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We seek to allow landowners to put their verified carbon credits into an exchange to fund farmers who need to build soil.
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Land trusts give carbon credits. UpDIG mints a token on Ethereum blockchain. Dev project funders give fiat currency. Farmers build soil.
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Farmers prove to stakeholders that they have built soil through their produce yields and sales in fiat currency.
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UpDIG soil exchange mints tokens. Landowners give carbon credits. UpDIG unlocks equivalent amount of tokens and loans them to farmers.
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UpDIG disburses project fiat funds to soil input supplier. Farmers pay for soil inputs with tokens. Supplier gives tokens back to UpDIG.
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Primary KPI and "proof of farmers' soil built" is produce yields and sales.
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UpDIG mints SOM. Landowner inputs carbon credits. UpDIG unlocks reserve SOM. Farmer signs up. UpDIG issues loan. Landowner tracks progress.
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Flow Diagram of SOMcoin
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Thanks very much. It's been a blast.
Problem
Food insecurity and soil loss are gnarly global problems. Putting a price on soil carbon and incentivizing farmers to build soil are clear solutions, but existing carbon markets are inefficient/costly/opaque, and building soil takes time to pay off for farmers.
Solution
Our product is a decentralized exchange for soil organic matter/soil carbon. Soil is tokenized through an Ethereum blockchain protocol so that one token or “SOM” represents one ton of soil carbon. Landowners who have verified carbon credits for avoided grasslands conversion projects or other future compliance mechanisms, can put their credits into our exchange as a bond-like sustainable investment rather than selling their credits for fiat currency, in which case they would be retired, or more likely, “burned” by a company needing to comply on offsets for atmospheric CO2 releases.
An investor in our SOM reserve must hold their tokens for a minimum of three years, after which their investment begins to appreciate in value until it matures in 10 years at a set range.
On the other side of the SOM coin are farmers who need to build soil organic matter to produce food, or comply with a "green" mandate imposed by a government entity. They may be forwarded a “loan” from the reserve to pay for approved soil-building inputs and time lag to productivity. As their soil carbon accumulates they must re-tokenize it in SOM. Adding this new tokenized soil carbon into the reserve raises the market cap of SOMcoin.
How we built it
UpDIG Soil Exchange is inspired by the potential of blockchain technology to build a sustainable future. We combine Ethereum smart contracts, web3.js, and years of NGO and social enterprise experience to build our project.
Challenges
We hope to incorporate as many partner solutions as possible in this product. It's very early days for us, as well as many of these potential partners. A primary challenge will be to build and grow our product interdependently.
Accomplishments
ETHDenver has given us an amazing palette of potential collaborators and partner solutions. We are more inspired than ever to work toward common goals with some of the smartest minds and most diverse perspectives on the planet.
What's next for UpDIG Soil Exchange
Stakeholder engagement/funding commitments and further development of dApps.
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