The aviation sector accounts for a significant portion of global CO2 emissions, estimated to be approximately 2%. As individual consumer choices can have a notable impact on these emissions, it is important to consider the environmental impact of air travel.


While sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and electric aviation are potential solutions to reducing the environmental impact of aviation, carbon offsetting is considered to be the best short-term solution due to its cost-effectiveness and availability.


However, while SAFs hold promise as a mid-term solution, they are currently too expensive and have too low usage to yield substantial emission reductions at scale. Electric aviation offers the potential for zero direct emissions in the long-term, but this will require major advancements in energy storage technology, aircraft design and is currently not commercially viable.


At the same time, climate change remains a major global challenge, and the Paris Agreement aims to mitigate its impact through reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The aviation industry's contribution to these emissions, while relatively small on a global scale, is still significant due to the large number of people with the means to travel by air. It is in society's interest to find a sustainable solution to this challenge while balancing the benefits that air travel provides.

Carbon offsetting aims to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions on a systemic level, and policy tools such as the EU ETS for intra-EU flights, carbon taxes and flat seat taxes in various nations are being implemented to encourage the aviation industry to take action to reduce emissions.

Airlines and online travel agencies are taking proactive measures to reduce their carbon footprints and to analyze their approach to carbon offsetting, we can categorize them into four main groups:


No Offsets Implemented: An airline/OTA does not participate in carbon offsetting in any capacity.

Plans to Implement Voluntary Offsets: An airline/OTA does not currently participate in carbon offsetting, but has stated its intention to do so in the future. There is no formal commitment to this plan, but there is a clear ambition to engage in carbon offsetting.

Voluntary Offsets Available: An airline/OTA offers its customers the option to offset their carbon emissions through a carbon offset program that is linked to their booking process or during the check-out process. This typically involves an emission calculation tool.


Compensates for All or a Portion of Passengers: An airline/OTA acquires carbon offsets for their flights, but does not pass the cost of these offsets onto the passengers. The airline may choose to offset all their flights, all their bonus program passengers, or all of their passengers.


While some airlines and OTAs are proactively addressing the problem, others are not or are planning to, leaving a lot of room for improvement in the sector.

This creates numerous business opportunities for C3 and its suite of offsetting tools.


The aviation industry's attitude towards carbon offsetting is evolving in response to increasing sustainability trends. While it is currently not feasible to significantly reduce gross emissions from aviation, effective programs such as CORSIA, which requires airlines to offset emissions exceeding the 2019 baseline, have led to a steady increase in demand for carbon offsets year by year.

At C3, we are dedicated to promoting sustainability also within the aviation industry.

We believe that the aviation sector can play a significant role in reducing its carbon footprint and contribute to the fight against climate change. With this in mind, we are developing a set of carbon offsetting tools that can be integrated directly into airlines/OTA websites. These tools will allow airlines and travelers to offset the carbon emissions generated by their flights in a more streamlined and efficient manner.


We believe that by making offsetting more transparent and convenient, we can encourage wider adoption and help the aviation industry to reduce its carbon footprint. Our tools are designed to be user-friendly and easy to integrate, making it simple for airlines and OTAs to offer offsetting options to their customers or or directly offset their own emissions.

The aviation sector accounts for a significant portion of global CO2 emissions, estimated to be approximately 2%. 

Aviation and carbon markets

At the operational level, dematerialization and, in particular, the dematerialization of currency has been widely addressed in the European legal environment (see Consob, La portabilita’ dei dati in ambito finanziario. Quaderno FinTech, n. 8, April 2021, edited by A. Genovese and V. Falce and, more specifically, O. Borgogno et al., Le piattaforme finanziarie e le aree di articolazione del FinTech, ibidem, 145 ff.). The increasing adoption of digital currencies, and their associated technologies (such as smart contracts) will continue to accelerate the trend of dematerialization, and open up new market mechanisms for the exchange of goods and services.

