The Zoo

Abstract

The Zoo is a mission-driven project designed to direct cryptocurrency creator fees toward the preservation and funding of zoological institutions in developing countries. Built on the foundation of Kindness — a prior project that reached a $50 million market cap and successfully distributed funds to people in need — The Zoo scales the same proven model toward a new, urgent cause: the global zoo funding crisis.

Zoos in the developing world face existential threats. Declining tourism, currency instability, and the absence of government subsidies have left hundreds of institutions operating below minimum standards, with closures accelerating year over year. The animals in their care — many representing the last stable captive populations of threatened species — are at risk.

The Zoo addresses this directly. Every transaction within the ecosystem generates a small creator fee. Those fees are pooled and disbursed monthly to a growing network of verified zoos across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. No overhead. No speculation. Just recurring, community-powered funding routed to where it matters most.

Zoos in Crisis: A Global Emergency

The world's zoological institutions exist at the intersection of conservation, education, and community. For millions of people in developing nations, the local zoo is the only direct encounter with wildlife they will ever have. These institutions breed endangered species, train conservation staff, and anchor ecosystems of scientific research.

They are also disappearing.

The data

Traditional funding mechanisms — government grants, international NGOs, donor programs — are slow, inconsistent, and require institutional credibility that small zoos simply cannot build fast enough. The need is immediate. The funding gap is structural. No existing solution has closed it.

We Proved This Works

Before The Zoo, there was Kindness — a project launched several months ago on a simple premise: that creator fees generated by a community could be redirected away from developers and toward people in genuine need.

The result exceeded all projections. Kindness reached a $50 million market cap. Fees were collected, pooled, and distributed in documented tranches to verified individuals and organizations. Every commitment was honored. Every dollar was tracked.

What we learned from Kindness

• Communities will mobilize around causes they believe are real — but only if the founders demonstrate credibility through action, not promises.
• The fee model scales: as community size grows, fee revenue compounds, creating a self-sustaining engine that requires no ongoing fundraising.
• Transparency is the product. When people can see exactly where fees go, trust accelerates growth.
• The model works for individuals. It will work for institutions. The Zoo is the natural evolution.

The Zoo is not a new experiment. It is the second iteration of a proven system — applied to a cause that is larger, more urgent, and more visible.

The Zoo Protocol

The Zoo operates as a community-owned funding mechanism for verified zoological institutions. The core mechanism is simple: creator fees, generated automatically by every transaction, are routed to zoos.

There is no donation button. There is no charity arm. There is no gala. The funding is structural — built into the economics of the project — which means it runs continuously, regardless of market sentiment, news cycles, or donation fatigue.

The fee engine

The larger the community, the more transactions occur, the more fees accumulate. The system rewards growth directly. There is no scenario where growth does not benefit the zoos.

How Creator Fees Work

Creator fees are a standard mechanism in modern token ecosystems. A small percentage of each transaction — paid by buyers and sellers — is automatically routed to a designated wallet controlled by the project creators.

Traditionally, these fees go to developer wallets. They fund teams, operations, and profits. With The Zoo, we redirect this entire stream. The developer does not profit. The zoos do.

Fee mechanics

Zoo Selection & Recipient Criteria

We are targeting over 100 verified zoological institutions across developing nations. Selection is not arbitrary. Each institution is evaluated against a strict criteria framework before receiving any disbursement.

Selection criteria

• Location in a developing nation — Priority given to Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America, where funding gaps are most severe.
• Animal welfare standards — Institutions must demonstrate basic animal care compliance. We do not fund facilities that cannot meet minimum welfare conditions.
• Funding need verification — Financial documentation required. We prioritize institutions that are underfunded but operational — not those that have already closed.
• Point-of-contact accountability — Each partner zoo must designate a verified contact responsible for disbursement reporting.
• Commitment to transparency — Partners agree to provide quarterly photos, animal counts, and basic financial summaries in exchange for ongoing funding.

Target regions

Transparency & Accountability

Kindness worked because people could see exactly where the money went. The Zoo operates on the same principle. Opacity is not an option.

What we publish, every month

• Total fees collected for the month, broken down by week.
• Full list of receiving institutions with amounts sent.
• Transaction receipts or wire confirmations for each disbursement.
• Partner zoo update — photos, animal welfare notes, staff notes where available.
• Running total of all fees distributed since project launch.

Roadmap

Why We're Doing This

We built Kindness because we believed that money generated by a community could be used to help people who need it. We were right. The community was right. And the people we helped were real.

The Zoo exists for the same reason — but the stakes are different. A person who goes without help for a month can recover. A zoo that closes takes decades to replace, if ever. The animals dispersed. The conservation programs dissolved. The community that grew around it, gone.

We are not here to make promises. Kindness was the proof. The Zoo is the next step.

If you believe that a community built around a good cause is worth more than a community built around nothing — you're in the right place.