• General
  • RFC: blockchain native carbon tokens - Coorest x KlimaDAO

MarcusAurelius

  1. Floodlight aggregates satellite data, in this case, biomass data is used as an indicator for CO2 absorption. Every month Floodlight put the outcome of their analysis on-chain because smart contracts can't digest this raw data. Each project has a project ID, Coorest smart contract makes an Oracle once a month. The outcome of the Orcal call determines if a project can claim CCO2 tokens. If biomass data shows negative, indicating the trees are lost, the minting of CCO2 tokens is locked. The raw data and the algo for analyzing the data happens at the side of Floodlight. Right now, this is the only Oracle for now. We are developing dMRV 2.0 at this moment to add more data and display more collected satellite data and store that on-chain.

2.We are focused on setting new standards for dMRV and crypto-native carbon assets. at this moment we use satellite data because it's the most scalable tech for dMRV. Over time we will ad on-ground and in-the-ground sensor data to our dMRV to enrich data collection through the triangulation of data sources. Coorest will stick with nature / tree planting projects for the foreseeable future. Other methodologies can only be issued under the same CCO2 token if these projects can comply with the dMRV data collection criteria we have for now. For blue carbon projects for example we will need a new token bCCO2 for example.

  1. For the long-term we believe fungibility is key to success. It helps us to set up: 1. Insurance product 2. Sales channels are sourced from the same pool of CCO2 tokens 3.No competition between projects for selling their CCO2 tokens through our sales channels. 4. Fund all onboarded projects at the same time through our sales channels.

  2. We have multiple projects of different sizes in the pipeline. This year we will onboard between 100 and 800 hectares. Within 3 years we will have onboarded a minimum of 10.000 hectares. But this is hard to predict because we are getting resources in place to enhance our onboarding capacity.

    I would like to make an additional point regarding ratings. At Coorest we think rating will be determined by the following criteria:

    1. dMRV: which data sources / how is the data used / frequency of data heartbeats / where is the data stored
    2. additionality: New planted trees / newly deployed carbon capture initiatives
    3. transparency: who is controlling what / where does the money go from selling carbon assets
    4. decentralization: How is the issuance and retirement of carbon assets controlled (decentralized vs centralised)

    For these reasons, we chose to go, crypto native, because it allows us to have a different architecture design compared to non-crypto native carbon assets. Everything that deals with bridging off-chain to on-chain will have centralized bottlenecks preventing fully utilizing dMRV, transparency, and decentralization.

      Coorest
      Nick, only the market will show the demand for Coorest tokens.

      These tokens will compete with:

      • one-bridge tokens such as BCT, NCT
      • two-bridge tokens which were usued before Verra and Gold Standard adopt rules of tokenization
      • tokens which will be usued after Verra and Gold Standard adopt rules of tokenization. Such Protocols as Toucan and Flowcarbon are ready to play by the new rules.
      • tokens which will be usued after creating international rules for DVCM (IETA councel group on digital climate markets)

      I gave you some tips from my studying of carbon market and ways of tokenization.
      You can use them or not.

        Thanks for the proposal @Coorest

        One thing I have not seen directly answered is the amount of supply that will be available for retirements? Are we talking 10s of tonnes, 100s of tonnes, 1,000s of tonnes (or more) in the next year and beyond?

        I see a couple of my concerns have been raised above from @carbonadvisor (thanks for the inputs here, Dmitri).

        Re third-party verification and validation, understood that your satellite data partner monitors and enables the issuance of the CCO2 tokens. Making this process understandable to a broader audience would certainly help increase confidence in the solution and demonstrate to the market how this tech can help validate the robustness of supply within the VCM. As well as increase confidence and demand for CCO2 itself. Are there any resources you already have here to help communicate this approach, and its results, to the market?

        I am not totally convinced (or perhaps I don't fully understand) the approach you are taking by using EUAs to benchmark prices. The EU ETS pricing mechanism is obviously different to that of voluntary credits. However, as Marcus points out, I do think Carbonmark can play a role in validating (or not) this approach.

        @carbonadvisor raises a fair challenge around risks to the broader Digital Carbon Market if carbon credits onboarded into it are not up to the standards expected within the market. A personal opinion I hold here is that through the infrastructure KlimaDAO has built for the demand-side of the market, it can and should play a role in enabling and collaborating with novel approaches within the VCM's supply-side. Carbonmark offers a route to do this without immediately relying on our own LP capabilities. Listing CCO2 on Carbonmark can therefore be seen as providing a service to Coorest that can help them grow and validate their product, before a deeper partnership in future.

