Regen Network: Healing Our Planet through Regenerative Finance

Josh Lee

• 3 min read
Regen Network: Healing Our Planet through Regenerative Finance

This blog post was originally published on Keplr's Medium blog on August 24, 2022.

This next installation of Keplr's interview series spotlights Regen Network, a community leveraging blockchain for planetary regeneration. Today we learn from Sarah Baxendell, Director of Ecosystem at Regen Network, about what the Regen community has been up to and how Cosmonauts can get involved in regenerative finance for our planet.

About Sarah Baxendell

Sarah Baxendell is Director of Ecosystem at Regen Network Development, Inc., the software development company building tools and applications on Regen Ledger, the blockchain code base of the Regen Network community. She supports the team by developing strategic product direction and weaving community partners together.

What is Regen Network?

Regen Network is a blockchain community building tools and applications on the code base of Regen Ledger. Its aim is to establish features that allow ecological assets to be originated natively on the web3 Regen blockchain for offsetting and trading purposes. The community's focus is ecological regeneration projects, as restoring ecosystem function is the primary way to design a different climate change future.

Recent Activity and Daily Work

The Regen Network Development team has been hustling towards major product launches throughout 2022, including: the blockchain upgrade to Regen Ledger 4.0, the ecological asset marketplace, the Regen Ledger <> Polygon NCT bridge, and the $REGEN:NCT pool on Osmosis. The blockchain engineering team is also the lead maintainer of the Cosmos SDK. The RND team enjoys a structured 4-day virtual work week, aligned with their culture of ensuring a regenerative working environment.

Challenges

Regen Network is a big community of decentralized organizations with over 75 validators, 17,000+ wallet holders, and 42 major projects building on Regen Ledger. The mixture of scientists, earth stewards, carbon project developers, blockchain software developers, credit buyers, and strategic partnerships can be dizzying to organize. Ultimately, this interconnectivity is its strength — much like the complexity of ecosystems.

What Are Ecocredits?

Ecocredits are issued according to the criteria set within each Credit Class on Regen Ledger. For example, CarbonPlus Grasslands ecocredits represent 1 ton of carbon sequestered in grasslands soils following the implementation of specific land management practices. These ecocredits are issued after every successful monitoring and verification round, then listed for sale in the Regen Marketplace — purchasable by corporations and individuals interested in offsetting their carbon footprint.

Ecocredits are designed and managed by a decentralized community. Scientific communities partner with Regen Network to design methodologies, which are then utilized by carbon project developers. Credit Classes are administered by Credit Administrators who govern ecocredit issuance criteria, instantiated natively on Regen Ledger.

What Are NCT Ecocredits?

Nature Carbon Ton (NCT) is a special use case. NCT reflects fungible nature-based ecocredits originally issued via the Verra Registry, tokenized onto the blockchain. These NCT tokens will move across a Regen Ledger <> Polygon bridge, establishing a multi-chain market for NCT ecocredits. Each NCT token is a 1:1 voucher for underlying ecocredits reflecting real-world ecological impact.

The $REGEN:NCT Pool on Osmosis

Regen Network has been leading CosmosZERO, a Cosmos-based initiative supporting Cosmos protocols in identifying their carbon footprint and offsetting to become carbon neutral. The Osmosis community became the first protocol to commit to offsetting their carbon footprint via network governance. Regen Network partnered with Osmosis to establish a $REGEN:NCT liquidity pool with rewards, so protocols can efficiently purchase NCT, convert them to ecocredits, and retire them for carbon offsetting claims.

Upcoming Developments

  • Launch of Regen Marketplace — featuring the digitization of the 2021 City Forest Credits Registry portfolio
  • Launch of the Regen Ledger <> Polygon NCT bridge with Toucan
  • Launch of the $REGEN:NCT pool on Osmosis DEX

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing the impactful work Regen is doing for our planet. You guys are climate heroes. 🔭