#21 Protocol Carbon Neutral Proposal Agoric

Governance
1

This proposal provides details for acquiring carbon credits via Nature Carbon Ton tokens from Osmosis and City Forest Credits from Regen Marketplace.*

Background

The environmental cost of blockchain technology is often cited as a problem that needs to be tackled before widespread adoption. Proof of Work consensus algorithms, such as those in use by Bitcoin and Ethereum, create an arms race of computing power in order for a miner to be the first to create a new block and so obtain the reward.

Cosmos’ Proof of Stake validation system drastically improves on this by making this competition take place over attracting more delegation of stake from users. Validators are not required to perform deliberately complicated calculations and so can run on relatively low power machines. However, these machines are still required to be online 24/7 and perform calculations to confirm each block as it is generated. This results in a carbon footprint for each blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Based on feedback from carbon footprint data reported by validators of Regen Network, Agoric is projected to emit at most 4,175 tons a year in carbon, negatively affecting our climate.

CosmosZERO Program: https://regennetwork.notion.site/Cosmos-ZERO-Achieve-Protocol-Validator-Net-Zero-Carbon-Emissions-ddd441e3ff3d4dbda83265433843ec10

CosmosZERO Carbon Footprint Analysis: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H-w4dBc1Svcmw_fzEKUFRgK_pga1qsGMHCTsUKUmWEA/edit

Proposal Details

Proposal: Make Agoric Carbon Neutral by Purchasing and Retiring (95% of Nature Carbon Ton and a 5% of City Forest Credits)

  • Voting YES to this proposal indicates approval to address Agoric carbon emissions footprint by purchasing 3,966.25 (USD $11,898.75 at USD $3 a credit) of Nature Carbon Ton and 208.75 (USD $8,350 at USD $40 a credit) of City Forest Credits
  • Voting NO to this proposal indicates that this funding should not be allocated.

Based on feedback from carbon footprint data reported by validators of Regen Network, and applying worst case scenario, Agoric is projected to emit at most 4,175 tons a year in carbon, negatively affecting our climate.

This proposal asks for a spend of 67,563.62 $BLD (USD $20,248.75 at current price of USD $0.299) from the Community Pool to purchase and retire carbon credits to offset Agoric 2022 carbon emissions, becoming a carbon neutral blockchain.

This proposal asks for an annual protocol commitment to purchase carbon credits and maintain carbon neutrality over time.

Method

  • Agoric ****will purchase 3,966.25 (USD $11,898.75 at USD $3 a credit) of Nature Carbon Ton Nature Carbon Ton on the Osmosis exchange from the NCT:Regen Pool and 208.75 (USD $8,350 at USD $40 a credit) of City Forest Credits on Regen Marketplace.
  • Agoric will retire these carbon credits on Regen Ledger to offset Agoric 2022 carbon emissions.
4 Likes
2

I am super amped to see this proposal in the Agoric forum. For context Regen Network is excited to be partnering with protocols across the IBC ecosystem to offset their network carbon, while also building carbon as an interchain asset that is uncorrelated with the ups and downs of the crypto market due to it’s real world utility and demand. I talked about this at cosmoverse (you can see that here) Cosmoverse 2022 live from Medellín - The Cosmos Ecosystem Conference - YouTube

I’d also note that the Regen Network Community is pretty excited about the IST launch, allow listing IST for use in the regen marketplace which is already live with over 6000 tons of carbon purchased and retired.

3 Likes
3

Thanks for raising this topic for discussion. My initial reaction is two fold: First, yes, we all definitely bear responsibility for stewardship of the planet and need to be thoughtful and take meaningful action, and, Second, I am not convinced that the approach being advocated is the optimal use of resources (or, has the best cost/benefit, if you prefer).

My skepticism comes primarily from concerns about the efficacy of carbon credits. I think the jury is still out on whether carbon credits actually create real climate action, and whether money spent on those is better spent on more direct action. I am also not sold on the amount attributed to Agoric. It’s not a terribly large amount to begin with (in comparison, a single flight from NYC to London creates about 1.7 tonnes). It is also likely that at least a portion of the validators are operating on renewables, etc. Given that, I have to wonder if the money would be better spent elsewhere.

For me to get behind this, I would want (1) more due diligence on the appropriate cost and the impact of this expenditure and (2) comparables to other climate-action options.

