Electronics corporation IBM announced that it has signed a partnership with environmental fintech startup Veridium Labs to issue a cryptocurrency token on the Stellar blockchain. The initiative, unveiled Tuesday, will tokenize carbon credits, allowing polluting companies to offset environmental damage.
Proceeds from the sale of the “verde” token will go towards restoring 250 square kilometers of rainforest on the island of Borneo in Indonesia.
Carbon credits have been around for quite some time, but they are difficult to value and maintain traditional accounting. The verde token, on the other hand, is fungible and can be publicly traded and purchased on the Stellar network, eliminating the friction and opacity of the carbon credit supply chain.
“For years, we have tried to mitigate environmental damage, but previous decisions have been controversial,” said Todd Lemons, CEO and co-founder of Veridium. “Our digital environmental assets can help companies and institutional investors buy and use carbon credits to mitigate environmental damage today, and hedge potential carbon risks in the future.”
Notably, the initiative is not just a general concept or pilot program. These tokens will also not be available only to select companies. Rather, given the previous partnerships of IBM and Stellar, credits will be traded on the Stellar public network, allowing the program to achieve global reach.
“By leveraging the public blockchain network, we can help Veridium create a new sustainable marketplace that is business-friendly and has potential to help our planet,” said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president of IBM's industrial platforms and blockchain division.
“This is a great example of how industries can be reinvented, in this case, with blockchain. This technology will help establish a much more efficient and transparent approach to accounting and offsetting carbon credits, which will create the conditions for companies and individuals to take part in improving the environment,” she concluded.
According to https://www.ccn.com
You May Also Like
Who invented blockchain?
Of course, now a friendly chorus of voices will be heard: “Satoshi Nakamoto!” But if you think about it and look around a little, the answer will not be so obvious, and the old saying “The new is the well-forgotten old” will sparkle with new colors.
Facebook is recruiting a large team of blockchain specialists
Last May, Facebook announced the creation of an experimental blockchain group led by David Marcus, an executive who previously led the Facebook Messenger development team. Since then, the company has been secretly hiring a new group.
