Toucan Protocol
No other protocol has brought anywhere near as many Verra credits on-chain — meaning onto its crypto blockchain — as Toucan Protocol.
With the launch of Toucan’s Base Carbon Ton ($BCT) in Fall 2021, over 20 million carbon credits were turned into crypto tokens in a pool derived entirely from the Verra registry, making up 25% of Verra’s total demand for the year.[1]
The demand for $BCT was driven largely by another crypto token that was launched by KlimaDAO in coordination with Toucan, called $KLIMA. The idea behind $KLIMA was to create a digital, carbon-backed currency by buying all the cheapest Verra credits off the market in what they called “sweeping the floor.”
In April 2022, coordinated reporting from CarbonPlan and Bloomberg described how many of the projects were so low quality even corporate polluters refused to buy them, and they had no market until Toucan and Klima regenerated demand.[2][3]
The $BCT pool included old Verra credits sold by a fossil gas producer, which issued offsets based on the fallacy of ‘avoiding emissions’ by burning fossil gas instead of coal, despite the former’s greater methane pollution.[4]
Another project manager which received millions in funding via the launch of the $BCT pool was the company behind a Hydropower Dam in India which flooded in 2013, killing thousands of people and displacing thousands more.[5]
In a theory heavily promoted by Toucan and Klima, locking these tokens up in Klima’s treasury would raise the price of carbon credits until corporations were forced to pay more to offset or actually make meaningful emissions reductions.[6]
Klima DAO's official documentation claims that because their tokens are based on carbon credits certified by Verra and Gold Standard, their offsets meet the "highest standards for quality carbon offsetting in the world." Klima DAO concludes that "going with these standards will make sure your offsets are trustworthy and effective," purporting that these standards "guarantee that every ton of CO2 is Additional... Contained... Permanent... Sustainable... Verified... and Unique."[7]
Sources
- ↑ https://carbonherald.com/toucan-protocol-end-useless-carbon-offsets-struggling/
- ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-07/the-biggest-crypto-effort-to-end-useless-carbon-offsets-is-backfiring
- ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-07/the-biggest-crypto-effort-to-end-useless-carbon-offsets-is-backfiring
- ↑ https://offset.climateneutralnow.org/natural-gas-based-grid-connected-power-project-at-peddapuram-ap-by-gautami-power-limited-4828-
- ↑ https://theecologist.org/2022/mar/11/fear-over-indias-dangerous-dams
- ↑ https://branchoutnow.org/the-carbon-market-shell-game/
- ↑ https://docs.klimadao.finance/blogs/about-carbon-offsets