Seeds

Seeds is a cryptocurrency-based global mutual aid platform operated by Seeds Inc. Individuals redeem a SEED to submit a Request for Help, which is then shared with the Seeds community; community members fulfill those requests with gifts made in crypto or by card. The stated design goal is that up to 100% of the value of each gift reaches the recipient, with deductions only for third-party transaction fees from the Ethereum network and Stripe. Because gifts are denominated and settled in SEEDS cryptocurrency, the platform states that transactions are viewable on the blockchain.

Givers receive SEEDS tokens in thanks at market price at the time of their gift — 100% of the value given for a one-time gift to the featured need, and up to 125% over time for recurring giving to the general fund (a December 2021 blog post described recurring giving as earning up to 150% at that time). A recurring giving bonus introduced September 1, 2023 grants an additional 10% of a giver's annual total in SEEDS for those who give weekly, monthly or annually for a year. Holders can trade SEEDS on third-party decentralized markets such as Uniswap, supply them as liquidity to the platform's mutual aid pool ("LP") to earn passive income and expand financial access, or redeem them to make Requests for Help for themselves or on behalf of others.

Alongside the giving platform, Seeds runs a paid course, "How to Build Abundance in Cryptocurrency," taught by founder Rachel Cook. The course spans about three months, structured as a four-week Core Module of twice-weekly Theory and Live Trading Sessions followed by tapering Advanced Live Trading Sessions, and covers cryptocurrency history, centralized versus decentralized systems, common trading mistakes, and, at various points, NFTs. Participants receive $2,499 in SEEDS at market value when charged and gain lifetime access to future live cohorts. Seeds states that course revenue sustains the project so that gift flows need not be tapped for operating costs. Community support and questions are handled primarily through the company's Discord, with email as an alternative.

Founding story

Founder Rachel Cook worked as a professional futures and equities trader and began buying Bitcoin in 2013, when it traded around $90 per coin; she founded Seeds in the same year. The company's account describes her encountering misogyny in institutionalized finance and while raising investment capital for Seeds, and, after periods of Vipassana meditation and reflection, concluding that the underlying issue was capitalism itself, which she characterizes as extractive and scarcity-based. She frames modern institutions — governance, financial mechanisms and the binary logic underpinning computing, tracing binary code back to Leibniz's reading of yin and yang in the I Ching — as reflecting an energetic imbalance she set out to correct. Seeds is presented as the embodiment of that mission: an ecosystem providing financial support so that people can move out of survival-driven scarcity.

Business model

Seeds operates a gift-based mutual aid loop rather than a fee-taking intermediary. People in need redeem a SEED to submit a Request for Help; givers fund those requests with crypto or a card, and 100% of the gift value reaches the recipient apart from third-party transaction fees charged by the Ethereum network and Stripe. Givers are compensated in SEEDS cryptocurrency equal to at least the value given, so the gift is positioned as costing the giver nothing in nominal terms while giving them upside if SEEDS appreciates. Because gifts are not skimmed for operating costs, the organization states that it funds itself through a paid cryptocurrency education course rather than through fees on giving. Seeds describes itself as intentionally sitting outside the for-profit/non-profit binary, contrasting itself with non-profits that typically route roughly 75% of incoming gifts to recipients and 25% to operations.

The organization states that its paid cryptocurrency course sustains the project, allowing 100% of gift value (net of Ethereum network and Stripe fees) to flow to recipients. The course is priced with participants receiving $2,499 in SEEDS at market value at the time of charge, offered either as an up-front payment or a nominally more expensive monthly plan, with lifetime access to future live cohorts. Additional listed offerings include 1-on-1 sessions and merchandise.

Traction

Seeds reports that people in 30 countries and counting have redeemed SEEDS and had gifts fulfilled, and that the largest single Request for Help granted to date exceeded $162,000. The company describes hundreds of community members in its Discord. In December 2021 it reported being 30 recurring givers short of a 100+ recurring-giver goal during its 12 Days of Giving campaign.

Latest developments

The recurring giving bonus, launched September 1, 2023, gives year-long weekly, monthly or annual givers an extra 10% of their annual gift total in SEEDS; a change to the delivery of that bonus took effect September 1, 2024. Recurring giving rewards are currently described as up to 125% of gift value in SEEDS. The 2025 live cohort of the "How to Build Abundance in Cryptocurrency" course closed enrollment on May 22, 2025 and began May 27, 2025, with an on-demand version offered between live runs. The site also promotes a "$10 mil for social good" initiative and liquidity provision to the mutual aid pool.