Here we are again. Another unarmed, defenseless black man killed by the police.  Another wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Another wave of actionless, apologetic cries, willfully ignorant excuses, and political re-directs as to what the real problem is. 

For nearly a decade, since the 2012 lynching of Trayvon Martin, we have been in a cycle of videoed, black murder porn, criminal immunity, and and corporate cowardice. In 2020 alone, we’ve seen just a snapshot of the black experience in America.

• The lynching of Ahmaud Arbery, a man simply jogging outside when neighborhood residents determined that he was a potential thief and threat to the community. 
• The murder of George Floyd, a man unarmed and already subdued when killed by police. Floyd was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Police have since been mum on the location of the alleged counterfeit.
• The murder of Breonna Taylor, a young woman that was killed during a no-knock warrant intrusion by the police, and was not found guilty of anything in relation to the warrant.

There are many responses to these events. Horror, grieving, victim-blaming, what-aboutism, protest, and self-reflection. Yet the undercurrent of people’s personal beliefs is simple: In America, today, being black can get you killed for simply being. 

Organizations around the world have come out in solidarity against police brutality and systemic racism, but startups in the blockchain ecosystem have remained astoundingly quiet. If the crypto-community wants to truly use this moment to change, it needs to recognize the problem first and pledge actionable ways to correct it.

The #CryptoForBlackLives Campaign is an effort to get blockchain community members and organizations to actionably fight police brutality and systemic racism. By supporting this pledge you swear to take the following actions within 30 days time, if an individual, and within 90 days time, if an organization, from the date of signature:

For companies: 

1. Publicly publish a press release stating the company stands in solidarity against police brutality and systemic racism. 
2. Publicly share your employment numbers, breaking down the current level of ethnic and sex-based diversity at the company. 
3. Develop and publicly share a diversity recruitment plan at all levels of the organization.
4. Develop and publicly share a diversity in leadership strategy to promote high-performing employees of color inside the company. 
5. Donate or match donations for the #CryptoForBlackLives Gitcoin Grants campaign, benefiting nonprofits which fight systemic inequity and racism, kicking off on Monday, June 15th. If you are interested in matching donations, please get in contact with Vivek Singh and Devin Walsh. 

For individuals: 

1. Automatically send a letter to your Congress representatives asking them to support the “Ending Qualified Immunity Act,” which will end police immunity from the consequences of their actions, by doing the following:
   1. Text'Sign RFCMJJ' to 50409 OR DM 'Sign RFCMJJ' to @resistbot on Twitter or Messenger! https://rs.bot/idLyUd 
2. Automatically send a letter to your state representatives asking them to create police reform now and increase law enforcement accountability by doing the following:
   1. Text 'Sign MZAAKH' to 50409 OR DM 'Sign MZAAKH' to @resistbot on Twitter or Messenger! https://rs.bot/rdi96B  
3. Donate any amount of crypto you can to the Gitcoin Grants for Social Justice campaign. All funds will be donated to a variety of civil rights, educational nonprofit, and economic empowerment organizations supporting communities of color.
4. Donate to the Black Girls CODE matching fund on Gitcoin to support young women of color to become the next leaders in blockchain technology. 
5. If you’re able, peacefully protest with the many thousands of others that are marching for change. 

All pledged action items should be made publicly available for all to see via Tweet using both the #CryptoForBlackLives #BlackLivesMatter hashtags. 

I know we all want the best for our communities, and we’d love for blockchain technology to serve as a mass-adopted tool to realize such change. To do so, we need to actually put in the work.