Considering the gold standard was abolished in only 1971, the transformation of economic and social conditions have reached a remarkable stage of development in terms of technology for payment instruments. The Payment Services Directive 2 ("PSD2") introduced in 2015 was not one of the very many normative acts of a technical nature, which at different levels the national and supranational legal systems continually promulgate, but rather the first step in making customer data available among the various players in the banking sector (i.e. banks and other entities operating in the sector such as payment providers).

Indeed, PSD2 ensures both a sufficient degree of customer data protection and the possibility for banks and providers to exchange information so that the customer can be better profiled and, at the same time, have a single channel for digital payments. The result is the beginning of a real competitive struggle in the payment services industry, and it has unlocked significant innovation.

In the highly regulated banking field, there are multiple reasons that led to the approval of a new European framework for payment systems and the general content of PSD2, thus dictating precise provisions to govern the entry of new intermediaries into the market and regulating the services they offer. Fundamentally, the establishment of the single digital market was conceived and continues to be pursued, through a series of directives linked by the purpose and vision of strengthening European integration by achieving a single market. It promotes competition and innovation so as to bring better services for customers. In other words, the goal behind the introduction of PSD2 was to modernize the market for payment systems, making the related instruments cheaper, more efficient and safer, and at the same time, to ensure free market competition. Moreover, the Third Party Providers who interpose themselves in the relationship between the bank and the consumer, are also subject to regulation.

And so, by analogy and "a fortiori," it seems fair to assume that if PSD2 applies to a sector as regulated and as delicate as banking and, again, to third party providers, then, a fortiori, it should apply to a sector that is so simplified and that does not require an equal level of attention to consumer protection "without specific expertise" and where there is no need to preserve the sound and prudent management of the market as a whole.

The Voluntary Carbon Markets are characterized by inefficiency and opacity, conditions which arguably favor incumbent market participants. The introduction of Web3 technologies has offered a novel mechanism for the Voluntary Carbon Markets to scale, in-line with the amount required for them to meaningfully play a role in closing the emissions gap between the forecasted global emissions pathway, and of that which is required to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. The impact of this new technology has been significant, driving unprecedented growth and transparency for the market.

Recent discourse within the VCM however, leads one to infer that specific third-party providers within the market may be picked by the established carbon registries to facilitate the trade and exchange of carbon credits. The technology used by the chosen third-parties appears to be leveraging many of the learnings from the Web3 organizations who have demonstrated the role that new technology can play in the market. 

The Voluntary Carbon Market – and those who carry influence within it – may do well to consider the benefits that a more open and liberalized market can bring to such an important and burgeoning market.

The European PSD2 regulation shows how a more competitive financial services market passes benefits to consumers, the carbon markets may do well to consider these learnings. 

The role of liberalization and digital technologies in scaling the environmental commodities markets.

Introducing ARBOL and C3’s Diversification of on-chain Assets

To continue developing the on-chain carbon market, C3 is continuing to build, innovate and offer best-in-class products to its users. In our 

 we introduced some of the core building blocks of DeFi that we have leveraged to develop our system in a way that is fit for all stakeholders, on-chain and off. In this article, we introduce our plans for the diversification of on-chain carbon.

although C3 has the technical capabilities detailed below, please ensure you have authorisation to proceed with bridging according to the appropriate registry’s terms of service.

C3 has enabled bridging for the American Carbon Registry (ACR), Climate Action Reserve (CAR) and Plan Vivo. The newly included tokenized carbon credits can be integrated into C3’s existing UBO and NBO pools.

In addition, C3 now has the capability to launch its ‘live’ carbon credit pools. Once launched, this means that users of the C3 bridge will be able to create and trade carbon credits on the blockchain that have not been previously retired in the legacy registry systems, per the existing ‘tokenization’ process of carbon credits. Hence, when a user of C3 burns one of our native ‘live’ tokens, a corresponding retirement will be made in the appropriate registry. To achieve this, C3.app users will need to send carbon credits to a defined account held by C3 in order to mint (or create) a corresponding on-chain carbon credit.

