 - > Yeah, thanks for having us, Drew. 101 - > Very excited.
102 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure. 103 - > So um I'd love to start with you and how you got into this space. 104 - > It's always so interesting. 105 - > Can you share about your journey to the world of Web3 and what 106 - > led you to Create Wide?
107 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks for having us, Drew. 108 - > Um so, you know, Aaron Rafferty. 109 - > Uh, you know, my background actually was in behavioral 110 - > science first. 111 - > Um, and that all came down to how do you actually use 112 - > technology to uh help people help themselves, specifically 113 - > with you know, health outcomes and and things like this.
114 - > And so my my actual entry was it was uh in in that world, it was 115 - > into AI, you know, back in 2018 and 19, um, where you know you 116 - > have AI technology that was very nascent uh at that stage, but it 117 - > was still being leveraged in apps to help people um 118 - > effectively um train tools that would help them um with their 119 - > own health outcomes. 120 - > Um one of the apps I worked on was was one of the you know 121 - > primary uh randomized control trials in that in that field.
122 - > But all the while, um, my big push has always been 123 - > democratizing access to everything. 124 - > And so that's a natural fit for Web3. 125 - > Um that's a natural fit for you know an investment thesis in 126 - > Web3. 127 - > And so being uh kind of early in that that mind space of always 128 - > had a uh interest in in blockchain technology, interest 129 - > in, you know, uh, you know, Bitcoin from from the earliest 130 - > days uh to um you know from investor to obviously um 131 - > building in the technology starting in 2020, 2021.
132 - > Um and so that's that's really kind of like where my start, my 133 - > foothold was, and and um I'll let Martin go into kind of more 134 - > of the story there. 135 - > SPEAKER_00: I hear that story a lot of times, you know, and I 136 - > love it every time because we're probably why why we're partners, 137 - > right? 138 - > Because it's it's definitely a yin and yang. 139 - > Um so I was uh I'm actually the son of a minister, right?
140 - > So, you know, taking it way back. 141 - > Um and I I've just always had heart for people, right? 142 - > Because maybe it's because of that. 143 - > I don't know why.
144 - > Um and um early on, right, like when I was about six years old, 145 - > actually, I I took a summer with my grandpa and he gave me a Wall 146 - > Street Journal and we paper traded stock. 147 - > And I, you know, night over night I made money on on paper 148 - > and I was hooked. 149 - > I was like, man, this is that was really cool. 150 - > Um and so I took that into a finance career, right?
151 - > I I worked um as a CFO of two publicly traded companies. 152 - > Um and while I was there, I really um, you know, not only 153 - > did I get a knack for you know strategy structure and people 154 - > and how you can actually pull levers to actually provide value 155 - > to others in a way that provides value back to the company. 156 - > Um it's also, you know, one of these these things where it's 157 - > when you're creating these narratives that are meant to 158 - > enable investors to buy into the journey of an organization.
159 - > Um, I think that that really does come back to back to the 160 - > reason why people invest is because the outcome of that 161 - > company and what they're doing is actually playing a role in um 162 - > bettering the well-being of people, right? 163 - > You think about Tesla, it's like electric cars and vehicles, 164 - > right? 165 - > Like Apple, everyone loves that device, right? 166 - > Um, and so fundamentally, right, we have this belief that you can 167 - > actually kind of take a nonprofit public um because in 168 - > the event that uh the activities in that organization are 169 - > fundamentally impacting others, there's a lot of correlation to 170 - > the public markets, right?
171 - > And so um that's kind of my background, right? 172 - > I have this like this vision of you know, if revenue goes up and 173 - > beats forecasts, uh boom, right? 174 - > The stock goes through the roof. 175 - > Well, what if it was MILS, right?
176 - > What if it was we're forecasting to feed 30,000 people this 177 - > quarter and we feed 50,000 and everyone in the community just 178 - > loves it, right? 179 - > They're like, oh my gosh, amazing. 180 - > Let's do more, right? 181 - > Let's buy into this vision and let's bring together people, 182 - > right, into a community that has common goals towards that 183 - > objective.
184 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally. 185 - > Really cool. 186 - > Great job uh kind of explaining that side of things. 187 - > And I think that leads nicely into um my next question around 188 - > like what the heck is wide, right?
189 - > And you've described yourself as like an impact exchange, uh, 190 - > which I find really interesting. 191 - > And um what does that mean and what is the problem you're 192 - > trying to solve? 193 - > And maybe just like a high level of what exactly wide is. 194 - > SPEAKER_00: I think um, you know, honestly, we're trying to 195 - > figure out what we are, right?
196 - > And I think impact exchange is one of the first things that um 197 - > it starts to make sense because um we do have a uh quasi-asset, 198 - > right, that's tradable. 199 - > And every time that asset trades, um, there's a fee that 200 - > comes off of it. 201 - > And that fee actually fundamentally um will go towards 202 - > a cause, which that cause that we've actually uh gone down 203 - > right now is is hunger, and we've partnered with Feed the 204 - > Children um to accommodate that.
205 - > Um I think as you'll see in this conversation, we'll get into it. 206 - > There's a lot more than it just being an exchange. 207 - > Um and I think you know that's where we kind of see this big 208 - > unlock of unlocking the innovation of what this is to 209 - > bring infrastructure into society where every transaction 210 - > could actually um enable hunger, right? 211 - > Relief or or cancer relief, right?
212 - > Or anything um that actually matters to people. 213 - > SPEAKER_01: There's the idea of the impact exchange, and that 214 - > makes sense because especially um let's just take you know, six 215 - > months ago when crypto was doing really well. 216 - > Um that that was a very good uh you know drawing point um on 217 - > this. 218 - > And obviously crypto's not doing great.
219 - > So um being an exchange in crypto, it's not it's not the 220 - > most interesting thing that you could be. 221 - > Um, which, you know, we never saw ourselves as a crypto 222 - > project. 223 - > We never saw ourselves as this thing that needed um to be you 224 - > know branded as that. 225 - > Um what what we've always seen ourselves as is, you know, an 226 - > access point that was looking to solve problems that nonprofits 227 - > had, looking to solve problems that donors have.
