ReFi (1) can serve as a model to sustainably alleviate the millions of individuals who currently lack fundamental fair access to financial services that would enable them to satisfy their daily requirements.

According to Mashiat Mutmainnah (2), ReFi also has the power to redefine how money is used because it raises awareness of how the current financial institutions function in an exploitative and extractive way.

She compared fast fashion to a core principle of ReFi, equitable accessibility, and distribution. She explained that a child laborer must be used in its production for users to buy a shirt for $5. She concluded by stating that these extractive systems no longer work for people.

ReFi is frequently associated with climate, which is also one of its pillars. Still, it should also be noted that ReFi has implemented concrete and approachable use cases where people may plug in and take part in models and systems that can contribute to the ecosystem’s general prosperity.

ReFi should be viewed as a way to maintain sustainability by stabilizing the climate and biodiversity, maintaining fair access within global communities, and having the potential to develop new financial models and proliferate new systems.

Non-fungible tokens, as she later mentioned (3), NFTs can be used for the social and public good, as she later mentioned a pilot program that incorporated a “loyalty NFT rewards program.” Like Starbucks’ recent NFT loyalty program, it is a plan for producing favorable and long-lasting advantages.

In 2021, more creators and platforms were examining and growing the practical usage of peer-to-peer and peer-to-peer commercial efforts in contrast to the excitement and rumors spreading around NFTs. This is comparable to purchasing an NFT that entitles the holder to a free coffee every ten days. In these approaches, NFTs produce more economically feasible benefits than purchasing the item and increase awareness of the good or services.

Although it is beyond NFTs, adoption is not without difficulty. Numerous infrastructure pieces are needed to investigate, including building more dynamic products to enable such initiatives. It has been described as a dance between making the product frictionless for seamless adoption and empowering the users to be knowledgeable users who fully own their assets.

What is meant by ReFi?

Regenerative Finance (ReFi) is a concept that uses financial incentives to encourage communities to address systemic problems that have their roots in theories of regenerative economies. This new financial structure supports people earning money by working on and contributing to good public projects.

Most blockchain and cryptocurrency projects have focused on creating technologies based on ReFi principles. Regenerative finance tries to address the tragedy of the commons, so it’s critical first to understand the issue as it attempts to address blockchain’s role in attaining this goal.

The idea of excessive consumption of public assets is a part of the tragedy of the commons ideology. Clean air and fresh water are examples of public goods that are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, meaning that one person cannot prevent others from using them and that their use does not preclude others from using them.

Public commodities are available for everyone to use, but there is a chance that they may be overused and eventually run out. Additionally, a decentralized and trustless blockchain can assist in tracking individual contributions to or overuse of public goods because it has the potential to establish social incentives that can be independently verified for communities to benefit the surrounding society through the use of NFT-based digital ownership certificates (4).

ReFi could effectively support public goods and lessen the negative effects of the tragedy of the commons if it is properly applied, executed, and generally adopted.