Social entrepreneur ShanZhai City champions economic inclusion for the “Bottom Billion”

Social entrepreneur ShanZhai City champions economic inclusion for the “Bottom Billion”

Just as CornoAI and IPfication are making a social impact in the medical and cybersecurity space, Shanzhai City has been innovating for social development.

The social enterprise is empowering grassroots innovation through “impact data technology” and “decentralised development finance”. Core to Shanzhai City’s strategy are its diligent work on-the-ground with local communities and its ingenious use of blockchain and data technology to co-create solutions from the bottom-up.

For example, Shanzhai City worked with local farm cooperatives in Vietnam and developed a “Land Crypto”, which tokenises land-use rights and productivity data of agricultural land parcels. This brilliant creation offers clarity for investors to support farm producers and enables stakeholders to share collective returns according to their input to the value chain. All of this provides farmers with greater financial and economic access than they can enjoy from traditional financial and banking institutions.

Another notable project involves the assetisation of time. In Hong Kong, Shanzhai City helped develop a Community Time Bank to enable the low-income population to generate economic value with their time and skill sets and earn time credits. These credits can then be exchanged for other services from a marketplace, all transacted in time and through blockchain.

Many more success stories have been achieved in other developing countries, including Myanmar, Laos, Brazil, and Mainland China. This impressive track record has earned Shanzhai City the approval of governments and is giving it legs for further growth.

At home, Shanzhai City received funding from the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) in 2020 to launch an Impact Data Consortium Chain. This blockchain data infrastructure will serve NGOs, foundations, and impact funds to measure impact, share data, and improve the community economy.

Abroad, Shanzhai City has received private equity funds to provide digital financial services and pilot innovative finance in Southeast Asia. This new venture, called Good Commons Finance, is slated to launch in Singapore this year.