In order to deliver this, C3 will develop a new set of pools that are distinct from the existing UBO and NBO pools. However, the criteria for accepting credits into the pools will remain the same as they are defined in our 

. These new ‘live’ pools will be referred to as ‘Universal Base Offset Live’ (UBOL) and ‘Nature Base Offset Live’ (NBOL).

In addition, we have more exciting plans to continue the diversification of the on-chain carbon market, as detailed below.

In addition to diversifying the carbon standards supported by our bridge, C3 also aims to diversify the type of carbon credits on the blockchain. One area of the market which is seeing increasing attention is that of carbon removal offsets.

Removal-based offsets, in contrast to avoidance and/or mitigation type offsets, are those which actively sequester greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere and then lock them for a variable amount of time. The ‘time lock’ or ‘carbon durability’ as it is often described as per the Science Based Targets initiative, refers to the amount of time that the sequestered carbon remains held in its storage medium, whether that be the biomass of a tree or a repurposed oil & gas well. As one can imagine, the different technology types which can be classified as carbon removal have quite different carbon durabilities. We’ve provided a few examples below:

Depending on the technology employed by a particular carbon offset project, the action of emissions avoidance or removal will be leveraged to varying degrees. On the side of avoidance/mitigation, we have renewables projects, which focus on replacing fossil fuel derived power with a green alternative. On the other side, we have biochar projects whose major focus is not on avoiding emissions, but rather on storing carbon in a semi durable form in agricultural soils — thus locking it away for decades to hundreds of years. In the middle are projects such as integrated forest management (IFM) which involve both forest protection and creating conditions where biomass can flourish — and thus remove and lock more carbon from the atmosphere. Note that even in the more carbon removal-focused biochar example, there are ancillary processes related to biochar formation that produce biogas which can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels. Hence, biochar straddles the line between mitigation and removal by offering both.

Importantly, in order to have a real chance at avoiding the worst effects of climate change, we need to work as diligently in avoiding additional emissions reaching the atmosphere through the decarbonization of our existing systems, as we do in removing existing emissions that have built up over previous decades. As it stands now, the state of technical progress means that it is more cost effective to mitigate emissions than it is to remove them. This is true even in the case of leveraging nature-based solutions (the cost of planting a new forest is greater than protecting existing biomass). Despite rhetoric stating carbon removals are the only viable solution to our climate conundrum, a pragmatic approach will reveal that supporting both emissions mitigation and removal offset projects in the short to medium term is the most reasonable (in terms of need, cost and scalability) compared to a removals-only strategy.

Note, however, that this does not diminish the value seeking to support highly experimental carbon removal technologies which can be deployed in future years to drawdown the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Rather, the above seeks to highlight that capital allocations should be made to those technologies which will have the greatest long term impact and allow us to start scaling our fight against climate change — today.

C3 currently curates two types of tokenized carbon pools: UBO and NBO. Both of these pools allow the deposit of removal-type offsets, but their current curation makes them far more attractive to specific price-classes of offsets, and thus technologies. The UBO pool is ideal for renewables and energy efficiency projects, whereas the NBO pool caters to nature-based solutions with a focus on emissions mitigation (e.g. forest protection, integrated forest management, and REDD+).

In order to meet the needs of clients seeking to diversify their offsetting strategy to include additional emissions removal type offsets, we are proud to launch the criteria for our ARBOL pool criteria (Afforestation and Restoration-based Offset Live).

The ARBO(L) pool will accept credits from leading registries, including Gold Standard and Verra, and support methodologies including:

VM0021 Soil Carbon Quantification Methodology, v1.0

VM0026 Methodology for Sustainable Grassland Management (SGM), v1.1

Note, we anticipate that ARBO will be launched as a ‘live’ pool only.

To continue developing the on-chain carbon market, C3 is continuing to build, innovate and offer best-in-class products to its users. 

Bridge carbon, stake and provide liquidity:

C3 aims to maximize the bandwidth between the legacy carbon space and the emerging Regenerative Finance (ReFi) ecosystem. We achieve this by leveraging key building blocks of DeFi and integrating them with our carbon bridge infrastructure.

