The Hashgraph Association (THA), a Swiss innovation leader at the forefront of empowering a digital future for all, has committed $1.5 million to the Global Center for Sustainable Digital Finance as a founding member. This collaboration aims to drive and fund groundbreaking research and innovation at the intersection of sustainability and digital finance.
The Global Center for Sustainable Digital Finance, which brings together academic experts from Stanford University, the University of Zurich (UZH), and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) in South Korea, focuses on developing and accelerating research in sustainable digital finance with impact and training students and practitioners to foster innovation on a global scale. With THA’s committed funding, the Center will expand its efforts to address global challenges in banking, ESG, financial inclusion, and climate finance.
The Hashgraph Association’s involvement extends beyond just funding. The organization will collaborate with the Center to conceptualize and implement projects leveraging its cutting-edge Hedera DLT platform. Additionally, THA will equip 360 students annually with skills in mastering DLT using the Hedera Hashgraph platform, with over 2,160 students to be trained over the duration of the partnership, which is 6 years. It will also train 10 trainers equivalent to 60 trainers over this period. Participants will receive Hedera certifications in the form of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), adding a digital-first dimension to credentialing.
Kamal Youssefi, President of The Hashgraph Association, stated, “At The Hashgraph Association, we are proud to continue supporting organizations that deliver environmentally sustainable finance solutions in an innovative and compliant way. A recent environmental impact study by University College London (UCL) comparing different distributed ledger networks proved that Hedera is the world’s most sustainable network. The Global Center for Sustainable Digital Finance fits perfectly into our Hedera Enablement Program, furthering THA’s efforts to expand research and development in Web3 and support sustainable initiatives.”
A recent survey of 37 UNDP country offices revealed that sustainable digital finance is a priority for many nations, yet only 40% have a digital finance strategy. THA’s partnership with the Global Center for Sustainable Digital Finance aims to fill this gap by bridging digital finance and sustainability through innovative, education, impactful research and implementation.
Thomas Puschmann, Founder and Executive Director of Global Center for Sustainable Digital Finance, states, “We are very pleased to be working with The Hashgraph Association. Sustainable digital finance has the potential to build inclusive, safe digital foundations, and technologies such as DLT, AI, and IoT, helping to increase transparency and reliability of information, especially in the climate financing domain. These foundations also aid in tackling corruption issues when funding SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) projects.”
The Hashgraph Association launched a $50 million Sustainability Venture Studio for enterprises earlier this year and has also partnered with Deloitte to enhance the verification of corporate ESG impact, reporting, and sustainability claims, leveraging the Hedera Guardian as the trusted balance sheet of the earth. Collaborating with Deloitte NL Risk Advisory B.V. in the Netherlands, this partnership focuses on enabling corporations to measure, track, report, and tokenize evidence-based ESG impact and sustainability claims on Hedera and ensuring a carbon-neutral future.