228 - > You know, some of those problems for nonprofits, especially 229 - > today, um, you actually have a big funding problem. 230 - > Uh, you know, funding's drying up, at least in the states, on 231 - > the federal side, funding's drying up. 232 - > And and and even the belief in nonprofit, even the best ones, 233 - > right? 234 - > Nonprofits, there's a lot of them that do really good work.
235 - > Um, a lot of a lot of uh people in the space are getting a bad 236 - > rap, but the the organizations as a whole, like they they do 237 - > really good work, they are very efficient with the the dollar, 238 - > and they actually have really great outcomes. 239 - > And what we are aiming to do is actually elevate those, uh, 240 - > those outcomes especially. 241 - > And and so the the donor side, um, we see the the donors are 242 - > starting to not believe in in nonprofits, right?
243 - > In the the act of philanthropy, uh in especially a donation. 244 - > It's getting harder to draw this out. 245 - > And this is what we're actually finding with all of our 246 - > conversations with nonprofits. 247 - > And so, how do you actually solve that where you can have 248 - > effectively unlocked funding for nonprofits without ever having 249 - > to elicit that donation anymore?
250 - > That especially a one-time donation that you then have to 251 - > go back and get the next year and you have to get it the next 252 - > year. 253 - > Um, how do you also at the same time give those quasi-donors or 254 - > what we'd like to say is members, the ability to have 255 - > more of a voice in the organization? 256 - > Right. 257 - > Today you you have the officers and the and the directors and 258 - > everyone that runs the organization, um, and then you 259 - > have the people that work for the organization and volunteer, 260 - > and then you have the donors that give money.
261 - > And everything seems siloed where the only people making 262 - > this the decisions are at the top. 263 - > And that's a really weird place to be when the mission is for 264 - > the people. 265 - > So we're actually looking at it, you know, from bottom up. 266 - > How do you actually reframe this?
267 - > So if you actually go bottom up from the people, you actually 268 - > are able to bring more financing to the outcomes as well, because 269 - > more people believe in it. 270 - > So that's that's really where we're looking to go. 271 - > And whether it comes out as an exchange, um, which obviously 272 - > that function will always be there. 273 - > Um, but but from a selling point, we're definitely finding 274 - > there's much more opportunity in other places.
275 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah. 276 - > Yeah. 277 - > And you raise a really interesting point around the 278 - > current kind of context of funding for nonprofits. 279 - > In my background, it's in the nonprofit sector, um, and I 280 - > still work with a lot of nonprofits every day.
281 - > And, you know, everyone hates grants, right? 282 - > And and nonprofits forever relied on like just chasing 283 - > those one-off grants or those individual kind of large, larger 284 - > donations. 285 - > Um, it's unsustainable. 286 - > And I think that this has, you know, proven it, right?
287 - > And it's proven that there's a need to look at um other models. 288 - > And and what I really like about WIDE is this kind of idea of 289 - > what's called contributory consumption, uh, where it's more 290 - > focused on like everyday financial activity generating 291 - > charitable impact versus individuals having to kind of 292 - > make one-off donations on their own. 293 - > Um, really cool idea. 294 - > Uh kind of shifting, donating from like a more kind of having 295 - > to go out and actually, you know, actively do something to 296 - > more of like a passive activity that's part of everyday life.
297 - > Can you break that down? 298 - > Uh, why you see this as such a powerful unlock? 299 - > SPEAKER_00: You know, at the end of the day, um, I think first 300 - > off, we are talking to all these nonprofits right now. 301 - > And it's very interesting because 90% of their job, a lot 302 - > of them, is fundraising.
303 - > And and we look at that and we say, you know, is that um can 304 - > that change, right? 305 - > Can it actually be completely reverse where 90% of the 306 - > activities is actually fundamentally trying to make 307 - > sure you're allocating in the right way, doing the right 308 - > projects, right? 309 - > All the things that actually matter on what that funding is 310 - > actually for. 311 - > Um and so we have this crazy idea, right?
312 - > Where um we think that if you look at transactions as a whole, 313 - > um, and I mean just pick, you know, a sector, you you have 314 - > trillions of flow, like trillions of volume there. 315 - > Um and so we think, right, that there is a model at which you 316 - > could do everything you're doing today, uh, and every, you know, 317 - > let's say you have a debit card, for example, you spin on that 318 - > debit card, and a portion actually goes to our model. 319 - > Um and that's actually what we've done, right?
320 - > So we are launching a debit card this week, actually, um, where 321 - > every time you spend on that debit card, because we are the 322 - > issuer, we have the ability to control where the 2% um 323 - > transaction fee actually flows. 324 - > Um and so, right, because of our model, we are uh allocating that 325 - > directly to um to this model, right? 326 - > However, I think it's it's a lot bigger than that, right? 327 - > That's the first use case, and that's that's kind of like our 328 - > test of can this make sense?
329 - > Um, you know, we think that if you look at the Gen Z uh 330 - > generation, right, they want more, they they want more 331 - > impact. 332 - > Um they're trying to identify what bank to actually use right 333 - > now, right? 334 - > They're graduating from college and it's like, all right, like, 335 - > do I use Chase or do I use this other card that actually I'm now 336 - > in a community of other people that care about the same things 337 - > that I care about, right, which is hunger.
338 - > Um but I think it goes deeper than that, right? 339 - > Because it's it really goes to I'm at the grocery store and 340 - > today I click, you know, one dollar donation. 341 - > Um, where does that go, right? 342 - > And what does that actually do for me?
343 - > Um, I think in our model, right, there's actually a model there 344 - > where it's not a donation at all, right? 345 - > It's actually more of a membership fee. 346 - > Like you're you're buying into the membership of the agenda of 347 - > trying to eradicate these problems that we have in the 348 - > world, hunger being one of them. 349 - > And as that actual um as that actual thing uh gets solved, and 350 - > as more people join that community, the network grows, 351 - > and so does potentially the value of the network.