Our articles discussing the role and impact of 

 describe how, although we commend what has been achieved so far, there are constraints on the protocol’s growth because it has had to do a lot of heavy lifting alone, including building 

, and taking on risks to establish the KLIMA token as the 

primary liquidity pair for tokenized carbon

In addition, whilst KlimaDAO and its partners have demonstrated how blockchain and DeFi can be deployed to solve some of the 

critical problems on the Voluntary Carbon Markets

’ demand side, significantly more work is still required to unleash the full scale of the market to meaningfully close the gap on emissions.

C3 is an application that integrates some of the most innovative DeFi mechanics with the on-chain carbon market. In this article we introduce some of the key mechanics underlying our system.

A DeFi-enabled Tokenized Carbon Application

Firstly, the API-powered automation of C3’s carbon bridge removes friction for those looking to move carbon credits onto Polygon. If you hold verified carbon offsets from a reputable registry (currently Verra or Gold Standard), you now no longer need to wait for manual verification by a human — you can bridge in minutes at 

. This makes it the most efficient carbon offset bridging solution available.

However, it is by building this efficient bridging system on top of best-in-class DeFi tokenomics, that C3 unlocks the true potential to scale the on-chain carbon market. Under the hood, C3 is more than 

To fully understand C3, we should first understand the critical role that Curve has played in establishing liquidity and volume within DeFi. Curve is an Automated Market Maker, which functions as a platform for Liquidity Providers to accrue rewards (i.e. yield farm) with a reduced risk of 

, initially focused on stablecoin assets only.

Whilst the volatility and slippage of AMMs do present opportunities for users who try to profit from entering and exiting an LP position at the right time, by trading off the high risk (and high reward) aspect of volatility, Curve attracts LPs who want long-term exposure to the growth of DeFi with a greater level of composability than afforded by traditional AMMs.

This means that it is primarily for those who want to use their LP positions to also be able to earn rewards elsewhere in the DeFi ecosystem. Curve achieves this by having concentrated liquidity at the ideal price between two assets — in the case of stablecoins, a one-to-one “stableswap”. It does also go beyond stablecoins, and allows for like-assets, such as ETH and sETH (staked ETH on lido). So, by allowing imbalanced pools to exist, Curve has been able to introduce more volatile pooled assets such as stETH and rETH, or renBTC and wBTC.

One of Curve’s key innovations that has inspired C3 is the introduction of incentives and decentralized protocol governance. The introduction of Curve’s CRV token in August 2020 — which can either be acquired on the open market, or earned by providing liquidity — led to significant activity within the Curve pools. The layering of incentives on top of LP fees immediately led to a jump in Curve pool adoption — with the 

 at the beginning of August sitting at around $90 million, before jumping to roughly $400 million by the end of the month, and surpassing $1 billion by the end of the year (peaking at around $24 billion in early 2022).

Any user with a minimum number of CRV tokens may 

 their CRV tokens for a fixed period of time. The vote locking creates a token called veCRV (

). Holders of veCRV are able to propose updates to the Curve protocol, which can include changing fees, defining where fees are allocated, creating new liquidity pools, and adjusting reward rates. In addition, by locking up CRV rewards for longer periods, users can increase their veCRV voting power and boost their rewards by up to 2.5x.

Vote locking clearly benefits the user by increasing their ability to vote and accrue rewards; it also creates competition between holders of veCRV who want to maximize their rewards and governance ownership — they must lock for a minimum of 1 year, and they may be inclined to lock up for the maximum lock period of 4 years. The incentivisation of long-term locking helps build stability into the CRV protocol as veCRV tokens cannot be redeemed until the vote locked period ends, limiting the circulating supply of CRV on the market.

