Hurricane Irma turned out to be the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded outside the Gulf of Mexico. Its extreme power caused a colossal devastation in the Caribbean Islands and the Southern US, led to a massive evacuation of Florida, but also pushed again the climate change and global warming topic to the headlines. While I am still very sceptical about human influence as a major cause of the global warming and I believe that there are many other important aspects that are beyond our control to be considered, I am certain that we, as humans, should be united in an effort to keep our planet safe and green for the next generations. CarbonX is another great incentive that can help each of us to work more closely in order to achieve this goal.
The idea behind CarbonX is to engage millions of people by materially rewarding them for a responsible carbon consumption. The company wants to achieve it by investing in carbon reduction projects and transforming the generated offsets into ERC20 tokens, (one of the most popular token standards for Etherum Blockchain) later are allocated through an open-loop rewarding loyalty program. The engaged partners (e.g. big retailers, local governments) will offer CarbonX Tokens to consumers as an incentive for more carbon-wise decisions (e.g. using a public transportation instead of driving a car). These tokens will be tracked via mobile application and will serve as a currency that could be exchanged either for other digital currencies or carbon-friendly rewards. Although CarbonX is currently available in Canada only, it has ambitious plans to expand its operations worldwide in order to achieve substantial network effects and have a real global impact.
What I really love about this idea is the fact that it directly engages individuals to take small actions towards a more sustainable living. How often do you see people behaving irresponsibly just because they think that their impact on the environment is marginal? How often do you actually behave this way? While governments and NGOs can push some incentives on the macro level, we cannot forget that each of us creates this ecosystem as well. These tiny rewards do not only bring its users tangible benefits but more importantly increase awareness of the consequences of their actions. So, tell me now. Would you like to trade some carbon with me?
References:
- https://www.carbonx.ca/#ourmission
- https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/13/could-a-blockchain-based-electricity-network-change-the-energy-market
- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths#Bitcoin_mining_is_a_waste_of_energy_and_harmful_for_ecology
- http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/15/us/climate-change-hurricanes-harvey-and-irma/index.html
Nice to see a decentralized model to reward responsible energy use. Considering Ethereum is a publicly available blockchain, and accounts are pseudonymous, I can imagine that there might be some privacy issues for large businesses or governments that dont want to publicly give away information regarding their energy consumption as it may give away strategic insights. Do you think this would pose a problem, or do you think its more aimed at individuals and small-companies that dont really mind sharing these insights?
Hi Shaffy, thanks for your comment! 🙂
I definitely agree on your point and I can imagine some companies that would never consider joining such a network. On the other hand, with the global warming being such a sexy topic and new strict regulations regarding carbon emmisions, CarbonX might become a great opportunity for building a competitive advantage. In the end, everything is about the money and if a positive revenue growth, boosted by joining the platform, outweigh the cost involved in investing in sustainable solutions, more and more companies will decide to join or event reinvent their current business models.
Honestly, I only disagree that the size matters in this case, since bigger does not always mean less environmentally friendly. Don’t you think?
Cheers,
Marcin
Marcin,
Great post! I think the idea you have discussed here is very interesting and perhaps holds a lot of potential for other areas and factors contributing to global warming as well (i.e. water consumption?).
Moreover, as you mentioned CarbonX’s ambitious plans to expand, I do believe in its potential, especially into less developed regions for two key reasons:
1. The use of mobile technology as the place to gain tokens. Mobile technology is becoming more and more readily available. As the costs of a smart-phone is continually being driven down, this enables more people the opportunity to obtain one and therefore actually use this application (providing it is simple) to gain a token. The same idea applies for DuoLingo where it is probably cheaper to buy a mobile phone and download duo lingo than to take a language course.
2. The use of blockchain which ultimately removes intermediaries like banks that often disallow everyone the right to have a bank account.
So, I see this idea as developing into something that is truly available for everyone and not just a certain target group. Do you envision the same thing? Or perhaps do you see other means of achieving growth for this idea?