352 - > SPEAKER_02: Such a cool model. 353 - > And I think you're right, it will appeal to a lot of people 354 - > that want to do good, um, recognizing that you know it can 355 - > be hard to do good, and there's the financial barrier for a lot 356 - > of folks right now as you know, with rising costs and inflation, 357 - > and a lot of people are struggling to get by, and we're 358 - > seeing a decrease in individual donations. 359 - > So shifting it to a way where it's not them having to go out 360 - > of their way and put up a uh you know a larger amount of capital 361 - > if they wanted to make a one-off donation, just making it part of 362 - > their everyday life is such a cool concept.
363 - > And I'd love to talk about the Eat token uh that you've built. 364 - > Um, oh, and before I do that, you mentioned also the debit 365 - > card uh being out this week. 366 - > So this episode will probably come out a week or two after uh 367 - > the conversation. 368 - > So it should be live.
369 - > So check the show notes. 370 - > I'll make sure to link that there. 371 - > Um, but anyways, back to Eat. 372 - > Let's talk about Eat.
373 - > Um, really cool concept. 374 - > When someone buys, sells, or transfers it, a portion of each 375 - > transaction goes towards funding, funding meals, which is 376 - > really great. 377 - > Um, can you walk us through the mechanics, how it works, and 378 - > kind of um the impacts that you've seen so far? 379 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so EAT's effectively the first, you know, 380 - > proof of concept of the the exchange part of of this.
381 - > And and it's not just about the transactions. 382 - > Um Eat's actually built in a way that uh it gives effectively 383 - > governing rights over that impact. 384 - > Um that's that's really important because that's one of 385 - > the things that Web3 is really cool about, uh, or what's really 386 - > cool about Web3, because you know, if you look at a stock 387 - > today, it's stock gives you rights, it gives you rights to 388 - > vote, it gives you rights to do all these things.
389 - > But the ability to actually hold that stock and and and the 390 - > people that are issuing that stock, all of those are 391 - > individual gatekeepers effectively. 392 - > And so it's not this like broad thing that you're able to 393 - > actually um, you know represent that ownership across all areas 394 - > of life. 395 - > Um, one of them being um just just in the aspect of 396 - > membership, right? 397 - > If I'm a Tesla stockholder, I should also be uh the ability to 398 - > now scan my Tesla stock holdings and uh effectively be a member 399 - > to maybe maybe exclusive Tesla clubs.
400 - > But that function's not not super possible today. 401 - > It's actually becoming more possible with tokenization, but 402 - > that's the really cool thing about Web3. 403 - > And so with EAT itself, um we've we've created effectively a 404 - > mechanism and you know, we're we're not necessarily the the 405 - > creators of all this technology. 406 - > We're the we're the individuals that say, you know, that's cool, 407 - > that's really cool.
408 - > I love what you know Vitalik did over there. 409 - > Let's bring all these things in and take it towards something 410 - > that we think would be really impactful for the world. 411 - > And so with Eat, you know, every time that token or that asset 412 - > trades, um, it actually we launched it on a decentralized 413 - > exchange, which, you know, if if you know anything about Web3, 414 - > then that is actually a permissionless rail that anyone 415 - > can launch anything on.
416 - > Um versus, you know, the gate kept uh rails that that are you 417 - > know in the public stock exchange or even like Coinbase 418 - > would be um considered more of a gate kept uh rail. 419 - > And so um launching that, we we are able to actually program how 420 - > the fees are are uh effectively transferred. 421 - > And so every time that there is a trade, uh whether a buy or a 422 - > sell, um there's a 1 to 5% dynamic fee that comes off of 423 - > the token. 424 - > And obviously, this is a bit technical, um, but for every 425 - > let's just call it 1% of fees that come off of that trade, 426 - > which that's pretty uh standard.
427 - > You know, if you go and you go into your Coinbase app today and 428 - > you go to try to buy something, you're paying up to 3% on that 429 - > trade. 430 - > And you know, who makes that money? 431 - > Coinbase makes that money. 432 - > Um and what do they make that money for?
433 - > To create a good, generally good onboarding experience for you, 434 - > to making it really easy for you to onboard funds um generally. 435 - > Um, I think people have you know differing opinions of this. 436 - > We're obviously on Coinbase, so um we we like it to a degree. 437 - > Um and and they they also maintain you know your wallet 438 - > and your holdings, and you don't have to hold your private keys 439 - > and all these things.
440 - > And so with this transaction fee that we that we've now now now 441 - > have, we are taking a portion of that fee and sending it directly 442 - > to um these charitable impacts. 443 - > Um and all of that is completely transparent on the blockchain. 444 - > Um that's that's really like the the big gap between blockchain 445 - > and traditional finance rails. 446 - > You don't see where anything's going when those fees come out 447 - > of your, you know, let's say your debit card transaction, you 448 - > go to a merchant and that merchant just paid 2% to Visa.
449 - > You didn't know that. 450 - > No one really knows about interchange fees. 451 - > You you don't know about these these underlying fees that are 452 - > occurring all around you. 453 - > And so we're we're saying, you know, these fees happen, let's 454 - > make sure they're going to the right place.
455 - > And maybe that also brings in a reason for people to want to be 456 - > part of that and trade it more and do more good because they're 457 - > trading. 458 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah. 459 - > That's really cool. 460 - > And it's like I think this community aspect, the importance 461 - > of it can't be understated because like the way 462 - > philanthropy like traditionally is structured is kind of boring 463 - > too, right?
464 - > It's like you make a donation and maybe you get like a thank 465 - > you letter or like an annual report or something like that, 466 - > or you know, you get pestered every week for another donation. 467 - > It's just you know, not really fun and feels very 468 - > transactional. 469 - > And so I think the community, you know, element is really 470 - > interesting here. 471 - > And you know, on that, uh you you mentioned that EAT is kind 472 - > of like the first proof of concept, like piloting this.
473 - > Do you envision a future where you could see other tokens for 474 - > other causes and then the community having like a say in 475 - > where their funds go as they make purchases? 476 - > SPEAKER_00: 100%. 477 - > Um yeah, so so wide, right, which stands for Wyoming 478 - > Decentralized Exchange. 479 - > And we'll uh we can discuss why we chose that, but um, that 480 - > really is kind of the parent to all future cause coins.