The power of layered incentives and distributed governance rights has led to yield farmers and entire protocols attempting to acquire as many CRV tokens as possible and subsequently locking them up to maximize their benefits. This competition within DeFi led to the emergence of the now infamous 

 — DeFi’s fight for liquidity (check out this 

 for a deepdive on the underlying mechanics and how it played out)

Although the term ‘Curve Wars’ may have negative connotations, this competition within DeFi led to new innovations, increasingly deep liquidity and a thriving ecosystem for market participants. For example, Convex Finance, launched in 

 as a DeFi protocol built on Curve which allowed locked CVX (Convex’s native governance token) to vote on Convex governance decisions directly within Curve pools. Essentially, this allowed CVX holders to influence the incentive allocation of Curve pools via their CVX. The interoperability of CVX with CRV essentially led Convex to become DeFi’s second largest project by solving revenue and liquidity problems of Curve staked CRVs; simplifying Curve’s operational processes; and moving Curve-focussed governance rights to Convex and simultaneously influencing the incentive allocation of the Curve pool by using CVX.

C3 sees a future where ReFi itself becomes integrated, with composability between protocols and assets a key enabler of this. As a bridge we enable the flow of new carbon assets onto Polygon into our pools and ensure there is a sufficient supply of tokenized carbon to be utilized by builders. However, with C3’s own native C3 token itself being distributed to LPers and stakers within pools (and will soon be distributed to bridgers themselves), we intend to distribute our governance, and give our users the opportunity to accrue rewards through interacting with ReFi.

The C3 token is a fork of Frax’s FXS token (which itself is a fork of CRV) — this means the same vote-escrow mechanics are embedded into the C3 protocol. By acquiring 

 our users can achieve 2x boosts on staking and providing liquidity, in addition they can vote on carbon gauge weights to increase the amount allocated to a carbon asset.

It is really our carbon gauges that sit at the heart of the protocol — these determine how the bridging, staking and LP rewards are distributed to users. What this means in practice is that veC3 holders will begin to determine how much liquidity and bandwidth is allocated to each pair, and influence the supply of carbon on the market. In terms of implications, this means that C3 positions itself to respond actively to the emerging needs of ReFi, and offer KlimaDAO support (and the opportunity to influence) the supply of on-chain carbon tonnes.

An initial demonstration on how C3 can use its incentives to both distribute its governance and provide benefits for ReFi through composability was the introduction of c3’s 

. By enabling wsKLIMA holders to stake on C3 and accrue rewards, it distributes the governance of C3 to KLIMA holders; KLIMA holders themselves are also responsible for the governance of KlimaDAO — C3’s primary strategic partner. One week after launch, over $1.5 million of wsKLIMA was locked in the gauge, the majority of which are for lock periods of a year. KLIMA holders are now a significant stakeholder in C3’s governance operations, and C3 will leverage this to build out its own ecosystem in symbiosis with KlimaDAO.

Moving forwards, there are other opportunities to leverage the DeFi tech-stack to bring solutions to the Voluntary Carbon Market. For example, Rari Capital’s 

 can enable anyone to instantly create and deploy their own pools, with pools made in public or private depending on the creator’s preference. In future, veC3 holders could vote on which carbon pools to whitelist and allow them to interact with the ReFi ecosystem, decisions made by the community could prioritize those that offer high-impact carbon credits, or a pool from an entity that has the capacity to provide deep liquidity.

By opening up ReFi, and layering governance incentives on top of the existing system, we can maximize participation and unlock growth within the market.

ReFi itself is novel, with a limited number of live projects in the space to-date, however the early pioneers of the space have demonstrated their willingness to collaborate and scale together. C3 itself distributed 

Perhaps the analogy between DeFi protocol’s such as Curve and Convex is not directly applicable to the nature of ReFi given that ReFi has a firm dependence on bridging between legacy markets on DeFi. However, it is clear that if we want to properly leverage blockchain to close the gap on society’s most pressing issue, we will most efficiently achieve it through collaboration and composability — this is what C3 brings to the space.

C3 aims to maximize the bandwidth between the legacy carbon space and the emerging Regenerative Finance (ReFi) ecosystem. 

C3.app: building on money legos, for the planet

Carbonates, we’re ready for the next phase of our staged launch, with our Liquidity Gauges going live.

 for ongoing updates. Here we will share addresses for the SushiSwap pools.

Users who participated in the IDO and LBP should have now received or claimed their tokens.

