2021: I’ll leave this here for historical reference, but this is a dead project as far as I can see. It may have started with good intentions, but the question remains: what happened to the CARBON traded for CCE?
Carboncoin ($CARBON) has been in existence since February 2014 now and it’s aim is to provide a crypto currency that can be run on an eco friendly framework and also pay back to the environment by planting trees across the World.
On the surface little seems to have happened in the project for quite a while, but that has masked the developments that have been going on out of sight.
A member of the community known as Chris Carbon is driving the rejuvenation of the coin and things are starting to happen fast. One of the key things needed is investment and to this end an ICO is imminent. This will involve the issuance of two forms of standard Ethereum token, one form for the existing holders and the preICO, and the other for the ICO itself. The first, an ERC20 token called Carboncoin Eth (CCE) is live on the Ethereum blockchain and is intended to be a placeholder for existing network participants until the fundraise is completed and the new network is released. Once ready these CCE, and tokens bought in the ICO will be exchanged for coins in the new network.
Existing CARBON holders can get into the new coin ahead of the ICO by exchanging half their stash for the corresponding amount of tokens.
I caught up with Chris to ask him about what’s going on.
Me: Hi Chris, Carboncoin is nothing to do with carbon credits is it?
Chris: That’s a good question! As it stands at the moment Carboncoin has two main objectives as an entity
1) To remove the energy consumption from the Bitcoin technology while remaining as similar in terms of functionality, operation and legality as possible.
2) To keep an amount of coins we call our environmental wallet to one side to be released when they can have as beneficial an impact as possible:
Imagine if, before Bitcoin’s value went the way it has done, someone openly got a substantial number of large coin donations into a wallet to be spent doing good things for the environment. That could make a real difference if the coin then got adopted.
We looked into Carbon Credits at length, due to the obvious application of blockchain technology to the field. We found a lot wrong with the industry so we decided to stick to what we knew worked: Bitcoin, and what we knew was the true motive behind Carbon Credits: looking after our habitat.
In the course of our research we encountered a lot of good people deployed doing great things for the environment and requiring funding to do so. It is absolutely our intention to do as much as we can to support those people.
The new version will increase funding to those projects in the Carbon Credits markets which we feel are aligned to our ethos.
Me: how long have you been working on these developments now?
Chris: It’s safe to say I’ve been around since the genesis of the network, although neither myself, nor anyone else I know of, knows anything of the issuer of tokens (our very own Satoshi Nakamoto)
Me: once up and fully running how many trees a year do you hope to get planted?
Chris: As many as it is possible for us to! We can get trees planted by third parties for £4-5 per tree in the developed world, substantially less than that in developing countries, and even less if we do it ourselves.
Part of the funds we are looking to raise are to be spent on a flagship site to establish best practices for every aspect of the initiative going forward. Not only will this site become a biodiverse forest, our calculations show it should be possible for it, and all other sites we set up, to expand independently of funding from the currency.
“As many as we can” is not to say we’ll be doing anything silly – we want to see biodiverse forest on land that isn’t being used for anything else – we’re out to do good things, clean air, clean watercourses, regenerate soil – we’re not trying to do anything more disruptive than that.
Me: When will the white paper be available?
Chris: The original idea is quite simple. Secure the bitcoin technology at low hashrates having removed the built-in incentive for competitive energy consumption, grow the user base and encourage use of the coin for payments (which is harder than it sounds), then take the coins that we have set aside and directly plant biodiverse forest using the best knowledge available for doing so, and supporting other projects doing the same thing, or otherwise helping to maintain the planet that we live on.
The scope of the explanation of an *actually* benevolent technology is very wide. Our justifications come from disciplines as far reaching as philosophy through natural sciences, before you even get to economics and money theory. It is not without many attempts that the white paper remains incomplete. Dyslexia may have something to do with it also.
The idea is very simple: Bitcoin, and all of the benefits of a financial system that is independent of any political governance, but without the energy consumption and with a direct and increasing flow of funds to environmental conservation – supporting Mother Nature and helping to reduce the damaging impact that humans continue to have on the planet, by doing things that are absolutely good for it.
Since we started work technology has moved on substantially. There are now many features we can add into a new blockchain which will make us a more effective payment system and assist us in achieving widespread adoption. I should also add that is has been frustrating to watch how little we have actually achieved for the environment since we started. Our ICO will give a huge boost to our development, distribution and the environmental initiative.
In summary:
- For the damage humanity is doing to the environment: see the justification for the Carbon Credits initiative
- For the benefits of biodiverse forestry: see research on Rainforests/Carbon Sinks
- For the technological benefits of a self regulating payment system: see the Bitcoin whitepaper.
- For the potential good that we can do: see the price of Bitcoin.
Me: How much are you hoping to raise in the ICO?
Chris: We’re doing the ICO to kickstart the project, because the world needs this to work. We’ve got quite far trying to make it happen without formal funding, but progress is slower than that which is really needed by everyone. The funds raised will enable our payment system to compete on the world stage.
