To be able to say what we think and connect with each other freely the way we do today there was a long process to go through. But it has not been an easy way, and the development of new technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies has become an answer to how we protect ourselves and give each other space to share our opinions and choices more freely.
Blockchain crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is a form of collective financing that almost always occurs online and through donations made by individuals for a specific purpose in exchange for rewards. These purposes vary greatly, from taking an athlete to an international championship or helping street people, to helping finance a political campaign.
The first appearance of crowdfunding was when the British band Marillion financed one of their concerts through online donations from their fans and the first platform dedicated to this method of financing was ArtistShare, founded in 2001.
Because of cryptocurrencies, many rules have changed for crowdfunding. On a usual basis, the entrepreneur who is creating a campaign describes his project so that everyone knows about it, informs how much money he needs to carry it out, the time he estimates to raise the funds, and what he offers as retribution or reward for this operation.
Secondly, the crowdfunding platform allows you to perform a very strong promotion as a strategy to promote such a campaign and get this action carried out, and it is published if the project was funded or not since entrepreneurs somehow become promoters of the platform at the same time that they pay fees.
It's true that In the past, before any crowdfunding through the web existed people who wanted to start a business or enterprise had to borrow from banks, but now entrepreneurs can obtain their seed capital without having to go into debt, but the usual model as we said does not include peoples liberties over what the platform can offer them, since they are full of limitations to what people can do, even controlling their money and their reach. But overall, it didn't give people the chance to promote themselves on their own accord.
Freedom using custom cryptocurrencies.
The term crowdfunding was not popular until 2009 with the emergence of the Kickstarter platform, which was founded by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler in April of that year with a clear vocation: to serve as a showcase for talent in general without distinction of sector or theme, helping to boost the creativity, novelty, and ingenuity of projects, but despite such great initiative there were limitations to what people could do, and in the beginning, it was a model that could benefit only those who already had great public such as famous figures or celebrities.
There are already hundreds of thousands of projects successfully funded by crowdfunding. This method has established itself as a popular alternative to the traditional ways of financing business projects. Micro-patronage was not born with crowdfunding, but it became widespread with the arrival of the Internet and has become particularly interesting for companies that see their capital as a critical point for success.
Currently, five models of crowdfunding arise, depending on the reward received by the people who give the respective support to the project: donations, which are those who receive nothing in return; rewards, which, as their name indicates, receive a reward for their donation; shares, which are those who receive shares of it; loans, which the company or project must give something in return for the money borrowed and royalties, which is when it is invested and a share of the profits is expected.
But the new model that Blockchain crowdfunding custom cryptocurrencies created is a model in which donations and rewards come together, people could support a campaign without expecting anything, yet they could be actually saving the chance to earn money later on on the success of the project they supported. Because custom cryptocurrencies are an inclusive model in which people earn more equality by monetizing themselves.
This technique contributes to the collaborative, mutual support and sharing economy. It fits perfectly with the concept of sharing and exchanging resources among an undefined and generally large public that seeks to collaborate with goods and services. It is positioned as a highly developed mechanism to be considered when exploring methods of financing a project, and much of the responsibility for this growth lies with online platforms.
But most importantly, creating tokens or custom cryptocurrencies brings back to people the freedom they had lost withing the strong propaganda of the media. Anyone now can start a campaign to crowdfund the project of their election and appeal to the community that could give them support. Organizing themselves towards a personal goal whatever that may be, without needing to comply with government stipulations for instances, religious impossibilities, cultural misunderstandings, or genre gaps.
The future of crowdfunding also involves a strong approach for specific business niches and sectors where this type of funding is not usual, such as science and research, all giving people the possibility to develop freely and making personal points be hear through a representative token and a strong community. Crowdfunding still has a long way to go and companies and users will be participants in its future.
Mary Schwartz