481 - > Um, you know, I think I think for us, we um we know how 482 - > nothing's easy, right? 483 - > And so at the end of the day, we are highly focused on making 484 - > sure that Eat is the one that you know sets the stage to show 485 - > the world, right, how to do all the other ones. 486 - > Um but yeah, I mean we we're already getting contacted by 487 - > many nonprofits that actually want to do this. 488 - > I think that, you know, at the end of the day, um, it really 489 - > does.
490 - > Come down to aligning communities. 491 - > And so the ones that we're kind of prioritizing are the ones 492 - > that actually have large community sets that can buy into 493 - > exactly what we're doing. 494 - > I'll give you like a funny one though. 495 - > We look at Dogecoin and we're like, we're like, hmm, you know, 496 - > we could have a dog coin that actually helps dogs, right?
497 - > Um, which is kind of interesting, right? 498 - > It's kind of fun. 499 - > Um and we've actually been approached by some nonprofits 500 - > that want to do that. 501 - > And so I think you know that that could be on the roadmap as 502 - > well.
503 - > Um, but but yeah, no, it's it's it's really good. 504 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, really cool. 505 - > I love that. 506 - > And you know, on the note of partnerships, you'd mentioned 507 - > earlier, uh Feed the Children uh being a big one, huge 508 - > organization.
509 - > Most listeners have probably heard of them in some degree. 510 - > Uh they reached 50 million people, I think, last year, 511 - > which is really amazing. 512 - > Um, so talk to me about that partnership and kind of what 513 - > that looks like and um, you know, moving forward for the for 514 - > the Eat Token. 515 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
516 - > Um, you know, I think we know what we do really well. 517 - > And um I think, you know, when you're doing anything like this, 518 - > uh, you have to be be really pragmatic around the things that 519 - > you should do and the things that you really should, you 520 - > know, quasi-outsource or partner with the people that just like 521 - > fundamentally have it, right? 522 - > And I think um feed the children, not only do they have 523 - > the distribution and the heart and you know, all of the right 524 - > um transparency, right?
525 - > And everything that aligns to like our beliefs, um, they they 526 - > also just are on the cutting edge of thinking around these 527 - > sorts of things, right? 528 - > The the fact that you know they have the the openness to even um 529 - > go towards uh this mission with us in the way that we're doing 530 - > it, it's been you know a breath of fresh air for us. 531 - > Um and so I think, yeah, you know they have a huge network 532 - > all over the US. 533 - > Um, you know, really for them, because they're partnered with 534 - > grocery stores and all these organizations, you know, one 535 - > dollar goes a long way.
536 - > Um and so that's really where we can optimize every dollar coming 537 - > in, where we can actually have the make the mechanics to have 538 - > the the impact um in a very strong way. 539 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and when when we look at Feed the Children, 540 - > um, you know, first of all, we feel extremely blessed to have 541 - > had that go through, right? 542 - > We have an 18-month exclusive partnership with them where 543 - > effectively we have this great back and forth versus you know 544 - > just sending funds um that come off of the exchange and come off 545 - > of the distribution to any uh you know charity or cause and 546 - > having no transparency into how that actually works.
547 - > You know, the what we look to do with them is actually be those 548 - > pioneers to be you know painfully transparent, right? 549 - > You have a 990 at the end of that every year that you have to 550 - > report on and all these things, but it's not good enough, right? 551 - > Like that's that's really not good enough in terms of the 552 - > stories that people want. 553 - > Um, the the real like painful transparency that people want, 554 - > obviously while maintaining dignity when we're talking about 555 - > um people, um, I think that's where like a dog token becomes 556 - > very interesting because you can be like painfully transparent 557 - > and everyone just loves to be super all over these dogs, and 558 - > no one, there's no uh you know, issue around uh you know, 559 - > necessarily too much exposure to to that.
560 - > That that's a that's an aside. 561 - > But I think with Feed the Children, um there's there's an 562 - > opportunity here that we're looking to unlock. 563 - > And we've been down this path, especially to get that first 564 - > charity. 565 - > We it took us like six months.
566 - > No one wanted to do it. 567 - > Um, no one wanted to come on to uh partner with a crypto 568 - > company. 569 - > Uh that's how they saw us. 570 - > Um, especially even when you know crypto was not going down, 571 - > uh, people were not uh mad at it.
572 - > FTX didn't just happen, but they still have this kind of like bad 573 - > taste in their mouth. 574 - > Maybe that's from you know some of these other meme coins that 575 - > are out there, um, and and and a lot of scams and everything in 576 - > the space. 577 - > And so to actually be that first one, it took a long time. 578 - > And I think it kind of like shows the uh the the gap in one, 579 - > you know, at at a certain point, wide was a startup.
580 - > Wide was still zero to one. 581 - > You know, it sounds like something that's been around for 582 - > a long time today. 583 - > I think that's that's a good thing with with the name choice 584 - > and all of that. 585 - > But you know, it at the end of the day, we started Wide um back 586 - > in October of 2025, like properly formed it and 587 - > everything.
588 - > And I think from there to where we are today, it's a it's a very 589 - > um, it's it's a still a very long and you know, tumultuous 590 - > journey that we pretty much started like five years ago. 591 - > Um and so for them to be the first ones to come in, it shows 592 - > a lot of where we're going because we actually, I agree, 593 - > like Feed the Children's huge. 594 - > Um and they're doing a lot of good in the world. 595 - > And there's a lot of amazing nonprofits that will come after 596 - > Feed the Children, um, whether they're solving hunger or you 597 - > know, cancer or um or anything else, homelessness, et cetera.
598 - > And those are the things that we're most excited about as we 599 - > keep keep down this trail. 600 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally. 601 - > That's amazing. 602 - > Um, and you know, I found from my experience working in the 603 - > charitable sector that nobody ever wants to be the first to 604 - > try something new, but a lot of people want to be the second or 605 - > third.
606 - > So hopefully, you know, when you're able to demonstrate uh 607 - > the value of this of this technology and this approach, 608 - > hopefully there'll be a lot of other folks signed up and 609 - > excited, you know, to get involved. 610 - > And we'll be right back after this brief announcement. 611 - > Are you part of a nonprofit or mission-driven organization, 612 - > curious about Web3 but not sure where to start? 613 - > We've got you covered.
