Based in Warsaw, Poland, CD Projekt Red, the developers behind the popular video games, Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher, have taken the initiative to help their brothers and sisters across the border. They have made the decision to donate 1 million PLN to help the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The group has decided to support the Polska Akcja Humanitarna (PAH) or the Polish Humanitarian Action, which is currently focusing their efforts on the crisis in Ukraine. They announced the donation on Twitter on February 25, 2022. 

A screenshot of CD Projekt Red's donation announcement on Facebook

The Polish Humanitarian Action gives support to those who are affected by humanitarian crises to become self-reliant again, as soon as possible. Their mission is “to make the world a better place through alleviation of human suffering and promotion of humanitarian values”. They strive to provide humanitarian aid regardless of nationality, race, religion, or political views. 

The team at Altruisto has teamed up with PAH, to support their initiative “SOS UKRAINE''. The foundation is raising money to support those who have been wounded as a result of the attack and those who are fleeing their homes, whether it be within the country, or migrating across the border. Ukrainians will be in need of shelter, food, clothes and medical supplies. Anything can help and if you can, please donate. You can find the link to the fundraiser here.  

 Altruisto is a free browser extension that helps you effortlessly raise money for causes you are passionate about, all while shopping online at no extra cost. Once you are signed up and shopping with one of Altruisto’s 1000+ supporting partners, simply make a purchase and 2-6% of the total goes to a charity focused on an issue of your choice! Donate to Covid-19 relief, reduction of animal suffering, or eradication of extreme poverty and aiding global health efforts. Add to cart, save the world, one purchase at a time. 

CD Projekt Red, the developers behind CyberPunk 2077, make a generous donation to Polish Humanitarian Action, a charity supporting relief to Ukrainian victims.

The Company Behind The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, Donates $240,000 To Ukraine Relief

CD Projekt, the developers behind CyberPunk 2077, make a generous donation to Polish Humanitarian Action, a charity supporting relief to Ukrainian victims.

As the former Twitter CEO announces his step down from the company, he is in the media for another reason. Jack Dorsey sells his tweet as an NFT for a whopping $2.9 million. The tweet, which reads, “just setting up my twttr”, was posted on March 1, 2006, where it all began, over 15 years ago. Doresy chose to auction his tweet on the NFT platform “Valuables”, backed by a blockchain-based social media application by Cent. 

Cent states that there was a bidding war between two “whales” (heavy-hitting crypto investors). Justin Sun, founder of the crypto platform, TRON, versus Sina Estavi, CEO of the crypto bridge token, Bridge Oracle. In the end, Estavi’s $2.9 million bid won. After the auction, Sina spoke with CNBC Make It, “I wanted to encourage involving in charities in the crypto space”. 

The funds from the sale were immediately converted to Bitcoin and donated to a charity called GiveDirectly. They focus on helping those in need who are living in poverty. Jack’s gift was specifically donated toward GiveDirectly’s Covid-19 response in Africa. 

GiveDirectly is a unique organization on the charity landscape, as it lets you wire funds directly to people in need. You can donate via their website or install Altruisto, a browser extension that helps you easily donate money while online shopping- at no extra cost to you. Once activated, when shopping on one of Altruisto’s partners’ websites, simply buy anything and 2-6% of the purchase total goes to a charity of your choice.

Although the tweet itself now has a rightful owner, it will remain available to the public on Twitter on Jack Dorsey’s official page. It is great to see the world of blockchain tech and charities colliding for a purpose.  

Jack Dorsey sells his tweet as an NFT for a whopping $2.9 million. The tweet, which reads, “just setting up my twttr”, was posted on March 1, 2006, where it all began, over 15 years ago. Dorsey chose to auction his tweet on the NFT platform “Valuables”, backed by a blockchain-based social media application by Cent. 

Jack Dorsey Sells His First Tweet for $2.9 Million and Donates it to GiveDirectly

Jack Dorsey sells his tweet as an NFT for a whopping $2.9 million. The tweet, which reads, “just setting up my twttr”, was posted on March 1, 2006, where it all began, over 15 years ago. Doresy chose to auction his tweet on the NFT platform “Valuables”, backed by a blockchain-based social media application by Cent. 

Back in 1989, Tim Berners-Lee was hard at work coding the World Wide Web, basically inventing the internet. Did he know how much it would impact the world? Probably not. Did he even know what an NFT is? Also, probably not.