C3 has been distributed to the wallet address of the IDO participants which was used to send FRAX.

Participants in the LBP can redeem their aBO and convert it into UBO and NBO at the following address: 

C3 Liquidity Gauges are now live, as follows:

UBO/KLIMA and NBO/KLIMA liquidity pairs for trading carbon assets. Note that these are using the 

C3/FRAX in order to unlock liquidity for our trading assets

KLIMA/USDC for a more stable pair who do not want exposure to the carbon assets.

Emissions for Liquidity Providers will be ramped up over a 4 week period to foster a gradual ramping up of activity from LPs:

Additionally, veC3 rewards will be enabled as well; 1% of the total ecosystem rewards are given to these holders.

To achieve the maximum boost rewards of 2x, the ratio established are as follows:

For KLIMA/USDC, 400 veC3 per KLIMA in the LP will be required.

For C3/FRAX, 4 veC3 per C3 in the LP will be required.

The relevant token addresses for C3 assets and pairs are as follows:

 0xad01DFfe604CDc172D8237566eE3a3ab6524d4C6

 0x6BCa3B77C1909Ce1a4Ba1A20d1103bDe8d222E48

 0x2B3eCb0991AF0498ECE9135bcD04013d7993110c

 0x45c32fA6DF82ead1e2EF74d17b76547EDdFaFF89

 0x2791Bca1f2de4661ED88A30C99A7a9449Aa84174

 0x1a3acf6D19267E2d3e7f898f42803e90C9219062

 0x4e78011Ce80ee02d2c3e649Fb657E45898257815

The LP address and gauge addresses are as follows:

 0x5400A05B8B45EaF9105315B4F2e31F806AB706dE

 0x1bBD517909956bDEb95D682229FBB64B207B1006

 0x251cA6A70cbd93Ccd7039B6b708D4cb9683c266C

 0xfEA7F8b2C038d4a704a182bE4142283C0d1AF477

 0xb5600746f947c25c0cbc36429f87e6c88f9d6a88

 0x688B46E4dE414b8E7cbDdfaBA7F2AFfC63EEa386

 0x5786b267d35f9d011c4750e0b0ba584e1fdbead1

 0x9F769F7cedf8D2df6bCcD9bddeb1c73c214E3513

C3 strongly recommends that users always verify addresses with official sources from Medium and Discord prior to interacting with any token or contract.

Per our Roadmap, our retirement functionality, bridging gauges and staking gauges will be delivered incrementally in the following weeks.

We will continue to engage with our partners at KlimaDAO after the passing of their 

 to become strategic partners to establish our deeper integration within ReFi.

C3 Liquidity Gauges Launched

acquired via the LBP is equal to 0.75UBO and 0.25NBO. The UBO and NBO will be distributed accordingly at that ratio on the 8th March 2022. The LBP is on Polygon.

So, why is C3 here? why get involved early? And why collaborate with us?

 is a permisionless, automated carbon bridge.

C3 has a native retirement function that enables users to manage their carbon needs, and in-built incentives to drive adoption.

C3 is decentralized and owned and governed by C3 token holders.

Regenerative Finance (ReFi) will help overcome 

barriers and inefficiencies in the Voluntary Carbon Markets

 (VCM) which stem from asymmetrical information, fragmentation and poor liquidity. It achieves this by coupling the VCM with the transparency of the blockchain, and the powerful incentives of DeFi.

However, at this early stage we require collaboration from all players to help stimulate positive activities that help us bootstrap the ReFi market.

Staking, bridging and liquidity provision of tokenized carbon credits are the fundamentals of ReFi. C3 incentivises all these activities through the distribution of C3 tokens to active users of the 

We are a complementary piece of infrastructure for the system, aiming to deepen supply on-chain and maximize bandwidth between these two disparate systems (i.e. DeFi and the VCM).

 utilizes its community, powerful incentive mechanisms and innovation to set the pace and carve out the long-term development ReFi, C3 provides an additional layer of incentives and governance power for those that want to get exposure to the tokenized carbon tonnes that enable ReFi’s growth.

