Meet the 4th cohort of the Next Billion Fellowship!

As a global public resource, technology must be open, accessible, and dedicated to advancing the greater good. The Next Billion Fellowship Program is a testament to this vision, capturing the stories of communities whose lives are being transformed for the better. Today, we are proud to introduce seven individuals with incredible stories to share. Their stories offer a glimpse into diverse contexts and possible futures—futures that we cannot fully predict, but that elevate humanity. Inspired by the stories of our Next Billion Fellows, we envision a future where these open, human-coordinated protocols serve as public goods for billions of people.

Next Generation Billion Fellow Group 4

David Uzochukwu We are leading an initiative focused on strengthening the decentralization of Ethereum by training African communities on how to run Ethereum nodes. Exploring barriers and possible solutions, such as lack of reliable internet access and power outages, the project seeks to make visible the considerations needed for decentralization and inclusion.

Liu Guo As a co-founder, I work for freedom of information. Matters Towna digital space and censorship-resilient publishing platform. His project aims to support high-quality open access content by integrating advertising protocols with the Harberger tax and secondary funding.

Lefteris arapakis He grew up in a family of fishermen and soon discovered that fishermen collect a lot of plastic from the ocean. He started a social enterprise. Enaleia, focused on reducing ocean plastic pollution, starting first in Greece and expanding to the rest of the Mediterranean. As part of his fellowship, Lefteris will implement a system to enable the tracking of recycled ocean plastic on Ethereum.

Mercedes “Meche” Rodriguez Simon We are conducting practical research on using web3 solutions to support human rights organizations in Venezuela. A dedicated human rights activist and core member of Ethereum Venezuela, Meche is looking to bring his knowledge to bear on the political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

Rebecca Mkamelo Her research explores how to integrate EVM-based local currencies with traditional economic practices in Africa. Grassroots economicsIn , we compare two different community currency models: traditional digital vouchers backed by government agencies, and one where communities pool their future productive capacity by pledging it.

Tomislav “Tomo” Mamic I’m working on it Local Government Secondary Funding Initiative (MUQA)is a project designed to support cities in allocating funds to public projects using Quadratic Voting (QV) and Quadratic Funding (QF) mechanisms. Its pilot in the city of Split, Croatia, will experiment with QF in the areas of culture and green spaces, aiming to introduce transparency, efficiency and citizen participation in the management of public resources.

Fellows who want to stay anonymous for now We are developing a platform that digitizes production records and farm metadata to generate on-chain reputation scores. Our goal is to standardize farmer data for interoperability, providing low-cost working capital to smallholder farmers and cooperatives.

What are your future plans?

Over the next six months, each fellow will pursue small projects that work toward larger goals in their story. Fellows will share their progress at Devcon 7, taking place in Southeast Asia from November 12-15. follow @EFNextBillion For updates. Do you need financial support to attend Devcon? Check out the Devcon SEA Scholars Program Apply by July 7, 2024!