614 - > The CryptoUltruis Web3 Impact Toolkit is a free, comprehensive 615 - > resource designed to help nonprofits and change makers 616 - > navigate the world of crypto and web3. 617 - > From accepting crypto donations to exploring blockchain tools 618 - > for transparency and impact, the toolkit breaks it all down in a 619 - > way that's practical, accessible, and jargon-free. 620 - > It's everything you need to take that first step all in one 621 - > place. 622 - > And the early access is now live.
623 - > So to check it out, head to cryptoaltras.com slash toolkit 624 - > or simply click the link in the show notes. 625 - > And now let's get back to the episode. 626 - > Speaking of this, uh, you know, the partnership and your focus 627 - > on food security, I understand that you recently ran uh the 628 - > first trade to Feedathon, which is a cool idea uh as well.
629 - > And it's a trading competition that rewards participate uh 630 - > participation while generating funding for meals. 631 - > Um tell me a little bit more about that and and how it all 632 - > works. 633 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I mean, like taking it a little bit of a 634 - > step back to, I think um we did a lot of research on the space 635 - > before we obviously went in, like honestly, years, right? 636 - > And I think um we we say this all the time, you know, if if a 637 - > fax machine does a better job than AI, then use the fax 638 - > machine.
639 - > And and wholeheartedly we mean that, right? 640 - > Because um outcomes are the only thing that actually is real. 641 - > Um, you know, cool is cool, right? 642 - > AI, for example, cool and useful.
643 - > But um when we when we look at the space and we actually look 644 - > to understand you know what we should do in our economic model, 645 - > we're not donations, right? 646 - > Like donations, to your point, you you said kind of said this 647 - > earlier, it's kind of this boring thing where you you send 648 - > it out there and you get a thank you letter, maybe. 649 - > Um, and okay, right. 650 - > Um for this, in this model, because of blockchain and 651 - > because it's actually a ledger that can be automated, where the 652 - > economic value can actually flow a million times, right, in one 653 - > second, in a very transparent and accurate way.
654 - > Um, what happens is we actually have a model where some of it 655 - > can go to the cause, some of it can go back to the community, 656 - > right? 657 - > We're going, some of it goes back to liquidity. 658 - > Um, and that is how we actually create a sustainable ecosystem 659 - > around this, um, where it's not also just these other cause 660 - > coins that have attempted to do what this is, um, and they kind 661 - > of fall flat, right? 662 - > Because it kind of it there's no energy that you can actually 663 - > harness from that.
664 - > Um and so in our model, um, in general, right, we have this 665 - > model where every time it trades, yes, some goes to the 666 - > the cause. 667 - > Also, some really goes back to the community um in a multitude 668 - > of ways. 669 - > Um, trade to feed is is one of those programs that we're able 670 - > to uh allocate funds to. 671 - > Um but it you know, also in the future, right, we can actually 672 - > uh pay our community to post on social media, um, to clip, 673 - > right, to to do all these, to do a challenge, right?
674 - > We're gonna be running challenges where um they can go 675 - > to a food bank and post about it, right? 676 - > Um so it gets really fun um in terms of you now have this 677 - > funding in the organization that can actually support financially 678 - > this the community that you have to actually support the agenda 679 - > that we're actually trying to deliver, right? 680 - > Um and so yeah, that's the big aha moment, right? 681 - > For that, that was the big aha moment for us.
682 - > Um and yeah, so far it's it's been very good, actually. 683 - > I think we've we've funded now 60,000 mills to date around. 684 - > Um not you know, nowhere near where we need to be and and 685 - > where we want to be, right? 686 - > We we're trying to hit a billion mills.
687 - > Uh, you know, I I know like Tony Robbins, he has the whole 688 - > hundred billion mil journey right now. 689 - > Um, but you know, it's it's real. 690 - > Like it definitely is something that we can we can do. 691 - > And it just takes a lot of people to buy into what we're 692 - > doing.
693 - > Um, and you we're already seeing, right, traction begets 694 - > traction and and value begets value. 695 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one of the things that we found in just 696 - > building startups, right? 697 - > White is not our first um company, it's not our first 698 - > startup. 699 - > Um we actually have uh a more uh like venture studio um called 700 - > Standard.
701 - > And we started that five years ago as well. 702 - > Um and one of the things that we learned really quickly is you 703 - > can have the best product in the world, you can have the best 704 - > widget. 705 - > If you don't have the attention of the people that should buy it 706 - > and the reason for them to buy it, then you have nothing. 707 - > Literally.
708 - > You know, you might have an amazing patent, you might have 709 - > spent a ton of money on a patent attorney to get that patent. 710 - > At the end of the day, there's a million patents in that patent 711 - > uh registry that do nothing. 712 - > They've never been used, they've never been um actually 713 - > operationalized into the real world. 714 - > And and that gap is the thing that we have always sought to 715 - > traverse.
716 - > Um, specifically, how do you get attention for anything that you 717 - > are actually building it with you know, snap of the finger and 718 - > be able to be, you know, um effectively famous overnight for 719 - > that thing. 720 - > Um that's that's the biggest challenge because so many people 721 - > blow their entire budget doing just that. 722 - > And so the challenge is not only to be in everyone's you know, 723 - > hearts and minds that you want, but also to do it sustainably.
724 - > And and in fact, in in sort of a flywheel model, um, that's what 725 - > we think we've built with wide. 726 - > Um that that flywheel around things. 727 - > And if I look to or if I was to point to anyone that you know is 728 - > doing this phenomenally well, especially like take 729 - > philanthropy and take um take all the aspects of getting 730 - > attention around this and and actually funding these things, I 731 - > would I would look at Mr. 732 - > Beast.
733 - > Like he does this really well, where he gets people's attention 734 - > actually with money, technically. 735 - > Um, he he funds all these campaigns um and actually pays 736 - > people and does it with philanthropy too. 737 - > You know, he just partnered with Rockefeller Foundation. 738 - > Um, but he actually just took it one step further as well, where 739 - > you know, he bought a bank.