Our incentives fall outside of KlimaDAO’s immediate sphere of influence and that of other ReFi solutions. However, we 

 empower the growth of partners in the space by ensuring there is ample supply of tokenized carbon tonnes on the the market.

Below we outline some of the our mechanisms and how they enable our ecosystem.

Bridging — the act of bringing carbon credits onto the blockchain from the legacy system

When users bridge their carbon credits onto the blockchain, they help provide supply to the market that can be used to do useful things, such as be bonded with KlimaDAO, or in future be used to provide collateral for other beneficial yield-generating activities.

Unlocking the flow of opaque, brokered carbon credits onto the blockchain builds confidence in the market, and provides transparency those who wish to acquire and sell carbon credits.

The deepening of supply on-chain establishes options for users and builders, and also sends a market signal that 

Early adopters take first mover advantage and stand to gain the most in the long-term as they accrue knowledge and incentives ahead of others.

As more credits come on the blockchain, it establishes the lindy effect, perpetuating the value and adoption of the blockchain for carbon carbon markets.

Staking — the act of locking up tokenized carbon tonnes to pool supply on the blockchain

Holding carbon assets on-chain is just as important as bridging; it creates a signal that the market is live, and it ensures supply is readily available for use when market conditions are favourable.

Staking is a carbon sink for the supply of the carbon market; it provides a place for users to keep their assets in while they are acquiring governance; it mitigates the opportunity cost of simply holding supply.

Currently, the main reason to bring carbon credits is on-chain is to arbitrage the price differential which creates boom-and-bust cycles; staking creates a healthier environment for the market.

Holding off-chain is the norm. Holding on-chain is preferable with C3 as staking accrues rewards and gives the staker governance power.

Providing liquidity — depositing tokens into the C3 carbon pools to allow traders to fill their orders:

Liquidity is bandwidth for tokens; the more liquidity held, the greater the transaction volume can be.

Liquidity providers are fundamental to enabling an efficient market, and are rewarded for their activities.

C3 builds on the liquidity bootstrapped by KlimaDAO to maximize the efficiency of the markets, and provides another layer of complementary to the on-going quest for deep liquidity.

C3 believes in a fully decentralized governance environment, where the power to govern 

 product is held by those who have participated in the bootstrapping of a nascent emerging market. By coupling DeFi incentives, with decentralized governance, we can rapidly scale ReFi and empower the growth in the carbon markets.

The rewards for the above activities proportionally and indiscriminately to all users via C3 tokens. Those that hold and accrue C3 will shape the development and future of our system.

There are of course risks and rewards associated with being an early adopter. However, we see what has been happening to the carbon markets over the past 6 months as a paradigm shift. The impact of the blockchain on carbon supply is regularly covered in the press. The largest and most influential market players are watching (and 

We outline some key reasons why to participate 

Participating now is the best way to maximize exposure to the next phase of growth for the market. This space is scaling rapidly. KlimaDAO launched in October, and it is estimated that already 5% of Verra’s supply has been tokenized in response. C3 will enhance this growth. Early adopters take the most risk, and early adopters get the most rewards — in our case by acquiring C3 governance tokens at a low-cost basis.

The initial release rate will be at around 3 millions C3 per day, with rewards 

 over time to be low, or zero, after the first 4 years. Acting early enables users to capture the most value. Each day makes a difference.

Capturing value from day-one, enables users to have the most influence over the protocol’s growth and development through our decentralised governance approach.

In the future, C3 will have permissionless credit tokenization and pool development capabilities. Being an active participant in the early-stage positions users well to be able capitalize on this opportunity when it goes live. In terms of both knowledge, and governance power.

There are a number of protocols emerging that provide carbon market solutions. To-date, less than a handful have meaningfully moved the dial on climate finance and impacted the carbon markets.

Leveraging C3's and taking ownership for yourself is the best approach, and is in the spirit of collaboration and (3, 3):

To have a real impact and scale in DeFi, the community and liquidity needs to be bootstrapped on day 1. Working together to achieve these things is far easier and more efficient than building from scratch every time. By the virtue of launching the C3 token for governance, we are actively handing ownership to you.

