[Cyclopath]

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/blockchain-company-buys-1m-in-carbon-credits-generated-by-issaquah-forest-biggest-such-deal-in-u-s/ Blockchain company buys $1M in carbon credits generated by Issaquah forest, the biggest such deal in U.S. history King County announced Friday that Regen Network Development, a Delaware-based blockchain software development company, bought $1 million in carbon credits generated by a 46-acre forest in Issaquah. The deal is being hailed as the largest single sale of urban forest credits in U.S. history. The money earned will be used by the county, the city of Issaquah and the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, among others, to further protect and conserve urban forests, according to the county.

[Sculpin]

As BC would say...dafuq? This is as surreal and Kafkaesque as you can get. It starts with an abandoned forest near Issaquah, where clearcut logging is politically difficult on steep slopes above multimillion dollar McMansions, and any other form of logging would lose money. What to do if you are cynical and really don't care? Sell the carbon credits and leave the worthless peckerpoles there! In comes the blockchain company. What the heck are they doing? This article in Time requires a free subscription sign-up: https://time.com/6181907/crypto-carbon-credits/ Here's the money quote: "If crypto traders got involved and started investing in these tokens, KlimaDAO’s team argued, they might drive the price of the credits up, forcing polluting companies to either pay for higher-priced, higher-quality carbon credits or find more energy-efficient production methods." So the blockchain company gets dual benefits, it tells its investors that it is offsetting the turbine-slowing power it draws to mine bitcoin, and then it tokenizes the carbon credits and eventually sells them to the highest bidder. I don't think we are in Kansas anymore, Toto.

[altasnob]

[Cyclopath]

https://www.regen.network/ It doesn't sound like a cryptocurrency company?

[Cyclopath]

I posted this without comment because I don't know how I feel about it and wanted input from the brain trust. My immediate feeling was that these trees have been there forever and aren't going anywhere, so nothing is actually being offset? The software company presents itself as filling a niche facilitating a transformative regreening where we all sing kumbaya. I'm a cynical person but hope this is a good thing? Still feels very weird.

[Sculpin]

[NacMacFeegle]

[mike]

It's a bribe to pollute dressed in sheep's clothing.

[Sculpin]

[Schroder]

I worked for a very brief time for Enron. This sounds just like a scheme from their brain trust.

[Ski]

[treeswarper]

Can't be profitably cut NOW. Maybe later? Maybe after it burns down and is replanted? Selling forest for carbon credits was touted as a way to make some money off of your land when the timber market was in the tank. The bad news was that you just couldn't say, I'm done and log it when prices went up. This was presented at a meeting of small tree farm owners about 15 years ago. Then no more mention of it.

[PowderPawn]

Spend it while you got it because all the bitcoins are eventually headed to the same place if you ask me. The pollution credit system has a lot of implications and effects, most people hate it a lot, I think they should only hate it a little.

[FiveNines]

Is there a token I can buy to support this? Like a Forest Tree Token? Mixing environmental policy w/unregulated blockchain securities markets is the future. I hope I can invest my 401k in this too. Act fast! Or they'll get there first. Steps 1-3 of virtuous/win-win cycle: Environmentalism is hard. Buying things is easy. Profit!