White Paper
White paper on the Greenstand Token
Last updated
White paper on the Greenstand Token
Last updated
A Framework for Non-fungible Tokens linked to Environmental Assets
Version: 0.0, Aug, 2022
THIS MODEL IS A GOAL AND MAY NOT ACCURATELY REPRESENT THE CURRENT WORKINGS OF THE REGISTERED NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION GREENSTAND.
DOMAIN MODEL TERMINLOGY IN THIS PAPER MAY CONFLICT WITH CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED STRUCTURES IN THE GREENSTAND GITHUB REPOSITORIES.
Readers may comment on and suggest modifications to this document via the Pull Request process, Google Doc, or email Info@greenstand.org
This paper describes a model and technical framework to finance environmental restoration efforts using non-fungible and fungible environmental monitoring and verification tokens derived from data on ecological impact ownership claims.
The model is made possible with advanced technologies, including mobile apps, data analysis tools, remote sensing systems, secure API-based wallets, and distributed blockchain technology.
The model creates, trades, and retires the Greenstand non-fungible Token (NFT) and enables the conversion of this token into fungible tokens through the creation and use of _Relative Value Indexes. _
The model’s first primary use case is to convert the act of monitoring and verifying tree growth into tokens that enable a localized regenerative economy rooted in creating environmental wealth.
Note:
This paper uses a tree as a quantifiable building block for land restoration. As the underlying technology matures, the model enables compensation for many other less tangible building blocks or environmental assets.
In this paper, ‘Greenstand’ refers to any technologically independent entity acting as a sealing node and writing to a shared decentralized ledger. It is not to be confused with the open-source community run under the registered non-profit organization by the same name.
Climate change is driving the rise of an 8 trillion dollar Nature-based Solutions market. Tree planting and ground-based restoration activities constitute a significant part of the solution to climate change and planetary health, yet the current implementations have many shortcomings.
The story behind pledges to plant millions, billions, and trillions of trees is often one of dead seedlings, invasive mono-crops, and highly ineffective funding. The links between claims and impacts are often tenuous. At best, climate funds only trickle to those on the ground whose sweat ultimately determines the outcome of such pledges.
Enabling economic rewards for positive behaviors and outcomes related to the generation of environmental wealth has not been widely accomplished.
Nearly a billion people, primarily smallholder farmers, reside near the extreme poverty line, living daily on less than the cost of a cup of coffee - yet one vital skill many have is growing plant life. The Nature-based Solutions market can strategically activate this massive group of potential implementers through economic incentives. Mobilization at such an enormous scale must be data-driven and requires publicly accessible data sets with ubiquitous transparency and trust - this presently does not exist.
The Greenstand Token model is posing as a powerful solution.
This model unlocks access to climate funding for individuals, small project groups, community-based organizations, and governmental drivers. Allowing the participation and trade of environmental impacts in remote and underserved communities is an unbounded opportunity to activate, engage and support people growing Nature-based Solutions. Activating smallholder farmers with direct compensation is a powerful land restoration and climate mitigation strategy that addresses many of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The realization of this model creates climate-based income opportunities in remote and depleted environments, exponentially increasing earning power for populations near the extreme poverty line.
This token-based, inclusive, climate fin-tech creates economic opportunity for many stakeholders.
The model has a place in use cases that include data surrounding impact claims and environmental assets. It is flexible and adaptable to the diverse needs of the global restoration community. It has the most potential impact in rural and depleted environments with economically disadvantaged populations.
Designed to increase funding efficiency and early-stage survivability of tree seedlings, the model incentivizes the existence of specific, tangible, and quantifiable ecological assets and environmental changes. Its first primary use case pays people to grow trees.
By mapping tree planting and tree tending activities through ground-truthed data collection, the model answers, “who is responsible for what impact where?” Growers or field workers sustain it by creating ground-truth monitoring events that ‘capture’ and ‘claim’ the state of environmental action, such as the incremental growth of a tree or the continued existence of other ecological assets.
Collected field data is aggregated with external data sets and used to verify and measure the validity of claims for social impact and ecosystem services rendered. This data backs the creation of a token in a chain-of-custody framework.
Using detailed data from individual plants and growers, the model enables a common data-driven consensus on the ‘weight’ of factors in a ‘positive impact’ by capturing, measuring, and valuing a wide variety of localized details surrounding social and ecological impacts.
The Greenstand model is built as a network on an open-source framework using distributed microservice platforms and blockchain technology; it upholds open data, transparent claims, and immutable ledgers; it invites replication, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
This market-driven framework enables many different types of entities to integrate, operate and capitalize on restoration opportunities using proprietary services.
In this model, there are three stakeholder groups:
Creators
A creator is any entity working on activities directly related to token creation. This work includes ground-based land restoration activities, data collection, aggregation, analysis, and verification. Such stakeholders include but are not limited to individual farmers, local organizations, and technical service providers.
Brokers
A broker is any entity involved in the transfer or trade of a created token, including individual traders, organizations, online exchanges, marketing entities, and consumer-facing platforms.
