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EMPOWA: Creating Affordable Housing in Africa using Cardano NFTs
Much of the current non-fungible token (NFT) landscape revolves around profile picture (PFP) NFT collections that are largely dominated by variations of 2-D or 3-D cartoon animals. While these NFTs are powerful tools for building community and brands, many of them lack real-world utility and ability to enact true social change.
NFTs should ultimately be thought of as a tool as opposed to a specific type of art. Every strong NFT project with a clear vision or roadmap and a skilled, dedicated team should be able to provide value of some kind to its holders and the world.
Spacebudz and Clay NFTs on Cardano reflect historical value, much like Cryptopunks and Cryptokitties on the Ethereum side. Chilled Kongs and Boss Cat Rocket Club on Cardano, like the (way pricier) Bored Ape Yacht Club and Crypto Kongz on Ethereum, are “blue chip” projects that are masterful at creating community and brand.
NFTs are a revolutionary tool that can change the world, but as always, DYOR (do your own research) and keep in mind that this is NFA (not financial advice)!
Empowa’s Mission and RealFi
Empowa is an African-based Cardano NFT project that brands itself as a “RealFi” project. “RealFi”, to put it simply, refers to projects that use NFTs and blockchain technology to address real-world issues or create real-world impact directly. On their website, empowa.io, the project opens with three powerful words: Build. Community. Impact.
Empowa’s mission is to “[enable] the building of affordable and greener houses in Africa.” Their website hits visitors with a powerful statistic: 84% of Africans don’t have a permanent roof over their heads, meaning that most Africans are not homeowners. The Zimbabwe-based team of Empowa raises another alarming statistic — the mortgage rate in Zimbabwe is an astronomical 45%!
Through decentralized financing (think NFT minters, royalties from secondary market sales, and long-term holders), Empowa can leverage ADA (Cardano’s cryptocurrency) to effectively “crowdfund” their mission. That is the power of RealFi contained in the transformative power of NFTs.
Empowa’s Founding Community and Impact Card NFTs
Empowa’s Founding Community NFTs sold out in October 2021, but you might be able to snag some off Cardano NFT (CNFT) secondary marketplaces such as JPG.Store or CNFT.io. At the time of writing, the Empowa NFT collection has not yet been “verified” on JPG.Store (the largest CNFT marketplace) so acquire them at your own discretion. The total number of Empowa’s Founding Community NFT collection is 1024, and no more will be minted. Each NFT represents a panel on the massive NFT Canvas that you see in the picture above. It is a powerful image that clearly identifies the goals of the project.
According to Empowa’s website, these NFTs will give members exclusive privileges. There aren’t too many specific details released, but holders will be granted “exclusive access to significant Empowa events” and “bonuses”. The 176 randomly selected Founding Community NFT holders will also receive “premium privileges” such as early event access.
Empowa is aiming to drop Impact Card NFTs this year, which will likely have a larger mint number or count as opposed to their Founding Community NFT collection. Many NFT collections have smaller, more limited editions for their “genesis” collections to reward early adopters and long-term holders who can see the project’s vision.
Empowa Ground Team
Empowa’s team members are essentially all fully doxxed — meaning, that they have revealed themselves to be real people with real identities. Those with LinkedIn accounts have shared them as well. This is a tremendously good sign and an excellent show of transparency and integrity. In the world of NFTs, doxxed teams are in the minority but that number is increasing due to the desire to counter “rug pulls” or scams.
With their involvement in real-world house building and construction, Empowa is very different from an NFT project with a cute animal mascot and 100 different randomly generated traits. This is an NFT collection that will allow minters and holders to be rewarded with the feeling that they are contributing to a powerful cause and will be given opportunities to play roles in the development of building projects. That is why having a very transparent and doxxed team is crucial to Empowa’s success.
The easiest way to find all of Empowa’s socials and website links is through Twitter where they go by the handle @empowa_io. From their profile description, you’ll be able to access their Linktree and explore from there.
Empowa NFT Summary
Empowa is a project that can enact real-world change and has the potential to transform traditional, and quite honestly, outdated and archaic systems that resulted in housing and home ownership issues in Africa. Through the use of NFTs to fund their project, Empowa essentially leverages blockchain to find anonymous VCs (venture capitalists) from all over the world. Such is the power of crypto.
If you are interested in RealFi and real-world applications of NFTs beyond simply belonging to an exclusive club represented by colorful animals (which is completely fine and can bring other benefits and utilities), follow Empowa’s journey as they forge ahead to bring affordable home ownership to more people in Africa.