4

Thank you for your comments! You do raise good points. I would just like to point to some of our existing research on this area:
Validity of carbon credits - this is a fair point that has been raised. One thing I love about the Regen Network offerings is that they are unlike traditional carbon credits, which focus on a reduction, avoidance, or removal of carbon; which is a little single minded in the face of real climate change. Our ecocredits are held to higher standard and must have clear and verified ecological benefit, positively affecting our environment from a local to global scale. That may sound a little semantic, but the people choosing the credits for this are passionate about their jobs and our planet. You can read more about the NCT standard here: NCT: Pool Party Report - Toucan
Agoric’s carbon footprint - This is intentionally a worst case scenario number because surveying validators is time consuming. By using the worst case scenario, we can be positive your chain can claim carbon neutral status without imposing on the validator set. However, you do not have to use this method of calculating the carbon footprint. For example, a small survey set of validators could be used to approximate a more accurate carbon footprint. You can read more about different methods of footprint calculation from our research here: Climate Neutral Program _ CosmosZEROFootprint - Google Docs
In the same document above, we also explored alternative climate-action options.

5

Thank you for your work, Del Rey! Another thing the Agoric community might consider is briefly bonding the NCT tokens purchased as part of this proposal in an LP on Osmosis, which would earn some $REGEN rewards before offsetting and claiming a carbon neutral status.

1 Like
6

Yes - would love to see Agoric community move forward with this proposal. I’ve been working in this space with Regen Network since 2017 and on Cosmos ZERO campaign for the past year. This is a small step each of the chains in Cosmos can take to address our own carbon footprints, remove the carbon foot print monkey off of our backs in main stream media and join many other Cosmos zones similarly moving forward in a united front.

1 Like
7

worth noting that the price of the native token would be adjusted based on market price at the time of execution

8

This proposal provides details for acquiring carbon credits via Nature Carbon Ton tokens from Osmosis and City Forest Credits from Regen Marketplace.

Background

The environmental cost of blockchain technology is often cited as a problem that needs to be tackled before widespread adoption. Proof of Work consensus algorithms, such as those in use by Bitcoin and Ethereum, create an arms race of computing power in order for a miner to be the first to create a new block and so obtain the reward.

Cosmos’ Proof of Stake validation system drastically improves on this by making this competition take place over attracting more delegation of stake from users. Validators are not required to perform deliberately complicated calculations and so can run on relatively low power machines. However, these machines are still required to be online 24/7 and perform calculations to confirm each block as it is generated. This results in a carbon footprint for each blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Based on feedback from carbon footprint data reported by validators of Regen Network, Agoric is projected to emit at most 4,175 tons a year in carbon, negatively affecting our climate.

CosmosZERO Program: https://regennetwork.notion.site/Cosmos-ZERO-Achieve-Protocol-Validator-Net-Zero-Carbon-Emissions-ddd441e3ff3d4dbda83265433843ec10

CosmosZERO Carbon Footprint Analysis: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H-w4dBc1Svcmw_fzEKUFRgK_pga1qsGMHCTsUKUmWEA/edit

Proposal Details

Proposal: Make Agoric Carbon Neutral by Purchasing and Retiring (95% of Nature Carbon Ton and a 5% of City Forest Credits)

  • Voting YES to this proposal indicates approval to address Agoric carbon emissions footprint by purchasing 3,966.25 (USD $11,898.75 at USD $3 a credit) of Nature Carbon Ton and 208.75 (USD $8,350 at USD $40 a credit) of City Forest Credits
  • Voting NO to this proposal indicates that this funding should not be allocated.

Based on feedback from carbon footprint data reported by validators of Regen Network, and applying worst case scenario, Agoric is projected to emit at most 4,175 tons a year in carbon, negatively affecting our climate.

This proposal asks for a spend of 36,945 $BLD (USD $20,281 at current price of USD $0.54) from the Community Pool to purchase and retire carbon credits to offset Agoric 2022 carbon emissions, becoming a carbon neutral blockchain. The price of the native token would be adjusted based on market price at the time of execution

This proposal asks for an annual protocol commitment to purchase carbon credits and maintain carbon neutrality over time.

Method

  • Agoric ****will purchase 3,966.25 (USD $11,898.75 at USD $3 a credit) of Nature Carbon Ton Nature Carbon Ton on the Osmosis exchange from the NCT:Regen Pool and 208.75 (USD $8,350 at USD $40 a credit) of City Forest Credits on Regen Marketplace.
  • Agoric will retire these carbon credits on Regen Ledger to offset Agoric 2022 carbon emissions.

