My name is James from ecoToken. We have been in discussions with RND and the Regen Foundation regarding a proposal to enhance the utility of REGEN tokens and enable Regen ecocredits to permeate through the web3 ecosystem via ecoToken’s cross-chain communication protocol.
For the past couple of years, ecoToken has been on a mission to make ecocredits widely accessible and deeply integrated into the web3 world. Our goal is to increase demand for ecocredits, thereby enabling the initiation of more environmental projects. We have closely collaborated with Regen because we share the vision of a decentralized, bottom-up approach to environmental action. By incentivizing small-scale actions through proven demand, we aim to create a positive feedback loop that will regenerate our planet.
Over the past two years, we have developed a cross-chain communication protocol that facilitates clear transaction lines between any registry and connected blockchain, with NFT verification issued. Through this protocol, we have sold over 10,000 credits valued at over a quarter million dollars on Solana. With our development now complete, we are ready to expand rapidly.
This proposal aims to align more closely with Regen and work together to complete a vertically integrated solution from credit origination to global distribution and verification. We propose to decentralize our protocol and, instead of launching our own token, integrate REGEN as the protocol’s token. With Regen’s credit issuance capabilities and ecoToken’s cross-chain distribution, we believe we can create a system that rivals and surpasses any existing ecocredit platform.
We look forward to your support and collaboration in making this vision a reality.
The Vision
The primary goal of this proposal is to formalize an alliance that completes a universal and global ecocrediting issuance, verification, and distribution network. ecoToken’s vision is to facilitate secure cross-chain ecocredit transac
James, thanks for this thorough overview of the vision for a deeper integration between ecotoken and Regen Network. I am very excited to see this proposal, and support it on behalf of RND. I think there are a few details to work on, and one clarification is that from my perspective the percentages of $REGEN token’s at different stages should be referred to as disbursements instead of “unlocking”, although I think the intention is the same: which is to have delivery and control over those tokens to be gated on delivery of mutually beneficial functionality. I think that together we can grow the Regen community and bring forth a greater potential. Regen Network is certainly stronger with EcoToken playing a leading role in the cross chain distribution of ecocredits.
Greetings all. Disclaimer - I’ve been working directly with James/ecoToken on the development of this proposal for community consumption. I’d also like to add my voice in support for moving forward. James and his team have established an ability to move expeditiously, ship product and stimulate sales of Regen ecocredits.
This community is in need of teams that can innovate and ship. The thought of having Regen move quickly into occupying the space of originator and distributor of ecocredits for all of web3 is exciting. I would encourage other team to come forward with business models to be built on top of Regen Network as we center this public infrastructure as a core foundation for web3 climate finance.
@James Bettauer thank you for your meaningful work here; this is a strong illustration of what Regen’s public infrastructure was built to do. I appreciate the thought and calculus put into this proposal. Note that my comments and questions are through the lens of my work on the Registry (credit origination, governance, quality, partnerships).
PoA Mechanism:
I’d like to hear more about the PoA mechanism. Historically, we have had only 1-2 validators with an understanding of credit origination, voluntary carbon markets, and registries. So noting that this step around token holders selecting informed validators that will have the authority to validate transactions has some layers to unpack.
I second Paul’s question around how the validator networks relate to each other.
Primary Source of Credits:
Regen Network is mentioned as the primary initial source of credits. Does this include all credits available on the Marketplace App? So Verra, Regen Registry, etc.?
Double-Counting:
Double-counting is a significant issue in carbon credits, and I imagine even more so with cross-chain transactions. I recommend addressing how that would be handled as that will be a red flag from anyone working in the VCM.
DAO Evaluation of Credits:
I’m interested in how the DAO will evaluate which credits to sell via the ecoLedger. Developing evaluation criteria for acceptance is a complex task, especially given the broad scope. So I would recommend working in time and effort into how that would be developed.
Thanks, James, for submitting this proposal.
I would like to respond from a high level.
One of the areas that the entire Regen Network vision has yet to get right is the sell side of this marketplace. The team at RND is doing an amazing job at focusing on the supply side, bringing in incredibly high quality and innovative credits from around the world, but for this entire project to work and for the long-term viability of Regen Network as a whole, we have to get the sell side rolling.
James and ecoToken have ALREADY been making some really important and meaningful sales to organizations across chain like the Solana Foundation. From what I understand James has meaningful connections to a number of chains and could be both selling large amounts of ecocredits to these communities as well as landing grants for development.
All of that underpins the work that RND is doing and plays right into the work of the token economics DAO. Ultimately, more ecocredits sold is the incoming tide that raises all ships.
The additional clarity that I would be looking for in this proposal is what is technically or financially needed from this voting community. I don’t see any mention of requesting $REGEN from the community fund. Does this proposal include an upgrade to the ledger (or multiple over time) that would enable the functionality you are proposing? If so, would ecoToken take the lead on the code changes required?
My last concern is about the intentions with the use of the $REGEN itself. a 5% allocation is a huge amount. It would put ecoToken into the very top echelon of token owners, up there with Regen Foundation and RND Inc. What assurances do we have as a community that is trying to grow this for the long term that you will not dump those tokens or slowly bleed them out to the detriment of the rest of us. Will there be any lock-ups for the tokens? Given that most investors selected a 2 or 3-year lockup (during which time they could stake and earn inflation), I think it
Thank you for this proposal here James! Great to have EcoToken as a Community Staking DAO, and love to see the ways you’re leaning into building for the Regen Network ecosystem!
Regarding the 5% of supply—theoretically Regen Foundation has this many tokens via our earnings on CSDAO pool—although that would wipe out most of that pool, so ideally some of these contributions could come from RND and Cerulean as well, although Foundation could provide a majority.
From a technical standpoint, how would these disbursements be managed? Directly by the Foundation? Via a DAO DAO account?
Regarding the cash budget—where are you proposing these funds would come from?
Lastly—do you have any market numbers regarding how much increase in sales/volume we might see in credits coming from Regen Network if we went down this path? Will there be any sales/marketing for ecocredits coming directly out of this work?
@James Bettauer Thanks you for this proposal, sounds really interesting and promissing.
One question I have is related to the carbon footprint of each transaction. I´ve been asked in the past around the GHG emissions of transactions when using RND´s ledger. Assuming different chains have different footprints per transaction, and assuming these footprints will sum up when bridging and might become significant in some cases, I was wondering if we shall think of mechanisms to transparently and effectively address this- in terms of traceability, communications and strategies to compensate the footprints in a more automatic manner. thoughts?