740 - > Why would you buy a bank? 741 - > Because you actually have customers, right? 742 - > Um, that's that's the kind of thing that when when I look at 743 - > what he's doing, this model actually brings an aspect that 744 - > that his model doesn't even have today because of the community 745 - > governance of the token of the trading fees and all those 746 - > things, right? 747 - > You could do everything with the normal financial system, but 748 - > when you bring this final element into the equation, it 749 - > just unlocks so much value for everyone and actually ties 750 - > everyone together.
751 - > And it it stops being about Mr. 752 - > Beast or Martin or myself. 753 - > And everyone gets you to feel like they're owning this because 754 - > they govern it, because they actually control the outcomes, 755 - > and they also, because they're in this, they have the ability 756 - > to sustain themselves, um, whether that be through funding 757 - > or the things that they want to do in volunteering or anything 758 - > else. 759 - > And it's it's it's a really powerful thing.
760 - > SPEAKER_02: No, absolutely. 761 - > And I think, you know, I've spoken to many Web3 founders on 762 - > this podcast, and I'd say that the a common thread is that the 763 - > community aspect, you know, is a lot harder than the technical 764 - > aspect of, you know, building that community is the hardest 765 - > part of launching your product in Web3. 766 - > And I don't mean build the communities and like get X 767 - > number of people in your Discord, but like a sustainable, 768 - > you know, engaged community that is really excited to be a part 769 - > of this.
770 - > So uh it's good that you're kind of you know starting there and 771 - > recognize the importance of that and they're kind of taking this, 772 - > putting the fun in funding to be cheesy, uh, so to speak, um, to 773 - > get people excited and engaged, uh, which is great. 774 - > Um, I'd like to shift a bit though to talk more about kind 775 - > of crypto philanthropy more broadly. 776 - > Obviously, emerging field, there's been hundreds of 777 - > millions being donated via crypto rails.
778 - > Um, and I believe it was you, Martin, that said uh that most 779 - > crypto philanthropy is a founder writing a check after a token 780 - > rally and posting a screenshot. 781 - > Um, so talk to me about that and how you know you're trying to 782 - > kind of avoid that trap and build something that has that, 783 - > you know, that sustainability rather than just being a kind of 784 - > you know one-off when the token rallies. 785 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I it's honestly it's it's so um like 786 - > right blatantly there, right, in terms of what is so wrong about 787 - > what's happening currently.
788 - > I mean, at the end of the day, it's I never look at you know 789 - > the donation as a bad thing, right? 790 - > It's it's not. 791 - > Um, you know, the fact that you know crypto has done what 792 - > they've done to to date, it's a great thing, right? 793 - > I think it's more of the evolution of where we need to 794 - > go, right, as just a community.
795 - > Um, because I I think today it just gets lost in translation of 796 - > um the loss of energy after the event, right? 797 - > Effectively, you know, it's this great campaign, it's it's kind 798 - > of like a Kickstarter, right? 799 - > And it's like, okay, drum up all this energy, people kind of get 800 - > excited for a couple days and then dead. 801 - > Um and so the idea is is like, how do you just like you have 802 - > with Apple stock or you know, you know, anything that's on the 803 - > market today where people buy into that, right?
804 - > A part of that is because they literally see it in the real 805 - > world. 806 - > Um you can always keep that energy up, right? 807 - > Which is why like I'll I'll just I'll I'll go future state on on 808 - > where we go here. 809 - > You know, I I envision where we'll have restaurants, like you 810 - > will have an eat restaurant where you can walk into an eat 811 - > restaurant and you know get free tacos, right?
812 - > And it's funded by the apparatus that we have, and maybe there's 813 - > criteria around it, right? 814 - > Kids eat free, right? 815 - > These things. 816 - > Um, but but that's really what you need, right?
817 - > You need more tangibility in the space, you need more actual 818 - > impact. 819 - > You don't, you know, it it right now it's all caught up in the 820 - > numbers of what it is. 821 - > And and you know, I love numbers. 822 - > I'm a CFO, right, by trade.
823 - > And when I look at a number, I actually do see the story. 824 - > Um, I don't know, right, if if most people do, right? 825 - > It's it's you see the number and it's just like, it's the number. 826 - > You just said it.
827 - > 300 million. 828 - > Okay. 829 - > There's nothing else. 830 - > You have no other feeling around it.
831 - > That's good, and you move forward. 832 - > Um, so I think what we're trying to do is like actually put face 833 - > to names, actually put energy behind this and do it just in a 834 - > way that, you know, it's it's not being done before, not even 835 - > only in crypto, but also, you know, bettering the nonprofit 836 - > space, the traditional nonprofit space as well, um, to be able to 837 - > give them more energetic um uh uh engagement from community 838 - > members as well, right?
839 - > You think about all these food banks, like what if now people 840 - > are actually incentivized to go to those food banks and 841 - > volunteer in a way they just fundamentally don't have today. 842 - > Um that's that's where we're going and that's what we're 843 - > super excited about. 844 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think if you look at the space two, you know, 845 - > I think Gitcoin does a really good job. 846 - > Retro af retroactive grants are really good.
847 - > Yeah. 848 - > Um, that that type of a concept is is unique in itself. 849 - > And it's it's also a web three function, right? 850 - > It's it's more of like a DeFi function where you can start to 851 - > to you know figure out how that that financial model actually 852 - > works.
853 - > Um if you look at these big amounts of money that are being 854 - > quote unquote given, um, you know, the reason it falls flat 855 - > is because they got they got what they needed out of it. 856 - > They got the press and they got the tax write-off, right? 857 - > Um, if you look at even like Bill Gates, what did Bill Gates 858 - > have that he needed to start his foundation? 859 - > He had all this money that was taxable, and he needed a way 860 - > that he could still, you know, in theory control that money, 861 - > have also a really good press release moment because he really 862 - > came off bad off after Microsoft, and he's able to, you 863 - > know, still have his like stamp of control in the world, um, and 864 - > not have this real burden of you know, the the authorities 865 - > looking over his shoulder, tax authorities, obviously.
