Why Glo?

The Glo dollar is the anti-poverty version of the US dollar. When you use Glo, it generates basic income for people in extreme poverty. The more Glo is used, the more basic income it generates. The goal of Glo is to end extreme poverty by providing basic income to  everyone in extreme poverty.

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The Glo dollar is implemented as a USD-pegged stablecoin, i.e. a cryptocurrency always worth one dollar. Glo is 100% fiat-backed by the Glo Reserve, a reserve of cash and cash equivalents. From this reserve, our platform will allow holders to redeem Glo dollars for US dollars at a 1:1 rate. 

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The Glo Reserve is also how Glo generates basic income. The Glo Reserve will consist of US dollars and US government bonds. From the government bonds, the Glo Reserve generates an interest. 100% of this interest will be donated to provide basic income for people in extreme poverty.

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The result is a currency with embedded philanthropy. Anyone can help end extreme poverty by converting money to Glo. This increases Glo Reserve assets, which leads to more interest to be distributed as basic income. 

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The Glo dollar allows people to participate in passive philanthropy⁠—philanthropy that is not donation-based but happens automatically as a byproduct of using money. Whether it’s receiving salary, saving up on cash, or paying for groceries: do these things using Glo and you reduce extreme poverty. This is a form of philanthropy that doesn’t cost money or time.

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Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $2.15/day. Research shows it can be alleviated with monthly direct cash transfers, but reaching all 649 million people in extreme poverty with cash requires more money than is plausibly available from charitable donations.

By embedding philanthropy into the money we use in our daily lives, we can massively scale up funds available for direct cash transfers, without relying on (and competing for) donations. The result is a fairer form of money and a more equitable distribution of wealth and income.

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Blockchain technology allows us to launch Glo permissionlessly, globally, and as a grassroots movement of participants who opt in to Glo to support the mission. As an additional benefit, implementing Glo as a cryptocurrency allows us to find adoption within the existing $150 billion stablecoin market. The non-crypto alternative would be to convince nationstates and central banks to change how their currency works, which is politically infeasible.

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At launch, no one will accept the Glo dollar for payments. This is fine initially—consumers can already use it for savings, and crypto traders can use Glo as a stablecoin—but the lack of utility eventually limits adoption. We’ll work to grow the utility of Glo by partnering with payment platforms and payroll providers. We’ll strive for Glo to support any money use case—whatever’s possible with USD should be possible with Glo.

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Not everyone wants to live a USD denominated life. Our goal is to eventually launch the Glo euro, the Glo yen, etc. When there’s a Glo variant for each world currency, every person and company on earth can contribute to the eradication of extreme poverty by participating in passive philanthropy.

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Glo is issued by the Glo Foundation, an NGO. The Glo Foundation will promote the adoption of the Glo dollar.

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If our mission resonates with you, join Glo as an early adopter.

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