The Always With Us (AWU) Foundation has launched the BLX-backed HOMS token to address homelessness in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
The token was launched to an audience composed of 200 delegates from Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, India, Singapore, and the Philippines.
AWU said the launch is in line with the foundation’s mission of providing housing to the underprivileged.
Though the homeless have been recently overlooked as a beneficiary group in favor of other, more trendy causes, the housing crisis is still very much in effect. In the Philippines, where AWU operates from, there are 4.5 million homeless people.
This issue is so prevalent that affordable housing remains a part of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the United Nations.
The challenge of homing so many homeless people is largely an economic one: There is no sustainable model by which to create the needed homes, until now.
The AWU Foundation is financing the construction of homes through one of the most cutting-edge technologies of the last ten years: cryptocurrency.
Individuals and enterprises interested in supporting this cause can purchase the HOMS token, the proceeds of which will go to building homes for the homeless.
The first phase of the project will involve the construction of 1,000 homes in the Philippines, each of which will be represented by a non-fungible token (NFT).
While using cryptocurrency as a vehicle for housing may sound ambitious, the AWU foundation has two world-class innovations on its side.
The first is local marketplace Coexstar, which offers peer-to-peer trading in the Philippines and will be supporting the technical build of HOMS and the implementation of the smart token.
The second is BLX, one of the fastest growing blockchains in the world. The AWU’s issuance of the HOMS token will be built on BLX, a global blockchain that has seen significant traction in the Philippines, including its use among enterprises and government agencies.
AWU is one of the first non-profits to adopt BLX as its technological backbone. Lee stated that he chose BLX because of its traction in the Philippines.
“The fact that BLX is already widely in use by the business community in the Philippines is perfectly aligned with the goals of the AWU Foundation: We want business leaders, innovators, and technologists to lend their expertise in addressing the housing crisis,” Lee said.
