What Is The Network?
The Network is a small solution to a big problem that we, as citizens of earth, face today. The problem of pollution, global warming, and environmental collapse. In short, the problem of carbon.
According to the most recent data from institutions monitoring the global environmental situation, carbon emissions worldwide have reached an unprecedented 37.12 billion metric tons per year.
This is unsustainable, with UN officials citing the need to reduce total emissions by 50+% no later then 2030 to prevent irrevocable harm to our climate.
Exacerbating this issue, reduction of emissions, while a necessary step in preventing crisis, is unrealistic at the scope needed to effectively halt climate change. Meanwhile, highly effective solutions for sequestering CO2 emissions, such as DACC (Direct Air Carbon Capture), are too expensive to build at the scale needed, without finding ways to drastically increase their revenue or decrease production cost.
It is this problem that The Network was created to solve, providing a simple, two stage solution for scaling DACC, and bringing this vitally important technology to the masses in a tangible, and economically viable way.
The Network accomplishes this through its trustless commodity protocol, which will allow for the tokenization and transaction of CO2 and CO2 products, by both corporations and individuals.
Why Does It Matter?
To understand the need for a convenient secondary market trading sustainably sourced carbon, it is first important to examine what the three primary challenges are in scaling DACC.
The first problem facing DACC is the cost to produce the carbon capture units themselves. This is due to the primary component of the machines filter, a reusable metal organic framework capable of absorbing massive quantities of carbon, that must be manufactured in specialized labs.
In addition, centralized carbon capture facilities, such as the Orca and Mammoth facilities built by Swiss company Climeworks AG, are brobdingnagian in their size, requiring access to both huge tracts of land and immense sources of electricity.
Lastly, up until recently, carbon has always been treated as a somewhat nebulous resource, important, but with limited value and utility beyond its somewhat arbitrary value as a tax credit. Even with the advent of DACC, allowing us to realize carbon as a physicalized product, there is little utility and less market to consume the ever growing quantities at hand.
This has led many DACC facilities to sequester the carbon they collect, pumping it into the earth to create limestone. Meanwhile, to generate the revenue needed to operate, the companies sell carbon credits, and while this is an effective solution for the time being, it does not encourage the aggressive scaling necessary to combat rising CO2 levels over the long term.
Scaling DACC With The Network Pt 1
Despite the somewhat obscure utility of carbon from an every day perspective, it is an asset with nearly incalculable use cases, able to be converted into everything from fuel, to medicine, and even construction materials. And yet, despite the ever growing list of applications for carbon in industry, there is no distinct market for the trade of sustainably harvested CO2 and the carbon negative products created from it.
The Network fills the gap in the emerging market of carbon commodities through its ability to tokenize sustainably harvested carbon and its derivatives using a proprietary blockchain technology protocol.
The first use case of The Network, CRBN, is a cryptographically secure blockchain asset pegged at a 1:1 ratio against kilograms of sustainably harvested carbon. CRBN is the first vessel for tokenized trading and investment in carbon, from tax credits, to industry materials.
Powered by The Network’s Proof Of Reserve minting protocol, CRBN guarantees its 1:1 peg against the underlying asset, as well as its capture method, ensuring its ability to facilitate the exchange of both physical and digital carbon commodities on a global scale in a completely trustless manner.
Using the CRBN commodity token Network supply chain, existing DACC facilities worldwide will be able to dramatically increase their revenue, allowing them to expand their important work, without incurring undo additional costs to their current system. Simultaneously, the positive impact they have on environmental conservation will grow significantly by supplying certifiably clean carbon for industrial applications that previously had little to no access to it.
Scaling DACC With The Network Pt 2
The second stage of The Network’s strategy for DACC escalation will focus on the evolution of the physical capture systems themselves.
Similar to the early super computer systems of the 1960’s, DACC technology, though powerful, is still in it’s infancy, both energy inefficient and requiring access to exceedingly rare materials. These factors, while not insurmountable, pose significant complications to the growth of the carbon capture industry, and more importantly, access to it by the consumer market. After all, just like the supercomputers of old, the core technologies of tomorrow must undergo a dramatic evolution, becoming both more compact and more efficient, before it becomes a practical choice for mass adoption.
It is the philosophy of The Network that if the global effort to reduce emissions is to have any hope of success, it requires a cooperative effort, not just by a few privileged individuals or corporations, but by everyone everywhere.
It is this point that The Network sees as the most important focus of its long term efforts, investing into the research and development of the next generation of DACC units. These units are designed to scale carbon capture, not by creating yet another gargantuan facility, but by creating smaller, more energy efficient machines made for use on a residential and commercial level.
By scaling through decentralization, The Network puts the future of carbon capture into the hands of those most effected by our changing climate, the very citizens of the Earth itself.
In keeping with The Network’s commitment to ensure that DACC technology is available as widely as possible, any advances made by our teams will be made available as freely distributed material. Allowing all, regardless of immaterial barriers erected along nationalistic or economic lines, to come together in the fight to save our climate from environmental collapse.
However, even with access to such technology, we acknowledge that investing into such a unit is unrealistic for many people, with even the most well meaning activists having to justify any additional expense against the ever rising cost of living in our turbulent world.
The Network provides the solution for this as well. Just as centralized DACC facilities will be able to remit their captured carbon to The Network for CRBN tokens, individuals harvesting carbon in accordance with Network standards will be able to do the same, exchanging their captured CO2 for digital carbon credits they can claim, and carbon backed cryptocurrency tokens they can sell on secondary markets.
This will allow environmentally and / or financially conscious individuals to participate in The Network’s decentralized carbon capture movement, using personal DACC machines in the same way as cryptocurrency miners. This will allow users to earn dual passive income, while simultaneously becoming a part of the first truly global effort to reduce emissions.
Why Are We Building It?
The Network development team, led by Sam & Maz are long time blockchain enthusiasts, who first conceptualized The Network protocol 10 years ago. At the time, it was thought of as an interesting prototype solution to the issue of stablecoin insolvency, with little thought put into it beyond that.
More recently, with information on the rapidly worsening status of our environment becoming increasingly apparent, we began to look for how we might contribute in a positive way to this global issue. It was in December of 2021 that we rediscovered our Network prototype, realizing that it could effectively solve many of the pressing issues of environmental reclamation. Since then, we have been hard at work crafting The Network into a climate change solution.
We did this, driven by the philosophy that those who have the ability to do more; have the obligation to try, and although our resources are limited, our technical ability, and commitment to creating a better future are not.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the complex issues surrounding the containment of climate change will not be answered by any one solution. Yet it is equally clear that without a dedicated, global effort, the future habitability of Earth is at risk.
The Network is one such solution, made to support an industry that needs our collective help to grow, and extend that same opportunity for both ecological, and financial growth to all those who want to see a real and tangible change.
If, like us, you are done feeling helpless in the face of an ever bleaker world, and tired of waiting for others to fix it, then join us. Together, we can change the narrative of our climate.
Source Material:
The Network: Changing The Narrative Of Carbon Whitepaper: Sam Lux, https://thenetwork.gitbook.io/the-network-whitepaper-crbn/
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