866 - > Um, I think there's there's a lot of that in the world today. 867 - > Um, he's the the reason that nonprofit was actually created 868 - > was more of a shelter for the you know dynasty capital, um, 869 - > these like this this sovereign money. 870 - > And that's fine. 871 - > Like do that, like do good for the world while you're also 872 - > obviously like protecting your money, but we're kind of like 873 - > traversing a point.
874 - > Like there's there's not that many um people that are kings 875 - > and queens in our in our world anymore. 876 - > Um we don't really have uh the as much of sovereign um uh 877 - > capital and and funding, especially, you know, in in 878 - > America, uh especially, right? 879 - > Um and with that, you have this, you have so many more ground-up 880 - > movements. 881 - > With AI, AI democratizes like, you know, now intelligence is is 882 - > is pennies, right?
883 - > It literally is less than a cent to get the most intelligent 884 - > model to tell you anything. 885 - > Um, and you've you've got the best lawyer, you have the best 886 - > teacher, you have the best, um, you know, you name it, physicist 887 - > at your fingertips. 888 - > That's never been done before. 889 - > And now, because of that, people can start to make decisions.
890 - > You know, that's the big uh pushback against democracy. 891 - > I don't want, you know, Billy Joel over there to be making the 892 - > decisions for everyone else. 893 - > Well, it it doesn't really matter when we have the smartest 894 - > things in the world that at our fingertips to actually help form 895 - > those decisions and have have feedback around that. 896 - > So what when we look at the the future, the future is like truly 897 - > um democratized around these funds.
898 - > And I think this is how we get there. 899 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. 900 - > And that's a very exciting kind of future to look towards. 901 - > And I'm sure a lot of folks that are listening right now are 902 - > excited and wondering how they can get involved.
903 - > So walk me through the process for how somebody would you know 904 - > get Eat Token and join this movement and be a part of this 905 - > community. 906 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so the best way you can start joining the 907 - > movement is actually going to be get the debit card. 908 - > Um, obviously, sure. 909 - > Should you go and get a Coinbase wallet or uh, you know, turn on 910 - > a MetaMask or a cheeser or a ledger and go and um get the 911 - > token.
912 - > Yes. 913 - > However, um, you know, governance goes live towards the 914 - > end of this year, um, specifically for EAT. 915 - > I think the best way that we're finding people to understand the 916 - > power of Eat is when they take this debit card and they go to 917 - > Starbucks and they buy a coffee and they've just routed some um 918 - > some funds to to the actual cause. 919 - > I think that's a really powerful thing for for people to 920 - > understand.
921 - > And everyone that has the card already becomes a member as 922 - > well. 923 - > That's a really important thing. 924 - > And and membership is is meaningful, right? 925 - > Um, one of the ways and one of the things that's by the time 926 - > that this is live, it will be live, is our entire clipping 927 - > campaign, which you'll have to be a card member to be part of 928 - > that.
929 - > Um, and and spending as well. 930 - > That's that's a big thing. 931 - > And and so what does that mean? 932 - > You could take this this video, find the most interesting spot 933 - > in the video, clip that, and we actually are incentivizing 934 - > individuals to push those those things across the internet in in 935 - > the right format and the right virality.
936 - > Um, and that is becomes this perpetual flywheel. 937 - > So that that's really the the big opportunity that that we're 938 - > seeing um effectively clipping to feed, um spending to feed, 939 - > trading to feed. 940 - > Um, those are all the ways that you can be part of this. 941 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the one other thing I would say is, 942 - > you know, we we do not um think that we're the smartest guys in 943 - > the room and and we really appreciate perspective.
944 - > Um and at the same time, too, I don't uh view this as our 945 - > project, right? 946 - > Like all the other startups, you know, that we have, they are our 947 - > projects, right? 948 - > There are our companies and and we run them. 949 - > Um this one is just it's just completely different, right?
950 - > Like the the input that we need, the the perspective that we 951 - > need, we were literally require it um to make what we're doing 952 - > better because fundamentally it's never been done before. 953 - > It's like, you know, um I I think you know it's it's always 954 - > funny because as an entrepreneur, I always 955 - > appreciate uh companies that are at their most infant stage 956 - > because I know that that isn't the true like vision of what 957 - > they want to be, right, at all.
958 - > Right. 959 - > And and yeah, right, they obviously a lot of a lot of 960 - > people in general, they have a lot of things to say about oh, 961 - > you know, that's not good because of X, Y, and Z, right? 962 - > And like. 963 - > Look at Elon Musk.
964 - > Oh, that car is never going to work. 965 - > And then bam, right? 966 - > Here, here you go. 967 - > And so I think like we're kind of in the same seat right now.
968 - > We're we know where we want to go, right? 969 - > But we also know that that's that's gonna be fluid, it's 970 - > gonna change. 971 - > Um, and we also really, really respect the opinion of 972 - > nonprofits, the opinion of common just people in general, 973 - > um, um, people that actually are facing food insecurity, right? 974 - > And so that is another way I think you can get involved in 975 - > this.
976 - > Like, um, you know, you it's not about buying our token, right? 977 - > It's it's more like how do we actually start to get people to 978 - > think about this fundamentally in a way where, like, you know, 979 - > today it's hunger, but you know, next it's cancer, next is this. 980 - > And and, you know, you know, think about a world where you 981 - > have trillions of dollars of volume happening a day, and a 982 - > little you know, piece of that is just automatically flowing 983 - > into these, you know, issues that we have that everyone is so 984 - > vocal about, right?
985 - > You have all this stuff around politics and everything about 986 - > oh, that needs to change. 987 - > Well, what if you actually have the ability to say, oh, I have a 988 - > right to vote on those specific funds in a transparent way, 989 - > right? 990 - > It's it's just a game changer, right? 991 - > And so um, yeah, we need more people involved.
992 - > We need really smart people um at the table. 993 - > And um, I would say like I welcome them to email us, uh, 994 - > you know, just like come into our our telegram, right? 995 - > Chat about it. 996 - > Um yeah.
997 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my name at wideorg, Martin's name at 998 - > wideorg.org. 999 - > Um, the ever all of our socials are at wide org. 1000 - > Um the we try to keep it really simple.
