Our Mission
The Open Forest Protocol (OFP) is a blockchain-based platform that denominates a crypto-economic ecosystem for communal measurement, verification and reporting of forestation data.
The OFP is built on top of an existing L1 blockchain (NEAR Protocol) and provides the following parameters for the ecosystem:
A standardized validation and governance model for uploading, verifying, and managing data on the network.
A georeferenced system for quantifying and recording plots of land being forested based upon minting a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) for each project.
A crypto-economic model for securely managing the upload and validation of forestation data.
An open-source application and management dashboard for the collection of data surrounding forested zones.
Developer tools for integrating with existing software and IT solutions and for developers and entrepreneurs to build new solutions on top of the protocol.
A robust governance infrastructure built around a communally operated OFP DAO.
While the ecosystem’s purpose is to create value through regeneration of forests and provide on-chain MRV, it will be characterized by different stakeholders using different facets of the protocol for their own projects:
Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Nonprofits work to create solutions and dApps for measuring, reporting, and verifying the levels of forestation of a particular plot of land and the trees contained therein. The business context for these stakeholders is explained clearly in the Nature Report: The Business of Planting Trees.
Developerscan build enterprise specific DApps, markets, or services on top of the protocol for displaying forestation data, pioneering social/local inclusion mechanisms, or funding opportunities for new forestation projects.
Any stakeholder, be it a local city government, non-governmental organization, international organization, or corporation can build their own solution on top of the Open Forest Protocol, using the tooling and structures embedded into the platform. All solutions built on top of the protocol layer run according to the same state, data, and crypto- economic model in a trustless and open environment.
OFP allows project operators on OFP to monetize their projects using a standardized carbon credit from the sequestered carbon sometime further in the future. As the schematic above demonstrates, OFP is designed as a Layer 2 solution built on top of a larger Layer 1 Protocol. Above OFP, as a L3, any application can build its own custom solution on top of the protocol be it, for example, a dApp, or decentralized exchange for carbon credits, or private forestation solution.
Our Values
Decentralized Access and GlobalInclusion- By definition, an open protocol provides the technical basis from which any stakeholder can participate in a forestation process according to the protocols’ decentralized standards and tools; a common crypto-economy guarantees the same rules for all players - from governance to utility, to verification on the platform.
Standardization and State Concurrence- With a protocol that is both open and permissionless, a community of stakeholders has the opportunity to create a uniform scheme from which data pertaining to forestation projects can be uploaded: this scheme can be democratically enhanced or altered, based on community governance mechanisms of the protocol (i.e. DAO vote). As a result, protocol based - afforestation, reforestation, or preservation allows for the standardization of how tree data is uploaded, processed and managed. State concurrence meanwhile, guarantees that all data is universally available and permanently backed up.
Trustless Security- As a decentralized protocol, no single entity will own or manage the network and the rules governing the network: full decentralization means that decisions are taken collectively by all of the stakeholders invested in the future of forestation and the mechanisms used to measure, report, and verify the veracity of projects. Data uploaded onto the protocol is unalterable and immutable.
A Sustainable Foundation for Future Innovation and Development Surrounding Forest Management- As a general purpose technology, blockchain provides a robust foundation for integrating future technologies into the protocol as they become more pervasive and cost effective into the future. Beyond software integrations with other IT systems, a protocol is also capable of managing and integrating data from Satellite Imagery, Drone technology, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things devices. This is also the case in relation to sustainable finance and integrated technology solutions. Altogether, a protocol is not only a solution for solving current problems relating to forestation, it is also a foundation for enhancing future green technologies.
A Data Backed Carbon Credit- Aligning carbon sequestration data on a distributed ledger provides a unique opportunity to tokenize a credit of carbon in a fully decentralized manner. Distributed ledgers give way to ‘data backed carbon credits’ insofar as each credit created can be tied to a specific event and account at a specific time. Furthermore, using carbon credits as offsets can be exercisable on chain. As an example, the relevant credits can be burned (retired) on chain and a timestamped certificate being generated to ensure that the credit can no longer be claimed as an offset against any future emissions.
