Hatching Honu the CryptoKitty

Honu the CryptoKitty was hatched this Monday morning when the CryptoKitty Charity Auction went live.

This adorable and unique art object that will live forever on the Ethereum blockchain is up for sale, and on Sunday the 15th at midnight, she will be released into the wild and have a new owner.

Or more realistically, like with all cats, Honu will have her own human who can sell, trade or breed her.

Part kitten, part turtle, Honu is first in a lineage of CryptoKitties born for a specific cause. In her case, to raise funds and awareness for two non-profits. One is Operation Jairo in Antigua and Barbuda, and the other Unite BVI, in the British Virgin Islands, both protecting endangered sea turtles during mating, from poachers and from illegal harvesting.

This initiative is right in so many ways.

It speaks directly to hacking philanthropy, a brand new way to raise funds to help us take care of the planet’s precious and endangered species.

It creates a pathway for the immense amount of capital created within the crypto ecosystem to move to projects for social good, economizing our innate human will to do socially responsible things as a global community.

It extends the vastly popular CryptoKitties platform, the most active consumer app on the blockchain into adjacent behavioral spaces, leveraging its popularity, its community and its fun way of creating value for projects that can benefit from it, and likewise, benefit us all.

It highlights conservation and philanthropic groups that for years have been doing the hard work and leading the charge for change. Specifically the innovators of this initiative along with Cryptokitties–Bill Tai and the ACTAI community of activists, athletes and investors, and Ocean Elders, a conservation group headed up by Sir Richard Branson, Gigi Brisson, and others.

It brings communities, seemingly disparate and separate, together for a common cause, in this case the gaming, crypto, philanthropic and conservation communities.

And it as well native to the blockchain, natural to people and unique, taking the idea of open source, adding money and extending it to basically all of us, everywhere.

There is something more though.

We as individuals have a responsibility to take care of ourselves, each other and our world.

A great example of how the blockchain can help tokenize our core values in economic ways that can be shared.

Honu is in some ways their proxy that we contribute to. A dynamic icon in a digital world that impacts the lives of these poignantly beautiful creatures and by default, all of us and the planet.

I’m a marketer, natural food and wine enthusiast, Scuba diver, cat lover, and very soft hearted toward the possibility that we can actually change things for the better.

I’m also a realist to know that this is a first step, proof pointing the idea, the platform, our behaviors, and our needs as a society.

I love this project.

It has some gotcha’s like all firsts, but it has a real heart and strong momentum. It is a natural flexing of the potential of the blockchain, and its success will provide direction on how to proceed with a host of other projects.

I feel strongly that providing a way for incentivized communities to engage with conservation, education, our food supply, or urban homelessness, just makes good sense

For now, share your thoughts, spread the word, and please, do go to the auction page and join the bidding.

Honu needs an owner. These sea turtles need a source to guarantee their survival over time. We need to step up as stewards of our environment.

Go here and bid!

A huge shout out to the leadership team that spearheaded this project: Cassidy Robertson, lead of the Kitties for Good and KittyVerse initiatives, Bill Tai, Sabine Schindlauer and Gokce Gizer of ACTAI Global and Gigi Brisson of Ocean Elders. Thrilled to be a member this group.

To Bill and the Bitfury Group, who elevated a global discussion of this topic and the auction with the participants at the Blockchain Summit in Morocco.

To Fred Wilson who turned me on to crypto and CryptoKitties back when, and broke the Honu story on his blog, and to Rachel Pipan of Bitfury, Jeff Carter, Tom Critchlow, Jennifer Lee Fader, The Eleven Hundred Agency, and the many organizations, investors, bloggers and believers who are sharing this story everywhere.

Big thanks and keep at it!