        This therefore seems to be an appealing collaboration to pursue, which gets to the very reason KlimaDAO has built open-source, community-owned tech -- through decentralized governance the DAO can use opportunities like this to consider the role it wants to play in the market:

        • Should it simply provide a route to market for the most established and utilized carbon credits (which is arguably what it does today);
        • should it create a platform to support and accelerate leading innovators within the market (of which I perceive Coorest to be);
        • or should KlimaDAO not gatekeep at all and, through demand, let the "market decide" what is good and what is not?

        ...This is perhaps more of a philosophical discussion point. But, to be very blunt if Carbonmark allows CCO2s to be listed, and there is no demand, KlimaDAO doesn't take much risk here (at least from a financial sense). Conversely, if its a success and CCO2s secure further validation and demand through this collab (e.g. via Provide Eco mentioned by @ryfleisch ) KlimaDAO stands to provide legitimate value to Coorest and the market more generally. Further, success here can open up routes for a deeper collaboration, whether that is bonding, forward funding as with SCB and Aither, etc.

        Whether Carbonmark supports Coorest or not, I am sure they will come up against scrutiny because that is how the VCM regulates itself. Coorest are clearly serious, have extensive documentation and are gaining traction to bring them to where they are today. In addition, with the data-led approach they appear to be well-placed to deal with scrutiny by using objective data.

        To summarize, from what I have read so far, I am generally "for" an experiment here with listing CCO2s on Carbonmark to help the validation of both Coorest and KlimaDAO's approach in the market.

        Obviously there's more work to be done (not least understanding supply profiles, Coorest's own ambitions, etc...) before having a serious conversation around KlimaDAO bonding CCO2s, or other collaborations.

          carbonadvisor

          I have seen the public consultations of Verra and GS. I think bridging can be avoided and therefore should be avoided. This greatly enhances transparency, safety, and decentralization. Why have the carbon credits off-chain if it can be done on-chain?

            Coorest
            The market (companies and investors) creates requirements for carbon credits.

            It is important for them that the rights of the local comunities are not violated during the implementation of climate projects. This is the reason why public consultations are held.

            There is absolutely no difference that carbon credits are on-chain or off-chain.

            Sustainable development benefits and safeguards - IC-VCM Core carbon principle
            https://icvcm.org/the-core-carbon-principles ""

            PROCESS TO BE CERTIFIED GOLD STANDARD
            https://globalgoals.goldstandard.org/certify-a-project/

            if it's not a secret, who in your company was engaged in the analysis of the carbon market before the development of the Coorest project?

            Coorest Coorest

            Thanks for addressing those points, sounds like supply will be pretty constrained in the short term.

            Side note: this does remind me of the whole "kilograms vs tonnes" discussion - I undestand CCO2 is denominated in kilograms instead of tonnes, honestly in a world of fungible tokens I'm not super fussed about that, though the industry standard is one tonne so in my opinion fighting against that isn't really worth the effort 🤷‍♂️

            Clarifying Scope

            Just to make sure everyone is clear on the scope of this proposal, let's say hypothetically that this RFC advances, passes governance in a few weeks and then a month or two later the Carbonmark integration is successfully implemented:

            1. How many tonnes would Coorest expect to list on Carbonmark initially?
            2. Are there other significant holders of CCO2 besides Coorest itself (on behalf of your project developers) who you expect to list?

            Overall I concur with 0xy_Moron that this initial proposal to include CCO2s in Carbonmark is a reasonable starting point, as there is little financial risk to the DAO. Data generated from CCO2 listings on Carbonmark would provide hard evidence of whether there is underlying demand for the credits at the listed prices.

            This demand signal will also gauge the extent to which the Coorest Carbon Standard has established credibility with its innovative dMRV methodology and use of blockchain-native credit issuance.

            In terms of reputational risk should issues arise with Coorest's standard or methodology, I'm not overly concerned as long as we clearly indicate in Carbonmark that CCO2 is a distinct asset from the traditional one-way bridged carbon credits originally issued under Verra's VCS standard.

            This public governance process to vet the Coorest Carbon Standard and identify potential issues demonstrates KlimaDAO's commitment to credible neutrality. Even assuming all the concerns raised here are addressed, KlimaDAO will only gradually integrate this new credit issuance system into its existing infrastructure, with subsequent governance proposals required at each point of further integration (e.g. to create a liquidity pool or enable bonding).

            Retirement Aggregator?

            Another open question, more for the KlimaDAO community rather than Coorest, is whether this initial proposal should include integration of CCO2 into the retirement aggregator?

            Considering retirement is a key function of the Carbonmark product, I'd argue yes it should, but that will also mean that the treasury would start accumulating CCO2 fees from the retirement aggregator.

