US-based environmental credit platform Regen Network Development is trialling a feature to enable the publishing of project data, connected to blockchain, in a bid to improve the storytelling around their environmental credits.
The ‘data posts’ feature, which should launch this autumn, aims to enable project developers of “ecocredit” biodiversity and carbon credits to share updates on Regen Marketplace, said Cory Levinson, director of product and engineering at the company during a webinar last week.
“For the first time, you can actually start to publish artifacts of data – monitoring reports, plans, blog posts – on a stream on your project page,” said Levinson.
“It is much more of a storytelling tool than a formal reporting tool,” he said.
Users will be able to attach free text, images, PDFs, and location data to posts, which can be public or only visible to partners, before adding a digital signature, he said.
Blockchain is a transparent way of permanently digitally recording transactions, with no risk of market actors editing key data on projects after its initial entry.
The data posts tool is a work in progress that the Regen team is looking to refine further, with an update due at Climate Week in New York next month.
“We’re wanting to see the uses of this to help inform how to create the structure of the ways that these different posts relate to each other, or the way that they specifically relate to the project,” Levinson said.
David Machuche, co-founder of Tanzania-based plastic impact company Chatafisha, said the data posts feature was straightforward following a test-run, though he would like clarity on how to best describe plastic waste.
In May, Regen announced the listing of 10,000 voluntary biodiversity credits generated by Colombian developer Terrasos.
The marketplace provider also announced the sale of biodiversity credits available from a jaguar conservation pilot over a 10,000-hectare area in the Ecuadorian jungle in March.
By Thomas Cox – t.cox@carbon-pulse.com
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