Porridge Mix 2

Delays, destruction and delivery.

The past month has presented many challenges for One-Grain’s technical teams as they literally battle on various fronts. 

You may have seen that OneGrain - the Game, is set for official release early in the new year. The development team responsible are an extraordinary group of people based in Ukraine. The challenge to deploying the game is insignificant in comparison to what the team have faced in their daily lives and OneGrain will be eternally grateful to them for their hard work in the face of tyranny.

That being said, progress has been exceptional and the game is already available on Android (Donwload here - shorturl.at/howU0) with the expectation it will be available on IoS in the new year. In short, OneGrainz takes the form of a single player runner (think TempleRun) and every ‘grain’ you collect will go toward our cause. So, if you’re bored, instead of scrolling get running and make a difference to those who need it. 

In other news, we are approaching our first donation! Which marks an enormous moment for OneGrain. Our thanks go to all of our users so far and you can expect to see various media posts shortly.

As always, OneGrain is a community and we are nothing without you. So please get in touch, get involved and help make food poverty a thing of the past.

Porridge Mix 1

This series of blogs will be on the weekly happenings at One-Grain: Our plans, our progress and features planned for the coming weeks. Hopefully this will give you a better understanding of how the services operate and what we are doing to grow our user base. 

So, enough of the pretence and on with the build. The extension has been in it’s V1 state for over a month now and we have seen some small organic growth through the app store and friends. Technically speaking, we are in a solid position and will look to grow the user base as much as possible in the run up to Christmas. It is our intention to partner with a variety of eco friendly brands to offer discounts and offers to our users through the extension. This is very much in it’s infancy but expect to see something exciting nearer Christmas. 

Alongside the extension, we recognised that One-Grain’s philosophy of effective altruism can be extended to other aspects of our users lives and increase the amount of support we can provide to those who need it. The extension primarily focuses on those who use desktop and laptop browsers for the majority of their day but is not yet available on mobile. An area we have talked about at length is how to put the power of effective altruism into the hands of our users. Moreover, understand how we interact with our devices and what we could make to harness that activity. We came to the conclusion that building a game, where points equate to grains, could be a fun and exciting way of generating more users, more clicks and more grains.

We have been building the GRAINZ game for the last month and hope to share it with you soon! Once we have released this we will focus on the growth of the community and generating as many grains as possible. The next blog should include some samples of the game and more updates on the extensions success!

Effective Altruism

It’s not quite certain where the term Altruism came from. Many refer to the French Philosopher Auguste Comte as the first user of the phrase derived from the word ‘altruisme’ meaning the antonym of egoism but simply put - Altruism is a concern and focus on the happiness of others. 

The difficulty for many in a booming capitalist economy is that it’s incredibly hard to see past your own happiness and the maintenance of it. Particularly for corporate business across the country, the necessity to outstrip your peers, pay your ‘share-holders’, avoid as much tax as possible and personally climb the ladder to be ‘successful’ is all too plain to see. 

There is no issue in this pursuit and, for many, it is a necessary part of a happy life. However, in a world where many are not so lucky to be afforded the opportunity, it’s more important than ever to try and harness altruistic principles and help those less fortunate. 

Many businesses and people have begun looking to this. The B Corp structures ensure that process and delivery in private businesses meet a rigorous ethical standard. Companies like Ecosia donate 80% of profits to their tree initiative and Ocean Bottle use their profits to clean up beach plastic. 

The key component to this is that the products and services provided are of an excellent standard. Those who wish to be involved in making a difference may do so without an enormous change or scrimping on quality. They may still protect their own happiness. 

Of course, the other more fundamental benefit of quality products is that it encourages buyers to become more involved in serious issues we face as a society. The more awareness that is raised through innovative businesses, the better for all. 

One-Grain was founded to join this idea of effective Altruism and allow people to make a difference to those who need it the most. It is the very beginning of the journey but there is no doubt it will effective the lives of many and we need your help!

This is why.

There are many key aspects to a happy and fulfilled life, too many in truth to tell in this first instalment of the Rice Report. However, it is important to recognise that these aspects have a hierarchy and indeed, without protecting the core aspects and functions, some may not take advantage of the others. 

To enjoy any of life’s opportunities, freedoms and joys, you must, by very necessity, be alive. That requires sustenance, shelter and warmth. The United Kingdom and the World has struggled desperately to offer even these necessities to the masses. It’s simple to sit in a position of relative privilege and pine on the solutions before posting a tokenary gesture of your concern but the reality is that this won’t change the world. It won’t really help those people that need it and it won’t inspire others to do so. 

The reason One-Grain exists is so that you, the user, may make a difference every day. You will be active in this battle against the poverty we see today and you play a part in feeding those who aren’t so fortunate. 

This is the beginning, with plenty to come, but tell your friends, your family and your colleagues that a difference is only a matter of clicks away.

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