Since then, the internet has rapidly changed the way the world works and how we communicate, conduct business, and make money. Newer to the scene is blockchain technology, which has brought us cryptocurrencies and NFTs. NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are essentially digital assets linked to contracts on a blockchain network that authenticates proof of ownership. Recently rising to mainstream media with the help of the NBA’s Top Shot NFT Collection, CryptoPunks and its countless celebrity supporters, literally anything can be sold as an NFT now. 

Tim Berners-Lee and the first published internet page in 1994

More recently, art auction houses like Sotheby's and Christies have joined in on the bull market. Sotheby's auctioned off the World Wide Web’s source code (with timestamps) as an NFT, titling it “This Changed Everything”. The piece was starting at $1,000 USD, but also available to pay for in crypto. An anonymous buyer finished off the auction in the last ten minutes beating out 51 other bids with a final price of $5.4 million plus fees. The money has since been donated to charities and initiatives supported by Tim Berners-Lee, like his own, World Wide Web Foundation. 

The WWW Foundation focuses on many efforts but their main contributions go toward creating digital equality for all. They strive to establish the open web as a basic right and a public good, mainly in developing nations that may not have universal access to the internet yet. The World Wide Web Foundation also places its interest in supporting regreening in Africa, women’s rights online, and lobbying for affordable internet. 

Although the source code has been free and available to the public for a long time and will continue to be, this is a milestone for the progress of how far the internet has come, and where it has yet to go. Mr. Lee describes NFTs as “the most appropriate means of ownership that exists”. It is exciting to witness the growth of technology and see how it will take our generations further. 

Photo Source: https://geekweek.interia.pl/internet/news-tim-berners-lee-i-25-lat-powszechnego-dostepu-do-internetu,nId,2256756

Info Source: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/this-changed-everything-source-code-for-www-x-tim-berners-lee-an-nft/source-code-for-the-www

World Wide Web Sold As NFT For $5.4 Million and donated to World Wide Web Foundation

Virtual reality is storytelling at its best. Users are given the opportunity to learn something new by experiencing life through a different lens. Let’s explore the ways that charities use virtual reality as tech for good.  

Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to teach important life-saving skills that are needed in medical emergencies, such as car accidents or environmental disasters. Through detailed instructions, users learn how to navigate the situation and solve the problem.

A successful example of VR in charity education is the Lifesaver app. This mobile app was developed by the Resuscitation Council UK, created to educate users how to identify people who are in cardiac arrest, conduct CPR, and what to do during such emergencies. The app is able to gauge depth, force, and frequency of movement to  determine if CPR was performed correctly. The app also presents users with consequences, such as the virtual patient dying, if the procedure is done incorrectly. This virtual experience is aimed at ensuring adequate preparedness for real-life scenarios and will prompt users to restart the procedure until they get it right.

The National Autistic Society uses a virtual reality headset to curate a simulation of how the world is experienced through the eyes of a child with autism. The simulation follows a story of a family trip to the mall where the user becomes a young child with autism who’s accompanied by their mother. This two minute experience is a sensual overload of color, light, and sound which causes the child to pass out. Many users were unaware of the lived experience of autism prior to trying the VR simulation. The National Autistic Society’s goal is to raise awareness on how important it is to help kids with autism. This virtual reality initiative makes a problem more relevant in the public eye by allowing users to experience it first-hand.

It’s important that charity organizations show donors that their donations make positive impacts. Virtual reality can help bring the real results of donations up close with an immersive experience. Smile Train is an organization that provides free surgeries for children with cleft lip. They also connect donors to kids who need help – before, during, and after their surgery. The organization uses virtual reality for donors to experience a documentary that depicts the life of a girl, Nisha, who can’t speak or eat, nor can she go to school or socialize due to a cleft lip. The documentary then shows an alternate scenario after Nisha had gone through surgery, where the  documentary takes users through the same day of her life except this time, the differences are that she can talk to her friends, eat, and go to school all thanks to the generous donors.

Virtual reality is an amazing opportunity to use tech for good. Many charities and foundations have leaped at the opportunity to advance their impact in the world. Meta, formerly known as Facebook and one of the leaders in the virtual reality market, has dedicated a portion of their website to VR for Good, with new stories exploring the topic.

