Introducing CLNK

A step towards Verifiable Carbon

The Problem

Imagine, for a moment, that you wanted to do something for the planet and at the same time, make some money to support your family. An obvious choice may be to become a project developer; create and maintain a green project (e.g. preventing deforestation), have it verified by an independent 3^rd party, the credits are then issued and you can sell them on for profit. On the surface, everyone wins: Buyers receive carbon credits, less greenhouse gases (GHGs) were emitted into the atmosphere, and you are rewarded for your efforts.

However, the road to becoming a project developer is not an easy one: The existing certifying bodies move slowly. So slowly, that it may be 2 years before the tokens can be issued and you receive compensation for your work. And even when you do receive them, there is no guarantee on price – you may receive much less than you originally anticipated. This uncertainty and risk limits who can feasibly start a green project, favouring the wealthy and preventing the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) from growing as quickly as it might otherwise.

Bridging the gap between the project developers and the buyers we have the certifying body, the verification process and brokers.

Now there are two immediate problems that exist in this current approach. The first is the what we call the ‘middlemen’; the traders, brokers and retailers each taking their cut. This, in turn, reduces the profit going to the project developer and pushes up the price for the end buyers – turning many prospective buyers away. Market inefficiencies are slowing the VCM’s response to climate change.

The final issue concerns the verification process: The project data, the independent verifier report and the reasons for rejecting/approving credits, none of this information is made available to the public – all of these decisions are happening behind a closed door. This closed system approach limits constructive criticism from the outsiders, erodes public trust and leaves the keys to the entire market in the hands of just a few self-selected gatekeepers.

Let’s quickly recap these issues:

Problem 1 – Barriers to entry for project developers are too high

Problem 2 – Middlemen taking a cut

Problem 3 – The current verification process happens behind closed doors

The Solution

Climate change is a shared problem between humanity, we see the best way to tackle global warming is to work to make our climate solutions more open and verifiable. The demand side of this issue is already being addressed by the ‘on-chain’ carbon market: Industry leaders, KlimaDAO and Toucan Protocol have brought carbon credits onto the Polygon blockchain, creating a transparent and liquid market whilst also opening up access to millions of people who wouldn’t have been able to participate otherwise. The demand is there and the methodology is proven, what we need next is to use this approach to improve the supply-side of the market.

CLNK

CLNK’s ultimate goal is to make the VCM more transparent and verifiable, to achieve this, we are creating two universal tools:

CLNK Carbon Kit

CLNK Launchpad is a platform designed for project developers to list their projects, receive advice from a community of experts and fellow project developers, and ultimately allow them to create carbon on-chain in a much shorter timespan, with higher levels of scrutiny applied to projects. The greater purpose of this project being to open a line of communication and create a community between project developers, buyers and any other interested parties.

CLNK Green Network

CLNK’s flagship product – Green Network is an automated verification pipeline allowing project developers to receive their carbon in as little as 30 days, whilst enabling anyone to verify and check the integrity of the credits and get paid for doing so. This approach utilises Digital Measuring, Recording and Verification (DMRV) to create the first blockchain-native credits.

Read more about our flagship project, supporting clean cooking in Africa, here.

‍

There is a lot of work to build the future we want, but if you are up to the challenge and want to participate or ask any questions, please feel free to join our Discord.