A Proof-of-Life Protocol?

Just at the beginning of September, SimplexDNA hosted the “Proof of Life” protocol workshop on biodiversity tokenization at the ETH Zürich. Above the roofs of the city and with the lake (full of eDNA!) in the background, we debated topics ranging from cryptoeconomics to the changing regulatory landscape for financial institutions. Both, virtually and personally in Zürich, we were joined by a wide range of experts from academia, the private sector and the web3 space with expertise in crypto, finance, law, entrepreneurship, biodiversity, ESG, to name just a few.

Photo: SimplexDNA

Among many distinguished guests who followed our invitation, we were lucky to receive valuable inputs from

Claudio Tessone, Professor for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies @ UZH

Rene Reinsberg, Co-Founder and President of the Celo Foundation

Gregory Landua, Co-Founder and CEO of Regen Network

Navigating the road ahead considering zero-knowledge location proof, the Nagoya protocol, indigenous land stewardship, natural capital, and ESG metrics are going to be an exciting challenge for our ongoing work. Without sharing too much yet, we have worked out a crypto-economic model and are embedding our vision to build the world's first open biodiversity monitoring platform!

Photo: SimplexDNA

Needless to say, despite the focused discussions there was also time for convivial moments which we cherished by all. Thanks a million to Celo and the Climate Collective for funding this work. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to everyone who joined us for this event and continues to be part of this journey. In a few weeks we are excited to publish the results of our research and the discussions during this workshop. Stay tuned...

Call to Action: In no uncertain terms do we have time to waste. The SimplexDNA team and all who want to join us, are invited to build a nature positive future. If you care about life on Earth, give us a follow and learn how to be part of the solution.

Climate Collective

The Climate Collective is a coalition of different players in the web3 space that have committed to place climate action at the core of their thinking. Members include Regen Network, Toucan, ReFi DAO and many others.

https://kumu.io/climate-collective/web3-climate-map

Recently, SimplexDNA has received funding through the Climate Collective’s builder grant program. In addition to providing financial and advisory support to tokenization projects, they have also developed the Web3 Climate map which you see in this post's image. It highlights the expanding and deeply interlinked system of crypto climate projects, which the Climate Collective understands and analyses on a profound level. Currently, the collective is working on a dashboard for regenerative assets. This effort is supposed to integrate both financial and ecological analysis - both important aspects in the necessary quantification of natural assets.

SimplexDNA is proud to be part of this ecosystem! You can check out recent developments and how the Climate Collective relates to Celo on the Celo forum.

Where do you think nature-based asset tokenization will stand in five years from now?

Will we succeed in creating reporting and financial systems that take the value of ecosystems into account?

On Celo

Follow us on a deeper dive into our recently announced partnership with Climate Collective, which will allow us to advance research and development for biodiversity tokenization. The Climate Collective was introduced by the Celo Foundation less than a year ago with the goal to shape a community driving the tokenization of natural capital, for example in carbon sequestration. Celo has decided to back 40% of their reserves in natural capital assets. But what exactly is Celo?

https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*i8AaYXSVBT8kpG_wrrkZGQ.jpeg

Initially, the project started as a mobile-first payment solution for the unbanked, by focussing on unparalleled mobile integration, for example through its mobile first wallet Valora. Celo is a carbon-neutral layer 1 and is increasingly positioning itself as the go-to chain for DeFi. It achieves carbon neutrality not only by having a PoS consensus but also by offsetting its emissions by funding community tree planting through Wren.

Celo has enabled multiple projects so far, such as:

• impactMarket, providing financing for UBI projects in underdeveloped regions.

• Moss, bringing carbon on-chain as the first nature backed currency bought by Celo to back its stablecoins.

• Doni, a decentralised method for charity fundraising and donations.

In addition to those, several native DeFi projects exist or are being developed on Celo and it is listed on most crypto exchange wallets.

The idea of Celo, that some would term solarpunk, is based on the arguments made by Charles Eisenstein in his book Sacred Economics. Eisenstein advocates for a profound revision of how our money and our economy works, bringing a modern philosophical input to the problem of the commons, especially from an ecological perspective, which is bound to become mainstream with the advent of natural capital accounting.

But Celo goes beyond offering a unique layer 1 for businesses and is prepared for the disruption in the crypto economy that CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) inevitably will bring. The obvious use case is the development of currencies on top of Celo, but the possibilities go beyond that. For example, extensive research into emerging economies and their banking needs can provide financial inclusion like few other projects. Celo is thus at the forefront of multiple new developments in the web3 space and will continue to bring unorthodox approaches to the field in the future.

For readers, an in-depth review of what Celo is and how it has developed can be found in the form of a blogpost by notboring: https://www.notboring.co/p/celo-building-a-regenerative-economy

For listeners, this Podcast Episode on the ReFi Podcast is highly recommended to get a grasp on Celo: Apple Podcasts