While it’s exciting to watch companies advance virtual reality tech for good, helping change the world is closer than you think. With the click of a button, you can begin advancing your personal contributions to charities that matter most to you. Altruisto is a browser extension that helps you effortlessly raise money all while online shopping at no extra cost. Once you are signed up and shopping on one of Altruisto’s partners’ websites, simply buy anything and 2-6% of the purchase total goes to a charity focused on an issue of your choice! Donate to Covid-19 relief, reduction of animal suffering, or eradication of extreme poverty and aiding global health efforts. Add to cart, save the world, one purchase at a time. 

Virtual reality (VR) is an amazing opportunity to use tech for good. Many charities and foundations have leaped at the opportunity to advance their impact in the world. VR games and experiences have a chance to change the way we view the world and help out those in need.

3 Ways Virtual Reality Is Used For Charity

Virtual reality (VR) is an amazing opportunity to use tech for good. Many charities and foundations have leaped at the opportunity to advance their impact in the world. VR games and experiences have a chance to change the way we view the world and help out those in need. 

Michel Roccati became paralyzed from the waist down in 2017 after being involved in a severe motorbike accident. Today he walks again. “It was a very emotional experience,” Roccati recalled. This is the first paralysed man to have had such success in being able to fully walk again considering his entire spinal cord was completely broken.

Paralysed man takes first steps thanks to spinal implant

Thanks to the team of scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Michel was able to regain his mobility and make his first strides towards recovery. This new advancement in biotech has the potential to change many lives. Scientists have created an electrical implant that is surgically attached to one’s spine. It works by sending signals to the muscles through electrical pulses, mimicking the signals that are usually sent by the brain.

Although this is a huge breakthrough for science and medicine, there is still a lot of development and research that needs to be put into the technology going forward, like making the implant smaller. It is also more effective if the procedure is completed soon after the initial accident. As observed in the study, the other two patients that were participating did not experience results as good as Rocatti. 

"I stand up, walk where I want to, I can walk the stairs - it's almost a normal life." In addition to the surgery, Michel went through four months of intensive rehabilitation and physiotherapy, he was determined. "I used to box, run and do fitness training in the gym. But after the accident, I could not do the things that I loved to do, but I did not let my mood go down. I never stopped my rehabilitation. I wanted to solve this problem."

Prof Jocelyne Bloch at Lausanne University Hospital, was the neurosurgeon who performed the implant, precisely attaching electrodes to Michel’s individual nerve fibers. "I was extremely surprised," explains Bloch. "Michel is absolutely incredible. He should be able to use this technology to progress and be better and better." She added that more clinical trials are needed before the implant can be considered an effective treatment. "We need more numbers [of patients] to show that it is first, safe and that it significantly enhances their lives. Only then can it be taken forward."

In the future, it is hoped that all paralysed people will one day be able to stand, walk and exercise again. There are also future use cases for Parkinson’s Disease and studies are expected to be completed soon. A lot of research still needs to be done before the technology can be used to help paralysed people to walk, according to Prof Grégoire Courtine, who led the team that developed the technology at EPFL. "This is not a cure for spinal cord injury. But it is a critical step to improve people's quality of life. We are going to empower people. We are going to give them the ability to stand, to take some steps. It is not enough, but it is a significant improvement." 

Funding and donations are the backbone of initiatives such as this life-changing implant. But, what if I told you that you can support great ideas at no cost to you with Altruisto? From the comfort of your own home, you can support the most effective, evidence-based charities by downloading the browser extension and shopping online with one of our many partners such as Etsy, Microsoft, Ali Express, just to name a few. 2-6% of your purchase price goes directly to an initiative of your choice, from reducing animal suffering, fighting poverty to preventing malaria. Helping others is now as easy as adding products to your cart!

The research has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Michel Roccati became paralyzed from the waist down in 2017 after being involved in a severe motorbike accident. Today he walks again. This is the first paralysed man to have had such success in being able to fully walk again considering his entire spinal cord was completely broken.

A Paralysed Man Walks Again Thanks to New Technology

A Paralysed Man Walks Again Thanks To New Technology

Posts about: Tech For Good

The Company Behind The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, Donates $240,000 To Ukraine Relief

Jack Dorsey Sells His First Tweet for $2.9 Million and Donates it to GiveDirectly

World Wide Web Sold As NFT For $5.4 Million and donated to World Wide Web Foundation

3 Ways Virtual Reality Is Used For Charity

A Paralysed Man Walks Again Thanks To New Technology

Are you ready

to make a difference?