Our ICO is for tokens which will be redeemable for half of our total coin circulation (so half of 16 Billion coins). If we are successful we will raise $10M from the sale of these tokens.
The market capitalisation of existing coins only needs to multiply some 20x for our ICO supporters to break into profit. Hitting this fundraising target will mean we can multiply our active user base by more than 20 – it doesn’t take much imagination or knowledge of the network effect to see the business case here.
Me: So what is the plan, what are the significant areas you are going to invest in?
Chris: Our plan is to deploy half of the funds raised to acquiring the flagship site and providing it with the facilities it needs to become a biodiverse forest and conduct all the research into biodiverse afforestation we feel is lacking in the current state of the art.
The other half of the funds will be deployed in the running of the organisation which makes it happen. We have many developers who are very keen to help us full time when they can be paid enough money to eat. They will be tasked with bringing the new version of carboncoin up to the state of the art for our use case, operating securely and efficiently as a payment system with a distributed ledger, and ensuring that we are always able to meet our transaction volume requirements.
We have a complete business model for distributing the technology in the real world. This business requires staff at every level, and it will be scaled so that we are able to cross the chasm, however long that takes.
Me: will the CCE tokens be tradeable or will they be locked until they get swapped out when work is completed?
Chris: We aren’t exercising any control over the CCE tokens, other than at initial delivery. Users must evidence their holdings so that they qualify to exchange half of their holdings for tokens. Users are free to do as they wish with their coins and tokens but we recommend that users keep hold of both.
The existing Carboncoin network has operated for coming up to four years, it is still very fast and the full client fits on substantially less than 1GB of hard disk space. Indeed we have approximately eight times the transaction capacity of legacy Bitcoin at the moment, and all on less energy than your average electric kettle.
New coins will only be exchangeable for CCE tokens and the ICO tokens. To exchange existing coins for tokens, users must be able to demonstrate ownership of their entire holdings, and they will qualify to exchange no more than 50% of those.
We are not approaching any exchanges to list the CCE tokens, and the other tokens will be smart contacts operating independently of exchanges. If exchanges wish to list either of our tokens, or the original coin then we will not hinder them from doing so. They exist to satisfy the demand of their customers and if they find a business case for listing any of our assets the who are we to stop them.
Me: What will be the big changes that the new development will bring?
Chris: We’ll be able to build everything we’ve designed! Our existing core will be maintained and improved. Our new core will take the best developments in crypto – specifically to do with payment functionality, add our custom carbon-credit-style* interface, and our decentralised consensus mechanism to create an autonomous system for making money flow to people who do good things for the planet.
We have an extensive range of services waiting to be built also. It should not take long for things to get rather exciting.
Me: So what happens to the existing CARBON that has been traded in for the token?
Chris: The plan is for the Carboncoin swapped for CCE to be given away as bonus to new ICO participants at the conclusion of the ICO.
This means every ICO supporter will become an existing network user as soon as the fundraise is completed. Adding the number of users we hope to in this process has the potential to enable ICO participants to break into profit even before the new network is deployed.
We will also be awarding some coins and tokens as bounties to anyone who wishes to help us with the huge amount of work we have to do at this time.
Me: Will the development as a result of the investment be on the existing CARBON network?
Chris: We will be maintaining the network and doing what is required to keep it secure. We will continue to do so, and to innovate on this network, in the course of our future operations.
The ICO is to fund the development of an improved network and our environmental testbed/flagship biodiverse forest.
Me: If a new platform is developed, what happens to the existing CARBON network and the coins?
Chris: Our plan is to maintain the network and the security of the coins into the future. Our environmental ethos is paramount.
Me: What will happen to any CCE tokens that remain unclaimed after the swap out?
Chris: They will be sold as a Pre-ICO to help fund the ICO and initial development
Me: And when is the ICO?
Chris: we’re aiming for mid January, but there’s lots to do first
Me: So, if I’m a CARBON holder how do I exchange my coins for the token? Can I do it from YoBit or do I need a local wallet?
Chris: To exchange existing coins for tokens you have to contact us directly. The best way to do this is by contacting us on twitter (@truecarboncoin) or facebook.com/carboncoin to request an invitation.
You will need access to your coins, the ability to send them and an Ethereum client capable of viewing and receiving custom tokens. A web based service such as myetherwallet.com is suitable for this.
You need to do the swap by Midnight (GMT) on the 21st December 2017.
Me: Many thanks for your time Chris, let’s hope a lot of people get behind this.
Find out more and get involved at:
- website: https://carboncoin.cc/
- slack: https://carboncoin.slack.com/
- bitcoin talk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1131250.0
- twitter: https://twitter.com/TrueCarbonCoin
- facebook: https://facebook.com/carboncoin
- github repository: https://github.com/carboncointrust/carboncoincore
- Coinmarket: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/carboncoin/
Disclosure: I hold Carboncoin and CCE
The articles on this site are opinions and for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.
© copyright 2017 Russell Weetch
I am interested in this project but am having trouble finding current information as to how to get involved.
join the telegram group and then get an invite to the Slack channel.