The price of the native token would be adjusted based on market price at the time of execution

Discussion Link Protocol Carbon Neutral Proposal Agoric - #7 by DelRey

9

Agoric Cosmos Zero: Offset Agoric Validator Set Signaling proposal

This proposal provides details for acquiring carbon credits via Nature Carbon Ton tokens from Osmosis and City Forest Credits from Regen Marketplace.

Background

The environmental cost of blockchain technology is often cited as a problem that needs to be tackled before widespread adoption. Proof of Work consensus algorithms, such as those in use by Bitcoin and other PoW networks, create an arms race of computing power in order for a miner to be the first to create a new block and so obtain the reward.

Cosmos’ Proof of Stake validation system drastically improves on this by making this competition take place over attracting more delegation of stake from users. Validators are not required to perform deliberately complicated calculations and so can run on relatively low power machines. However, these machines are still required to be online 24/7 and perform calculations to confirm each block as it is generated. This results in a carbon footprint for each blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Based on feedback from carbon footprint data reported by validators of Regen Network, Agoric Network is projected to emit at most 4,175 tons a year in carbon, negatively affecting our climate.

Proposal Details

Proposal: Make Agoric Carbon Neutral by Purchasing and Retiring (95% of Nature Carbon Ton and a 5% of City Forest Credits)

  • Voting YES to this proposal indicates approval to address Agoric Network carbon emissions footprint by purchasing 3,966.25 (USD $11,898.75 at USD $3 a credit) of Nature Carbon Ton and 208.75 (USD $8,350 at USD $40 a credit) of City Forest Credits at worst case projections representing the 2022 carbon footprint of Agoric Network.
  • Voting NO to this proposal indicates that this funding should not be allocated.

Based on feedback from carbon footprint data reported by validators of Regen Network, and applying the worst case scenario, Agoric Network is projected to emit at most 4,175 tons a year in carbon, negatively affecting our climate.

This proposal asks for a spend of 36,945 $BLD (USD $20,281 at current price of USD $0.54) from the Community Pool to purchase and retire carbon credits to offset Agoric Network 2022 carbon emissions, becoming a carbon neutral blockchain. The price of the native token would be adjusted based on market price at the time of execution

This proposal asks for an annual protocol commitment to purchase carbon credits and maintain carbon neutrality over time.

Method

  • Agoric Network will purchase 3,966.25 (USD $11,898.75 at USD $3 a credit) of Nature Carbon Ton Nature Carbon Ton on the Osmosis exchange from the NCT:Regen Pool and 208.75 (USD $8,350 at USD $40 a credit) of City Forest Credits on Regen Marketplace.
  • Agoric Network will retire these carbon credits on Regen Ledger to offset Agoric Network 2022 carbon emissions.

Info about the CosmosZERO Program: https://regennetwork.notion.site/Cosmos-ZERO-Achieve-Protocol-Validator-Net-Zero-Carbon-Emissions-ddd441e3ff3d4dbda83265433843ec10

CosmosZERO Carbon Footprint Analysis: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H-w4dBc1Svcmw_fzEKUFRgK_pga1qsGMHCTsUKUmWEA/edit

About Nature Carbon Ton (NCT) on Osmosis:

Regen Network is launching NCT, Nature Carbon Ton, a premium digital carbon basket of nature-based projects in cooperation with the Osmosis decentralized exchange. NCT is a fungible, IBC-compatible carbon basket backed by nature-based carbon credits that have verifiable ecological benefits issued onto the Regen Ledger blockchain. In order to provide sufficient liquidity for any Cosmos chain or validator to choose to offset their project for multiple years, Osmosis and Regen Network will co-own NCT liquidity, establishing NCT:$Regen and NCT:Osmo pools, with rewards. Once the non-custodial bridge from Polygon to Regen Ledger is completed, these pools will launch, offering not only the opportunity for protocol offsetting via NCT on Osmosis, but protocol liquidity rewards mining.

Discussion Link Protocol Carbon Neutral Proposal Agoric - #8 by DelRey

10

Stakecito supports this proposal!

Let’s make the Cosmos ecosystem carbon neutral, create strong interchain alliances such as CosmosZERO, and then help validators and projects to run more sustainable & clean infrastructure, which will reduce their carbon footprint and lower the environmental costs!