Partnerships are key; in order to drive adoption and integrate the disparate markets of DeFi and environmental commodities. Deep market knowledge and collaborations are fundamental. C3 has achieved this through its partnerships both in DeFi and the legacy carbon market space and is now in a position to execute and deliver for both sides.

Any newly built and competing products must be significantly better than ours to stand a chance of scaling. Improvements should be 

Time is critical, and ReFi is moving fast. Our product is live and is now accruing value. The decentralization of governance is underway. By working together and sharing a vision, we can establish the new paradigm, immediately.

That’s not all and the future is bright. Together, we can go straight to source. By pooling our capital and networks, we can usher in a new phase of the carbon markets where we bring 

 activity to the blockchain; our vision includes the creation of DeFi native carbon carbon projects that never need to be passed down carbon market supply chain (see 

C3 pairs blockchain’s transparency and interoperability, and Decentralised Finance incentives with the voluntary carbon markets.

C3 pools capital and decision making power to create a highly-efficient, decentralised, and liquid carbon markets.

C3 envisions a future where all carbon credits are tokenized, non-fungible, and the default state of the carbon markets.

For too long, carbon credits have been an opaque business. Those that want a positive impact on our planet should not be penalised by an inefficient, asymmetric market.

C3 positions the Voluntary Carbon Market as the blueprint for the future of commodities trading.

Beginning with the carbon markets is the right thing to do.

C3: a blockchain-native scaling solution for the carbon markets

The biggest carbon token, BCT, has almost 18 million tons in circulation. A no small feat in itself. Let’s reflect on what brings carbon tonnage on chain in the first place:

An arbitrage opportunity between the legacy market and the on-chain market.

A bonding opportunity from KlimaDAO to obtain KLIMA at a discounted rate from market price.

Compare this to what most believe the true demand of tokenizing BCT should come from:

The ability for anyone, retail or companies, to buy a carbon offset at a visible, fair price to gain exposure to the carbon market.

The ability to offset one tonne of carbon without heavy friction that comes in legacy markets today.

The ability to participate in a free market, without middlemen or significant roadblocks limiting you from doing so.

And you can see the large discrepancy here. The reason for this is largely due to the lack of legitimacy, adoption, and age of ReFi. This is solved with growth and lindy, where the success of an asset is correlated with the time it has lived. Until we get into that state, we have to rely on 

 in order to push people to bridge tokens on-chain (arbitrage and bonding).

DeFi turns this around by incentivizing beneficial behaviors for the system. The most common example is Pool 2 liquidity mining, where users provide liquidity for the protocol token in exchange for significant rewards. Typically, participants would not have provided liquidity, but the incentives make it economically justifiable. The in-game theory is akin to shifting the Nash equilibrium.

How does this relate to bringing carbon on-chain? Simple. 

We incentivize activities that benefit the on-chain carbon-economy:

Holding carbon assets on-chain (via staking)

C3’s tokenomics will be utilized to incentivize these actions. By participating in these activities (whether with our C3 tokens, or perhaps even other tokens), users will have the opportunity to gain a share of the C3 ecosystem. We believe that this will incentivize people to rapidly adjust to the ReFi space and join the new era of finance.

Klimates, try not to fade us. We still have much in store.

C3 aims to be a decentralized bridge between legacy carbon markets and the on-chain ReFi ecosystem. We want to utilize the tools that blockchain gives in order to create a more trustless and transparent market. We think we can accelerate the growth of ReFi even more.

C3 and ReFi: Back to Basics

Our previous article explained the difficulties that KlimaDAO faces in utilizing the Olympus mechanism to develop a treasury of carbon credits and catalyze growth in the ReFi ecosystem.

While, in some ways, these challenges are currently limiting the growth of KlimaDAO today, they are also what give KlimaDAO the best chance of being the decentralized reserve currency of the carbon markets. Hence, it is a double-edged sword.

BREAKING NEWS!

Our blog