When Andre Eikmeier wrote about the state of his startup Good Empire in May, the project was in a tough place.
He had laid off his full team of 12, suppliers were waiting patiently to be paid, and the tax office was hovering around for its cut.
Some local news outlets reported this as the end for Good Empire, penning pithy columns that poked fun at the Adelaide Hills-based founder’s ambitions to “save the f**king world”.
But Good Empire never died. Instead it has morphed into a crypto project called G Revolution which kicked off properly last week with the launch of its ERC-20 token G coin.
“Things have really turned around again,” Eikmeier told Startup Daily, adding that he’s had “a flood of charities and companies signing up for the beta” since that heartfelt, honest piece a few months ago.
G Revolution is, in Eikmeier’s words, “a decentralised impact economy” powered by the G tokens people can earn by doing activities and making donations.
It starts with the Good Empire app, available on Android and iOS. Once you join, you can sign up for challenges aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals: hug a tree, commit to not using disposable coffee cups, or simply do something nice for another human.
Record your act of kindness and you’ll be rewarded with some G coin.
It’s what Good Empire is calling “impact-to-earn”, a reference to the “play-to-earn” crypto games that often lose sight of an important feature in gaming – the part where you have fun – in favour of incentivising players with the prospect of earning cash via crypto.
Next will come the Good Emporium, a marketplace for buying products with G tokens (paying for part of your renewable energy bill or buying a Patagonia t-shirt are often mentioned alongside the future Good Emporium).
The token had “a stable launch,” Eikmeier said, and is slowly building momentum – which perhaps means something given interest in the crypto world has cratered since the market crashed last year, precipitating the collapse of the Terra-Luna stablecoin and massive exchange FTX, while regulators close in on Binance.
Eikmeier isn’t concerned about stepping into the crypto game during a crypto winter, rather he’s trying to build a foundation in hopes for the next bull run.
“Long-term supporters with a proper impacting investment mindset – that’s what we’re here for. And they’re gathering,” Eikmeier said.
At the time of writing, each G coin is valued at a fraction of a cent making the whole project (there are 100 million G coins) worth around $261,000 (US$175,000).
Only 370 wallets hold G coin, according to Etherscan, including wallets for a liquidity pool and token locking mechanism.
G Revolution has all the hallmarks of any number of crypto projects that were spun up during the 2020 bull market. There’s a white paper, promotional Twitter posts from accounts with Cryptopunk profile pics, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), and a Telegram channel.
Of course, there’s also the promise of NFTs.
Eikmeier said these “have the support from some of the biggest global charities” and will be purchasable using an old fashioned credit card rather than the more complex, less user-friendly crypto way.
“[It’s] going to be very interesting to see how they go with the marketing support of charities they’re paired to,” Eikmeier told Startup Daily.
Where G Revolution differs from the last bull run’s token frenzy is Eikmeier’s earnestness; he’s a known entity, not some pseudonymous grifter ready to pull the rug on artificially inflated prices.
Yes, G Revolution has echoes of the “making the world a better place” mantra spoofed by HBO’s Silicon Valley, and there’s certainly a long road to go from 370 G coin holders to Eikmeier’s aim of 100 million users – but isn’t ambition to scale and make change the whole point of tech startups?
Even if Good Empire doesn’t “save the f**king world”, at least its founder and early supporters can say they gave it a crack.
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