ReFi - Cross-chain Climate Action

Host hackathons/events focused on cross-chain collaboration & build tools/infrastructure for ReFi projects utilizing on chain carbon credits

Sev - Co-founded Eco Labs, a DAO on Cardano. I am already actively working on the proposed solutions with many other ReFi projects such as ReFi DAO. I bring my knowledge of what needs to be done, who can do it, & my skills as a coordinator & communicator.

[IMPACT]

Short-term goal: facilitate cross-chain collaboration between climate focused projects in Cardano, Celo, Polygon, Cosmos, & other earth-friendly blockchains.

Short-term solution: host a Planet Positive NFT Hackathon this spring aimed at bringing together the ReFi community, with a focus on cross-chain solutions. Host another hackathon in Summer 2022.

Long-term goal: build useful tools and infrastructure that add value to & integrate into existing ReFi projects & ecosystems.

Long-term solutions:

1. Work with Eco Labs team + Return Protocol team to build automated carbon offsetting tools for on-chain activities. This will provide cross-chain solutions for NFT projects, DAOs, or other web3 organizations to make their on-chain activities carbon neutral or negative, by integrating with existing on-chain carbon marketplaces within the ReFi ecosystem, such as Toucan Protocol (polygon), Regen Network (cosmos), Nori (polygon), KlimaDAO (polygon), and others.
2. Explore the formation of an open source data collection & verification application with partners at Common Action, Avano, & BasinDAO.

Right now a community in ReFi is growing fast, VCs are coming in and funding projects left and right, & there is a massive appetite for chain agnostic collaboration, there is very little tribalism, because the people involved are focused on real world problems like solving climate change. At this point Cardano has a very limited reach in the ReFi community. These solutions will encourage Cardano based projects to get involved in ReFi, and ReFi projects building on other chains to connect with & integrate with Cardano.

Number of proposals including participants from other blockchain communities

More than 20. I've already put together a survey for participants of a potential hackathon, with 20+ responses. There will likely be more than 20 teams participating

Number of technical implementations connecting Cardano to other blockchains

+1. via the cross-chain carbon offsetting tool

Projects and dApps from other chains implemented on Cardano

Solutions from the hackathon may yield 2-4 projects to implement on Cardano. I know of a handful of ReFi solutions that should exist on Cardano, just a matter of connecting the right people, which a hackathon is great for.

Number of events / workshops / sessions arranged with other communities

+2 Spring hackathon + summer hackathon

Number of permanent initiatives with cross-chain teams (members from different blockchain communities together)

+1 for sure, but potentially more.

For the hackathons: main challenge is organizing & coordinating a smooth event that encourages & fosters collaboration, which I am working with people far more experienced at organizing and participating in hackathons than I to help my get this just right.

The risk is lackluster participation. I am confident this won't happen, but it's a risk.

The challenge for the carbon offsetting tool is making it cross-chain. It's a difficult and complex problem to build something that is simple & user friendly, that can be done on many chains at once, but the team at Return Protocol has already made progress on this front.

The risk is that this tool is not finished on time or exceeds the budget. Catalyst funding will not be the only source of funding for this project, so I am confident we'll be able to achieve it, just not confident in how long it may take.

[FEASIBILITY]

April 22nd- Planet Positive NFT Hackathon

I am already volunteering my time and working on this event. We have 10+ teams ready to participate, some from ReFi ecosystem on other chains, some from Cardano. Output will be a 3 day event that brings innovative teams together from many different chain communities. Myself & teams from Eco Labs & Return Protocol will be participating and focused on the Carbon Offsetting tool proposed as the long term solution.

Spring - team will be finalized, will report who has been hired as developers

Early summer - will begin work on building the smart contracts & code needed to build the carbon offsetting automation tool, for integration into multiple chains.

Late summer - second hackathon - focused primarily on cross-chain collaboration, rather than a focus on NFTs like the first one. Another 3 day event bringing together teams from many ecosystems.

Fall - will have MVP or prototype ready for the cross-chain carbon offsetting tool, for projects to automatically make their on-chain activities carbon neutral or negative.

$30k - Bounty Rewards for hackathons. $10k to Spring Hackathon (there will be other sponsors providing more funds aswell) and $20k allocated to the Summer hackathon.

$40k - split between Eco Labs team, Return Protocol team, & ReFi DAO team, for programming and development of cross-chain tools. Exact split & potential costs is TBD as of now.

$10k - allocated to compensate any ad hoc hackathon costs, including advisors, platform subscriptions such as Typeform, Figma, Miro, Google Storage, & zoom.

Sev Nightingale - co-founder of Eco Labs

Nathaniel Stern - co-founder of Eco Labs

Samantha Tan - co-founder of Eco Labs

Kieran - founder of Return Protocol

Jeremy - co-founder of ReFi DAO

Shuya - advisor, previously help organize FWB hackathon

[AUDITABILITY]

Hackathon events will be public.

Progress reports on tool development will occur regularly, every 2 weeks.

The hackathons have a phenomenal turnout, and the tool for cross-chain carbon offsetting works, and launches this year!

It is not.