Hunger
As of the latest data, nearly 673 million people worldwide still lack sufficient food to lead healthy, active lives. Hunger remains responsible for almost half of all deaths in children under five, claiming the lives of roughly 2.16 million children each year. Tragically, a child dies from hunger-related causes every 15 seconds.
Pollution
Coal-burning power plants continue to be the world’s largest single source of pollution, accounting for approximately 35% of global electricity generation. Thousands of these facilities operate today, releasing massive quantities of pollutants, with hundreds more planned or under construction.
Poverty
Nearly 60% of the world’s population lives on less than $10 per day. More than 3.4 billion people survive on less than $7 a day, while over 847 million people live in extreme poverty on under $3 a day. Worldwide, nearly 900 million children endure poverty, with thousands dying each day as a direct result.
Power Production
Hundreds of millions of people globally still lack access to reliable electricity. Billions more live with unreliable power that stifles economic growth, education, healthcare, and overall quality of life.
Data Centers
The data centers powering our digital economy consumed roughly 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity worldwide in 2024. Demand is projected to roughly double by 2030, potentially reaching up to 945 TWh. This rapid growth is already creating serious problems — not only straining power grids and increasing fossil fuel dependence, but also consuming enormous amounts of water for cooling. A single large data center can use millions of gallons of water per day, worsening water scarcity for local communities, agriculture, and ecosystems in many regions.
Housing Affordability
Home prices have dramatically outpaced income growth in most developed nations. Young adults and retirees increasingly find homeownership out of reach. At the same time, rental rates have skyrocketed in many areas, often consuming 40–60% or more of household income. This combination of unaffordable home prices and crushing rental costs has placed enormous pressure on millions of people. Record levels of homelessness are now being reported across the United States and many other developed countries, with high housing costs identified as one of the primary drivers. Outdated building codes, restrictive zoning laws, minimum lot size requirements, and inefficient construction practices have kept housing expensive while delivering homes that are often oversized, energy-inefficient, and poorly integrated with their surroundings. The result is a growing population trapped in rental cycles or forced into cramped subdivisions with tiny lots — a model that fails both people and the planet.
These interconnected crises — hunger, pollution, poverty, unreliable power, exploding data center demands (including water consumption), and the housing affordability crisis — represent some of humanity’s most urgent challenges.
Prosper and Acorn’s Nexus offer a practical path forward.
Prosper is the ethical, blockchain-powered crowdfunding engine designed to raise the capital needed to build Acorn’s Nexus — a network of symbiotic, carbon-negative campuses. By using waste heat from on-site data centers to warm greenhouses instead of traditional water-intensive cooling, Nexus dramatically reduces water consumption. The campuses produce clean energy, grow organic food, process waste, and support thriving communities. The vision also includes developing smaller-footprint, highly efficient, nature-integrated housing around the campuses — homes designed with modern efficiencies, modular construction, and thoughtful integration with the land rather than crammed into conventional subdivisions. Together, Prosper and Nexus address all six of these challenges at once through a self-improving, purpose-driven model.
I cannot do this alone. I need your help to bring it to life.
Read the full vision to see how we can turn these global problems into a shared opportunity for abundance and regeneration.