Horyou

Horyou – Blockchain with a Purpose

Technology has enabled our society to evolve in an accelerated fashion. It has impacted every aspect of our behavior and will continue to have an even bigger role in our lives. How technology will determine a better future remains a challenge and a scope of opportunity. We believe in technological advancements that create a fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable world.

Blockchain, equipped with the power of decentralization, has the potential to be an enabler and accelerator for positive change. Our goal is to use this disruptive technology to support a fundamentally more inclusive and harmonious world, in resonance with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as outlined by United Nations.

Horyou has already introduced the Horyou platform – a novel platform for individual, organizations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – fostering social good. On 18th December 2013, we launched Horyou social network, gathering since then a diverse community of changemakers and activists for social good with more than 250,000 users and 1500 organizations from more than 180 countries. In 2014, we established Horyou Foundation, a non-profit institution based in Switzerland, which promotes and advances causes for social good. Horyou takes a number of initiatives including organizing international events, supporting organizations, civil society and local communities.

In 2016, we announced Spotlight, the first digital currency promoting economic inclusion and supporting the United Nations 2030 agenda. It was then officially recognized at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit on 28th November 2017. Spotlights are a form of digital currency that can be donated by users of the Horyou platform to worthy causes on the platform. They can also be bought with HoryouTokens but otherwise do not interact with HoryouTokens in any direct way.

We are opening our platform to corporate entities to connect their CSR programs to our technology and community. We are now introducing HoryouToken, our utility token to be built on top of Ethereum Blockchain to fuel the virtuous circle of Horyou. HoryouToken aims to create community incentive to leverage social media activities for positive and meaningful interactions. Through smart contracts, Spotlight and Horyou Foundation, the Horyou platform will monetize daily transactions of HoryouTokens to generate a force of positive impact for the community. This enables social good at the protocol layer for Horyou and other decentralized platforms, a truly novel approach that we call Blockchain with a Purpose.

In our globalized society today, it is impossible if not unproductive to separate technology from human life. Mankind’s dependence on technology has made it very hard for the economic and finance world to continue in a pretechnology way. People use technology to connect and communicate on a personal as well as business levels; people use technology to travel, to teach and learn, to live in comfort, to cure and save lives, and to do business and politics in much more practical, efficient and effective ways. Technology has impacted agriculture and the food chain, it has impacted the economy, and it has impacted the environment – though not always in the best possible way. Ultimately, it has impacted people and society as a whole.

The impact of technology on the future of humanity will undoubtedly be exponentially greater. The biggest challenge facing us is to determine the type of future we want and how we use technology to enable it. Technology that simplifies the way we do things is well and good, but technology that makes for a fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable world is much better. We call it technology with a purpose.

Technology that serves the economy and makes it more sustainable and inclusive has been much talked about and less often implemented. The unfortunate fact is that while the great majority of people have been granted easy and fast access to the Internet to produce unprecedented market growth and prosperity, the technology that made it possible has only served to concentrate ownership and wealth in the hands of comparatively few corporations. The process has left behind the millions of people who have significantly contributed to its development. In doing so and in many regards, it has increased the scale of inequality. In turn, concentration of ownership has generated concentration of financial leverage and power, building a high wall separating “winners” from “losers”.

The power of decentralization

The solution to the concentration of power is to decentralize everything. Blockchain, a revolutionary technology, has taken industries by storm and showed a new way of embracing technology with more inclusion and participation. Despite the fact that they cu rrently are – at best – confronted with skepticism and reticence, and – at worst – with denigration and sometimes fierce opposition from the beneficiaries of the “traditional system”, Blockchain technology holds great promise. The philosophy of Blockchain aligns with a mass financial inclusion, and the use of Blockchain for social good is expected to come naturally.

Nonetheless, applications on Blockchain has rushed to exploit the bullish nature of the market for new technology. With very little social and economic impact, a plethora of applications flooded Blockchain platforms such as Ethereum with speculative strategies, hunting for greed and speculation instead of vision and passion. The philosophy of decentralization is lost among all the noise and financial inclusion has taken a backseat.

Our goal is to fundamentally change that. We aim to use technology as a true enabler for social innovation, and use Blockchain as a fundamental tool to transform lives of the many.

Towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

On the eve of its seventieth anniversary, United Nations announced a peoplecentric set of goals and targets targeting a prosperous and strong 2030. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) covering a broad range of social and economic development issues, working towards global financial inclusion and a total eradication of extreme poverty.

Such an ambitious and collective journey is only possible with the participation of everyone involved – from the individuals, organizations to corporates – with a common goal towards social good. Today many good initiatives are taken among the public and private sector, through both for-profit and non-profit organizations. However, in the fragmented and centralized collectives, many remain isolated and under-utilized.

Introducing: Horyou Platform

To bring true change to people’s lives, we need a common place accessible to everyone. A place where people can share ideas, be inspired and help each other. Today’s social networks is plagued with narcissism, social negativity and polarization. For that purpose, the Horyou Platform was created, a novel platform for social change. Through technology, innovation and advocacy of social entrepreneurship, Horyou aims to foster global positive interactions amongst its member organizations, users and personalities.

The Horyou Group consists of a number of key components, as listed below.

Horyou Social Network: a Place for Everyone

We have already launched Horyou.com, the social network for social good, gathering individuals, social innovators, organizations and personalities to take part in the community and inspire each other through social good news & actions. The social network has a growing community of more than 250,000 changemakers and 1500 organizations from 180 countries. Organizations can broadcast their social activities through actions in the platform. Anyone can show support to social good actions taken by organizations through giving Lights, and observing progress of projects that support social good.

Unlike traditional social network platforms, Lights are not associated to sensationalism, egocentric or pure consumerism content. Lights are bestowed upon the actions towards shaping and building a better world, bringing a positive change to the humanity.

More than a million lights have been allocated and given to the social good news and actions shared by the Horyou community. Lights are acknowledgement of support. They are not any form of currency.

Horyou Partners: Enabling Corporate to Social Change

We will soon introduce Horyou partners, corporate entities that take part in the Horyou platform through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program. Companies can leverage the community and access a diverse set of organisations to ensure the most meaningful impact of their philanthropic and CSR activities, being able to leverage the Horyou technology of social networking activities while benefiting from Spotlight, the first digital currency promoting economic inclusion enabling to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Companies will pay a membership fee to have access to Horyou platform and promote their products and services. Of the fee, 50% of the proceedings will be converted into spotlights, to support actions and organizations in the Horyou community.