This week, ReFi took the stage in a big way at both EthCC in Paris and the Sustainable Blockchain Summit🗼

It seems like everyone is joining forces, collaborating, and making pacts for collective climate action 🤝

And crypto is just finding out about this new "Regen Opportunity."  So much to be excited about as we dig into this week’s ReFi Roundup!

ReFi Takes the Stage at EthCC in Paris

So much happened this week in and around EthCC, the largest annual European Ethereum event, with ReFi highlighted on multiple stages and in talks throughout the conference.  Some of our favorite talks focused on impact and regeneration include:

• “Regen Economies, A Crypto Anarchist Dream” by Griff Green (Giveth, Commons Stack & TEC)
• “Tokenized Natural Capital and Regenerative Finance” by Slobodan Sudaric (cLabs)
• “Building Regenerative Culture” by Beth McCarthy (Toucan)
• “Sustainability as a Crypto Superpower” by Alan Ransil (Filecoin Green, Protocol Labs)
• “Impact-driven Social Tokens” by Kristina Tauchmannova (Socialstack)
• “Reimagining DeFi for Good” by Xochitl Cazador (Celo Foundation)
  

And the Paris ReFi party isn’t over yet!  The Sustainable Blockchain Summit EU, hosted by Filecoin Green and Protocol Labs, is wrapping up their two-day event featuring talks and workshops from the top thought leaders in sustainability and Web3 including Marc Johnson, Gloria Kimbwala, Juan Benet, Alan Ransil, and Kevin Owocki .

The Launch of Carbon Business Council 🚀

On Tuesday, over 40 of the most innovative carbon management startups came together in solidarity with the launch of Carbon Business Council, a coalition aiming to support the development and rapid scaling of planet-positive technology with the aim of reversing climate change.  Scrolling through the Council’s founding member businesses, you’ll find at least a couple of familiar ReFi/Web3 faces, particularly Nori and Sequestr.

Launch day was accompanied by a mention in The Washington Post’s daily The Climate 202 newsletter:

The Great Regen Opportunity

For many of us in the crypto ecosystem, Bankless has been an invaluable community resource to help navigate this uncertain market and understand the narratives that drive it.  So when Bankless latches onto a topic, people tend to tune in.  This week, the team sent out a newsletter entitled “Front-running the Regen Opportunity.”  Authored by Kevin Owocki of Gitcoin, the article spelled out how regenerative cryptoeconomic concepts and projects are setting themselves up to completely change the way the world works.  Aside from the enormous potential upside, many of these projects are focused on real-world impact and aiding the transition from our current extractive economy to one that is sustainable and regenerative.

In the newsletter, Kevin highlighted 5 game-changing opportunities for regenerative economic, ecological, and social impact:

1. Scale Gitcoin Grants (quadratic funding)
2. Disrupt NGOs (maximize funding impact efficiency)
3. Incentivize Long Term Greed (emphasis on long term)
4. Retroactive Public Goods Funding (funding for what works)
5. Impact Certificates (tokenized verified outcomes)

Bankless typically sits on the frontier of the crypto world, meaning that the wider crypto community is just starting to grasp the benefits and possibilities of ReFi.  It’s important to note just how early we are in this journey.  If you’re subscribed to the ReFi Roundup, you’re already miles ahead of the pack!

Big Green DAO Grants Round Goes Live

Big Green DAO, the first non-profit led philanthropic DAO, announced the launch of their latest open grants round.

ReFi in a Masters Thesis? 👩‍🎓

A team at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden recently submitted a Masters-level thesis analyzing the sustainability of blockchain technology in the voluntary carbon markets.  The in-depth analysis included data from 7 Web3 protocols and projects including: Creol, Flowcarbon, KlimaDAO, Nori, ONCRA from Climate Cleanup, Offsetra, and Toucan.

Read the full paper, “Blocks and Credits:  A Sustainability Lens on Blockchain Technology in Voluntary Carbon Markets” by Nemanic, Enejison, and Ejide:
http://bth.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1680897/FULLTEXT02.pdf

Nori Video Talk: How Carbon Offsets Work

On Monday, Nori released a presentation on YouTube featuring CEO Paul Gambill discussing the path to solving climate change, the role of carbon credits, and how Nori is working on carbon removal technology and accounting in this regard.

Climatecoin joins the ESG Global Alliance

Open Forest Protocol featured on the Next Creators Podcast 🎙️

This week’s episode of Next Creators featured Fred Fournier and Michael Kelly of Open Forest Protocol.  In the podcast they discuss how OFP came to be, the importance of decentralized oracle systems for MRV, and the upcoming mainnet launch of Open Forest Protocol.

ReFi Founders Circles gain momentum

The Summer cohort of ReFi Founders Circles meetings have been a total success with over 70 founders forming 10 circles in various areas of regeneration to shape the future of finance, gaming and culture.  

Many more events and meetups to come!

ReFi Meme of the Week

The Booming Power of DLT in the Agriculture Sector

📅 July 27 (Virtual)
A panel discussion highlighting the potential of path-breaking and innovative technologies such as blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) to solve problems in the agricultural sector.  Hosted by INATBA.
Register here

ReFi Summer Social

📅 July 30 (Denver)
Bringing together ReFi DAOs, protocols, thought leaders, professionals, and enthusiasts in a party atmosphere.  Hosted by The Refi Edge.
Tickets here

Joining Forces and Valuing the Opportunity

The ReFi theme-of-the-week is definitely the power of joining forces while pledging allegiance to the planet.  From the collaboration and networking happening this week in Paris to the formation of The Carbon Business Council and their seminal Oath to Restore the Planet to ReFi protocols joining the ESG Global Alliance to the blossoming of the all of our ReFi Founders Circles, it is evident that cooperation and cross-pollination will clear the path towards a sustainable future.

We are incredibly early to the “Regen Opportunity” as framed by Kevin Owocki’s Bankless article, but we must emphasize that the opportunity exists not merely for a possible financial upside.  On the ReFi Podcast (Season 2 starting soon!) they regularly discuss the transition towards a regenerative world economy that recognizes all 8 Forms of Capital, as proposed by Roland and Landua:

As you collaborate, build out ReFi protocols, and move forward on the sustainable journey, consider the various forms of capital that you cultivate and value them appropriately.  In order to ensure that WAGMI, we must build these priorities and the proper incentive structures into the protocol level.  Because what we value determines our destiny.  

Good luck regens!  Have a great weekend & we’ll catch you again on next week’s ReFi Roundup.

That's a wrap!

Special thanks to John Ellison for the EthCC ReFi recap and to ThoughtFloats for contributing once again to this week's ReFi Roundup.  

And if there's anything you'd like to see on the next ReFi Roundup, please ...