Jon Blaylock Seeks to Strengthen Churches Through Blockchain

Jon Blaylock has a rather interesting history behind him. In the past, he was a pastor at a church, though he’s since left the world of religion to focus on technical innovation, eventually beginning a company called 3lock that he’s now the CEO of.

Jon Blaylock: A Former Religious Leader with a Vision

His most recent venture involves establishing Ophir, a decentralized digital currency that will develop the first endowment smart contract on the blockchain (it’s named after a land mentioned in the Bible). The goal is to raise digital currency funds to help establish further churches throughout the Philippines – his native country – and help present institutions stay afloat.

The donation drive is known as “Project Ophir Crypto.” The goal is to attract crypto donations from all over the world to ensure churches in the country have what they need to keep their services going and their doors open to a God-seeking public. At the time of writing, several digital currencies are accepted through the program including USDT (a popular stable currency), USDC, ETH, SLP, and HEX.

Those who make donations are also set to receive Ophir tokens as rewards for their actions. While at the present time, these tokens possess no monetary value, this is likely to change in the future as Blaylock wants to make Ophir available for general trading on exchanges and similar platforms. In a recent statement, Blaylock mentioned:

Opportunities for positive transformation are limitless… By creating a platform that is easy to use and available to all, we hope to empower people to take control of their finances and unlock their true potential, and by accepting a variety of cryptocurrencies, including ETH, USDC, USDT, SLP HEX, and TXN, we can reach a wider audience and make it easier for you to support our project.

Continuing his discussion, he commented that if churches can move past technical blockades and adopt blockchain, the impacts will be “remarkable,” and he believes the current state of the church will be transformed for the better.

Blockchain and Churches Already Have a History

To an extent, the arenas of both religion and blockchain have already crossed paths multiple times. This largely stems from the COVID pandemic of three years ago. During that time, when religious services and institutions were cut off to the public due to stay-at-home orders, many had no means of donating to collection baskets so that their favorite steeples could remain upright.

This, in turn, caused many religious institutions to turn to blockchain and digital currencies. They began posting crypto addresses on their websites to ensure people could send money as necessary. In addition, the maneuver helped a lot of people avoid contact and touching funds that had clearly been handled by multiple hands and people over the years, thus limiting the spread of the disease.

Tags: blockchain, churches, Jon Blaylock, Ophir, Philippines