Blockchain images of nature
The technology behind the NAE is a combination of the distributed and minable ledger of a blockchain platform and the decentralised storage, ownership and movement of value through cryptocurrencies — encrypted digital assets that can be traded anonymously on the internet.
Blockchains are numerical matrices stored and synced in multiple nodes in the computers of participating users. Like a synced google doc with multiple editors , the blockchain makes it possible for transactions to be distributed and agreed across the web of nodes in the chain. Cryptocurrencies permit the creation and transfer of digital assets that are verified and protected through encryption. A range of new natural capital asset classes are to be created, financed and traded via the NAE.
EARTH tokens are not alone in the new world of conservation by cryptocurrency. At the most basic level you need a computer, an email address, a mobile phone to which text-messages containing verification codes can be sent, a photo ID, and, of course, money that can be directed to the purchase of the natural asset-backed cryptocurrency. Instead you need to buy via an online currency exchange like Coinbase , for which you have to set up a photo ID confirmed user account verified through a number sent to an account-linked mobile phone.
Significant bandwidth and hardware capacity are thus required, as well as a smattering of technical know-how, or at least an inclination to engage with digital-numerical instructions and techno-aesthetics. Claims for the positive environmental impacts of cryptocurrency creation also have a hollow ring when the energy usage of sustaining and synchronising multiple blockchain nodes is considered.
The massive computer technology behind Bitcoin has been calculated to be using more energy than New Zealand. Indeed China, where a huge proportion of cryptocurrency activity is located due to the provision of cheap energy, is now planning a ban on cryptocurrency operations. Fears of greater regulation are already rippling through the parallel world of cryptocurrencies.
A cryptocurrency sell-off is taking place as I write. Creating, mining and accumulating cryptocurrency bubbles of value through appealing to environmental concerns is clearly consistent with speculative tendencies in an era of financialised neoliberalism.
At the same time it seems wildly dissonant with more conventional practices of environmental care and the equitable distribution of value. Sian Sullivan is an environmental anthropologist and political ecologist working at the intersections between culture, nature and finance, with the objective of supporting just and equitable environmental policies.
Since , and through a longstanding collaboration with the Namibian NGO Save the Rhino Trust , she has conducted ethnographic and ecological research in north-west Namibia. This is a greatarticl on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. Both of them are in new for me and this post is really helpful for me to know them. Keep posting such wonderful posts.
Consumers, led by socially conscious millennials with increasing buying power, want to purchase greener products and invest in sustainable projects. But until now, despite huge advances in technology, monitoring and reducing our impact on the planet has been difficult. So how can we start having a positive impact on an individual level, without dramatically changing our lifestyles? One important thing we can all do is to protect a powerful ally in the fight to reduce carbon — forests.
High quality sustainable projects to protect rainforests are among the most effective ways of delivering large-scale, cost-effective emissions reductions in the short term and achieving science-based emissions targets.
Carbon credits, which put a price on carbon reductions and provide revenue for such forestry protection projects, therefore represent a clear way in which companies and individuals can be empowered to reduce or offset the negative or unavoidable impact of their business and choices on the environment. By placing a value on the ecosystems that support our planet, carbon credits internalise the invisible costs of everyday choices and allow a sustainable market place to emerge.
However, since its inception, carbon trading has suffered from some issues that have suppressed its potential. The market is beset by a lack of visibility, which prevents people from trusting the carbon credit as an asset.
Differing standards and regulations in different jurisdictions and the potential for double counting where the same credit is sold more than once have resulted in a lack of confidence from potential market participants. As an individual, it is hard to incorporate carbon credits into your daily life.
Yet even if every country satisfied their Paris commitments to reduce carbon emissions, this would still not be sufficient to create a safe climate. Individuals and businesses will need to do more to plug this gap, and we urgently need to find a way to help them do this, while working on longer-term shifts in parallel.
This is where blockchain technology comes in. Put simply, blockchain is the name for a digital ledger in which transactions often made with "tokens" or a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin are recorded chronologically and publicly.
Applying this to carbon credits to create a "carbon currency" is the key to demystifying and consolidating the carbon market so it can scale up.
Carbon credits are the perfect candidate for a digital currency as they are data-driven, rely on multiple approval steps and exist separately to the physical impacts to which they correlate. Imagine a world in which carbon emissions and credits can be tracked transparently and reliably.
Retailers will be able to sell a product and take into account the carbon impact it creates at the same time. Governments will be able to measure, track and trade emissions transparently. And crucially, for the first time consumers will be able to understand the environmental impact of the products they are buying — both positive and negative — at the point of sale, and will be able to mitigate this in an instant, with millions of micro-transactions scaling up to make a huge collective impact.
Momentum is building towards natural solutions to climate change, and not a moment too soon. Pressure on businesses from consumers to improve the sustainability of their supply chains and their products will soon be matched by regulatory pressures and quotas if we are to stand any chance of reversing the climate damage that is a reality today. It is not an overstatement to say that we all need to take responsibility for the carbon consequences of every choice we make.