            Technically KIP-17 specifically delegated decisions about inclusion in the retirement aggregator to DAO contributors rather than the KIP governance process. As articulated in KIP-17, this establishes an "integration funnel" for new carbon assets with an increasing level of governance required for increasing levels of integration:

            • Partnerships and Policy teams vet the new asset for sufficient liquidity, as well as the quality of the underlying offset tonnage and security of the bridging technology.
            • If due diligence does not reveal any significant concerns, the asset can be added to the retirement aggregator and enabled as a reserve asset so fees count toward KLIMA backing.
            • If the asset continues to perform well and gain adoption, a KIP can be put forward by the Policy team to open bonding for the asset.

            Given that this is the first new carbon standard we've had initiate the governance process for inclusion, it would be worth discussing whether any retireable credit which is approved for integration with Carbonmark should also include integration in the retirement aggregator, and therefore accumulation of fees denominated in that type of credit.

            In my opinion, additional fees are a pure win for the protocol in terms of treasury market value and diversity of carbon credits. Furthermore, I there should be some ability for KlimaDAO to benefit from inclusion of CCO2 in Carbonmark. A 1% convenience fee on retiring CCO2 via Carbonmark's retirement aggregator integration seems like a reasonable way to do so without imposing extractive fees on Coorest itself or the project developers in exchange for inclusion.

              MarcusAurelius
              As far as I understand, marketplaces are created precisely for the convenience of customers.

              Therefore, I propose:

              • to control the quality of carbon credits listed on Carbonmark, and not to allow all projects,

              • to provide the buyer with all the necessary information about the project, To make a FAQ section about existing tokenization methods and used in particular listing.

              • to provide the buyer with the opportunity to interact with a marketplace (leave feedback to the climate project and directly to the seller of carbon credits).

              Marketplaces is a big business. It makes money from listing, selling fees, ads.
              After approval of tokenization rules, there will be a hige increase in carbon credits marketplaces.
              And the one who creates the best will win.

              I think it's a good idea to implement a retirement function for all the carbon credits being listed.

              MarcusAurelius

              We would have to consult with our onboarded projects for the amount and price for the Carbonmark listing.

              Regarding the retirement of CCO2 tokens. That needs to happen via Coorest smart contracts in order to generate the proof of carbon compensation certificates.

                Coorest right and those smart contracts are permissionless I assume?

                Meaning we can build an integration into Carbonmark that allows users to buy and retire CCO2 in a single transaction by invoking the underlying CCO2 retirement function on the Coorest contracts.

                We have a smart contract called the Retirement Aggregator that provides convenience functions for our products, and I'm suggesting that the initial integration of CCO2s into Carbonmark should include that functionality.

                The aggregator's integration would include generating the proof/certificate and forwarding it along to the end-user who initiated the retirement

                Yes, our smart contracts are permissionless. What convenience functions are provided by the retirement aggregator?

                  Coorest it would wrap the Carbonmark CCO2 purchase, CCO2 retirement action, and certificate issuance into a single transaction.

                  Since it's an aggregator, it also provides a single unified interface for interacting with multiple different carbon assets. Each carbon bridge or on-chain carbon credit issuer has its own design idiosyncrasies and function specification, so for partners building integrations with digital carbon it's a lot simpler to just integrate with the KlimaDAO RA and have a standard function to call for retirement regardless of whether the end-user is retiring e.g. BCT, MCO2 or CCO2

                  In the case of pooled assets like BCT, it also handles redemption of an underlying e.g. TCO2 token from the pool

                    Coorest looks like a hugely innovative project, and bringing cutting-edge dMRV tech to a blockchain-native carbon token is a really welcome development. The partnership with Etherisc is also really promising. Clearly, if you guys get this right this will be a big step forward for the Digital Carbon Market.

                    Your answers to the questions the KlimaDAO community have asked above are thoughtful and impressive. However, as others have touched on above, I don’t really see the logic behind the price being benchmarked in any way to the EU ETS. Of course, a listing on Carbonmark will allow price discovery but I would like to see the starting point more thoroughly justified than has been the case so far. As a compliance market under the control of the European Parliament, the EU ETS is a completely different animal to the VCM – the pricing of carbon in the cap-and-trade scheme is subject to forces like the end of April compliance deadline (it’s down quite a lot now, for example, early in a new year), CBAM reforms, expansion of covered industries, number of free allowances, etc. In other words, forces that are not at play in the VCM, which, moreover, has a large range of different types of credits available – therefore creating competition between standards, projects, etc. that has no equivalent in the EU ETS. So I guess my main question is: what makes the EU ETS a reasonable point of comparison for a VCM credit based on tree planting?

                    Secondly, when you say the price will be EU ETS but 30% lower, how does the CCO2 price reflect changes in the EU ETS price, which is pretty volatile itself?