1001 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally. 1002 - > And I'll make sure to include the links for all this in the 1003 - > show notes as well for folks listening along uh that are 1004 - > excited to get involved, join the community, uh, be a part of 1005 - > this. 1006 - > Uh and you know, we've talked a lot about the future of this, 1007 - > um, and this is just the starting point, right? 1008 - > Um, so I'm curious, like as we wrap up this conversation, um, 1009 - > you know, if Wide succeeds at the scale you're aiming for, and 1010 - > you've talked about, you know, like funding a billion meals, 1011 - > what would it mean to prove that markets themselves can be a 1012 - > force for good and that the act of trading could feed millions 1013 - > or the act of just spending?
1014 - > SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, it's funny because I've never 1015 - > I've actually never thought about the answer that I'm about 1016 - > to say because there's something around how you you ask that 1017 - > question. 1018 - > But I think it's when people are not no longer talking about the 1019 - > issue, that's very interesting to me. 1020 - > Right? 1021 - > Like, you know, today today, you know, there there's all these 1022 - > issues that you have, and it's like, well, what today it's it's 1023 - > a it's a hot button topic when like politics comes around, 1024 - > right?
1025 - > With all these things from a from abortion to to everything, 1026 - > right? 1027 - > And it's very interesting when you sit into a world where um 1028 - > fundamentally like these things are just no longer talked about 1029 - > because you don't have to talk about them anymore, because we 1030 - > have funding to actually help, right, the people that actually 1031 - > need the help. 1032 - > Um so yeah, that's the world that like we're trying to push 1033 - > towards.
1034 - > Um there's a lot of like iterations and flow in in where 1035 - > we go and how we get there. 1036 - > Um, but but yeah. 1037 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, amazing. 1038 - > Um yeah, what do you what do you think, Eric?
1039 - > I'd love to give you the final word on this. 1040 - > SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the I think it's interesting and and to 1041 - > piggyback on what Martin says, I I would say it just real direct, 1042 - > like what happens when there is no hunger in the world, right? 1043 - > I think it's not a billion meals, right? 1044 - > Right, we we're talking about a billion meals every day.
1045 - > We're talking like literally, um what what does that look like? 1046 - > I I think that's that's very interesting. 1047 - > Um, the billion meals standpoint, it's just a starting 1048 - > point. 1049 - > That's to show that there is capacity here.
1050 - > Um I think the the other direction um that that I would 1051 - > go is where how big is the problems of humanity? 1052 - > Like how big are these problems? 1053 - > I think they're bigger than crypto, right? 1054 - > I I think they're bigger than just like visa spending.
1055 - > Um that's that's kind of the world that we see. 1056 - > Um and I think at the same time you have human problems becoming 1057 - > both more solvable with AI, but also more disparate with AI, at 1058 - > least at this point. 1059 - > And so I think we're we're kind of running up against a parallel 1060 - > stream right now where you almost need this as AI gets 1061 - > bigger, as all the kind of the doom and gloom of AI becomes 1062 - > more more powerful. 1063 - > Um, and and that's kind of where we see this going, where this is 1064 - > the solution to a human, a humanless future um of how you 1065 - > redirect that energy back to humans.
1066 - > SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I love that. 1067 - > Wow. 1068 - > Uh great point and great note to wrap up the conversation as 1069 - > well. 1070 - > I mean, yeah, it's it's an incredible vision, and I'm 1071 - > excited to see how it goes.
1072 - > And I'll certainly be following along and participating in in 1073 - > the community. 1074 - > And for those that want to as well, I'll include all the links 1075 - > and how-to in the show notes. 1076 - > Um, Martin and Aaron, thank you so much. 1077 - > That was an absolute pleasure.
1078 - > Really enjoyed learning from you, and I'm really excited to 1079 - > see what you build, so thanks for your time. 1080 - > SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks, Ladrew. 1081 - > SPEAKER_02: And that was Martin Sims and Aaron Rafferty, 1082 - > co-founders of Wide. 1083 - > What I love about Wide is that it challenges one of the most 1084 - > stubborn assumptions in both finance and philanthropy, that 1085 - > giving has to be a separate act and something that you do on top 1086 - > of everything else.
1087 - > Wide flips that. 1088 - > By building impact directly into the mechanics of trading and 1089 - > spending, it makes generosity something that happens by 1090 - > design. 1091 - > And the Feed the Children partnership grounds it all on 1092 - > something real. 1093 - > We're talking about meals, tens of thousands of them, men 1094 - > counting, going to families who need them.
1095 - > And the fact that it's all verifiable on-chain means the 1096 - > trust is built right in. 1097 - > I also appreciate the honesty about the trap that so much of 1098 - > crypto philanthropy falls into where the founder writes a check 1099 - > after a token rally and posts a screenshot, which to be clear, 1100 - > there's absolutely nothing wrong with. 1101 - > This is still super important work. 1102 - > Keep doing this.
1103 - > But WIDE is trying to build something structurally different 1104 - > that doesn't depend on a single moment of generosity or a token 1105 - > rally. 1106 - > So, for listeners who want to learn more about WIDE, explore 1107 - > the E-Token, or get involved, we've included all the relevant 1108 - > links in the show notes. 1109 - > And a huge thank you to Martin and Erin for sharing their 1110 - > vision with us today and for demonstrating the power of 1111 - > crypto to change how we think about doing good.
1112 - > And that wraps up today's episode of Crypto Altruist. 1113 - > Thanks so much for tuning in. 1114 - > I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. 1115 - > If you're inspired to explore more stories at the intersection 1116 - > of Web3 and Social Impact, be sure to visit us at 1117 - > CryptoAltruist.
com for articles, resources, and more. 1118 - > And if you love what you heard, it would mean the world if you 1119 - > could rate review and subscribe to the podcast. 1120 - > Your support is huge in helping us reach more listeners like you 1121 - > and keeping the platform going strong. 1122 - > Thanks again for joining us, and I look forward to having you 1123 - > back for the next episode.
1124 - > Until then, let's keep showing the world the good of crypto.