                    To be clear, this is not to say that there isn’t room for credits in the DCM priced far above UBO, NBO, BCT, NCT - and even the blue carbon currently available on Carbonmark for $30. And I'm pleased to see you showing flexibility on pricing in your answer To MarcusAurelius above about your onboarded projects having a say. But, naturally, any proposed listing surely stands more chance of being a success if it is priced reasonably from day one. Unfortunately, I think there is a real risk that CCO2 would sit on the shelf for some time before the price needed to be lowered to find a market if the approach of 70% of EU ETS pricing is chosen.

                    Hi, thanks for your reply.
                    We are aware that the EU ETS is a different animal. Nonetheless, we see it as an important price indicator for the prices in the VCM. After conversations with local and national authorities, we think that in the near future carbon neutrality claims must be verifiable linked to projects with additionally (new tree planting). We expect to see some kind of merger between the compliance market and VCM after implementing CBAM. As Western/European governments are trying to force/incentivize companies to reduce emissions first and compensate for leftover emissions to become carbon neutral. But in the end, it's the market that decides the price. So far we have seen that smaller amounts of CCO2 tokens can be sold for 0.07 USD per kilo / 70 USD per tonne.
                    The price of EU ETS is indeed volatile, but the trend shows an increase in price over the last year. Initially, prices are set manually by us but we would like the market forces to determine the price via LPs and marketplaces. Coorest doesn't want to participate as a market maker, we just want to focus on tech development and onboarding of projects. The onboarded projects should have the biggest voice in the market, and that's what we are focussing on right now.
                    What I find interesting personally are the price difference between some of the carbon projects I see off-chain compared to on-chain. Sinkit sells carbon for 200 euro per tonne for example. I wonder how this works and who buys it.

                      MarcusAurelius
                      We have already developed a tool for that. People can purchase a PoCC certificate with credit card and Apply pay without having to interact with blockchain/wallets/smart contracts. When an amount is bought, CCO2 tokens are burnt and converted into a certificate and sent out as a PDF to email and link to transaction hash.

                      Visit our website: https://www.coorest.io and scrool down. https://www.arbon.one/checkout

                      Coorest
                      I'm not quite convinced that this strategy of pegging CCO2's to the EU ETS makes sense. While we are indeed seeing a 'merger' between compliance and voluntary systems, the primary play thus far is a merger between carbon tax systems and the VCM (e.g. what's occurred in Colombia and South Africa). The exception to this is California's cap and trade system which also accepts voluntary offsets to a certain extent. We also have the emergence of compliance regimes that leverage voluntary offsets (CORSIA). Importantly, this latter system provides more price discovery and market freedom compared to a system like the EU ETS that is still highly influenced by government intervention.

                      That said, it sounds like Coorest is open to the project developers themselves establishing pricing for CCO2s. However, given that all CCO2s are fungible, this may lead to a situation where project developers that can establish projects at the lowest cost will be able to out compete and move a greater share of volume compared to others in Coorest's network. Does Coorest envision a future where individual project tokens are issued that could be deposited into a CCO2 pool for fungibility, but still allow clients to purchase credits from individual projects with differentiated pricing?

                      Overall, I appreciate the healthy discussion on this proposal. There are two major points that I could see moving to a more formal forum vote:
                      1) The inclusion of CCO2s on Carbonmark and their integration into KlimaDAO's RA.
                      2) The initiation of a more formal policy study on building CCO2 liquidity and how KlimaDAO may be able to assist with that (for, example, via bonding).

                      Finally, I'd like to touch on the response to Marcus' comment on the value of the RA. The RA's value is for integration partners to have one single interface / contract system to plug into, rather than X number of bridging partners and carbon credit issuers such as Coorest. Potentially, the usage of this could free up development resources from Coorest on the side of certificate generation and fiat 2 retirement.

                        Dionysus

                        HI and thanks for your feedback. We are definitely not married to pegging the CCO2 price to the EU ETS. BUt for now we think it makes sense. But when the market decides otherwise we would be the first to rethink that.
                        I like to point out an example of a municipality in The Netherlands creating their own price for "fair" price for CO2. The want to calculate the price of 875 euro per tonne. Yes, that's not a typo. See article below.
                        https://klimaatverbond.nl/actueel/provincie-utrecht-gaat-als-eerste-overheid-in-nederland-een-eerlijke-co2-prijs-hanteren/

                        In the end this carbon market is very messy and basically nobody really knows the price.

                        Coorest doesn't envision project-specific tokens. This is why we created the Coorest Carbon Standard to facilitate the minting of fungible carbon tokens. Clients can still purchase project-specific CCO2 tokens directly from a farmer or tree planting project.

                        The certificates and fiat retirement don't require us a lot of resources. All the tech is already developed and deployed and has a highly scalable design.

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