Offsetters
The entity that retires the token makes the final claim for the credit created by that asset.
Greenstand Tokens are derived from data linked to the creation of environmental wealth. All tokens require claims of environmental impact ownership. The transfer of tokens facilitates the trading of environmental and social impacts. Retiring tokens permanently block them from future trading and enables claims on carbon sequestration and other ecosystem service credits.
These tokens enable:
The trade and transferring of impacts in villages and remote communities.
Investment from consumers, corporations, and governments into quantifiable restoration efforts.
Actionable and market-driven feedback to adjust restoration efforts on the ground.
The conversion of a wide variety of impacts into fungible tokens.
All Greenstand Tokens contain captures, claims, and tagged attributes.
Capture
A capture is a data package that ‘captures’ the environmental state at a specific time to provide proof of the existence of a new or previously existing ecological asset or evidence of an activity linked to the creation of such an asset. As monitoring events, captures produce data on interactions between an entity (such as a grower) and the environment; a capture is the base of a claim.
Claim
_Claims _concerning the type and quality of impact provided, impact responsibility, and ownership, differ in validity. Claims may be considered false, conflicting, or true.
Tagged Attributes
Tagged attributes represent the capture’s identified details and attach through verification and the amalgamation of available data sets. Tagged attributes may include any array of data related to the capture, such as tree species or claim issues.
A capture and a claim create a new token that provides a verifiable record of the impact claim at a per grower and individual plant level.
Data derived from the capture is aggregated with externally sourced data to create a data package that contains environmental, geo-location, grower, and transactional-specific information. This package is minted as a digital token into the responsible entity’s wallet and can then be traded, locally or globally, in a ledger-based system.
Each subsequent ‘capture’ and claim or monitoring event creates a new data set and, subsequently, a new token. Thus each environmental asset or restoration activity has the potential to produce multiple tokens of varying value.
The Greenstand Token is a non-fungible token (NFT), meaning tokens are not identical; each token holds a different claim and value proposition associated with a unique asset (e.g., a particular tree).
Each token is made from the amalgamation of data representing the specific token’s realized impact and contains its own tags that define it. A token is valued by a Relative Value Index (RVI) according to its associated attributes and impact potentials. These Non-fungible Greenstand Tokens lay the framework to value individual trees as they grow and enable the conversion of many types of ecological impacts, such as tree growth, into fungible tokens.
A Greenstand Token may easily convert into any number of fungible tokens, or tokens of the same value, using any area of customized Relative Value Indexes.
Fungible tokens enable global (network-wide) standards for exchanging NFTs and facilitate using tokens in local trade.
Each Greenstand Token is unique and different by nature. RVI’s are central to the conversion of these NFTs into fungible tokens.
Each token’s unique attributes may be measured using a Relative Value Index to place ‘weight’ or a ‘score’ of value relative to any other NFT. RVI’s account for factors such as social impact, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, relative cooling effects, and other co-benefits.
Customized RVIs, may be open-source or proprietary and may mint wide varieties of fungible tokens. Certain RVI’s will be readily accepted or accredited, while others may be limited or convoluted in scope.
The Greenstand Network holds a master RVI and a corresponding fungible token as a network currency defined by the consensus of Greenstand Nodes.
RVIs allow comparative measurements for valuing any NFT against other NFTs based on attributes attached to each token. (For example, when using an RVI that only accounts for carbon ton/time, the value of a token derived from a capture containing 60 days of a tree’s growth may be proportionally more valuable than a capture containing 30 days of a tree’s growth.)
RVIs can be created and applied to any NFT in the system based on an array of publicly available attributes attached to that NFT.
RVIs create subsets of fungible tokens.
The sealing nodes in the network use a single agreed-upon Master RVI to create the network’s native currency.
Purchasing tokens from impact creators (Planter/grower)
Communicating value and developing incentives for specific positive behaviors, such as fostering diversity versus monocropping or growing high-value indigenous plants versus invasive plants.
Accounting
Creates a primary fungible unit, TRing, to operate and transact on the network.
Valuing impact sourced more directly from responsible entities. (Note: Tokens derived from entities that claim all results from an area are distinguishable from individual growers as landowners or other impact creators.)
A Greenstand Token’s life cycle contains five distinct states that affect the token’s ability to be traded and have its attributes changed. The states are Basic, Mature, Blocked, Immutable, and Locked.
Data ‘captured’ from monitoring creates a Basic Token, which cannot be analyzed for validity and claims until it reaches a verification network. Once on the cloud-based network, the Basic Token passes through an initial data analysis gateway and is placed in an API-based wallet and ledger system as a Mature Token. From here, it may be analyzed further, traded, retired, converted into fungible tokens, or transferred to other platforms and marketplaces.
The Basic Token starts with an environmental monitoring event that captures data surrounding a bio-asset or an activity that will produce such an asset. Basic Tokens help establish ownership claims. They also facilitate extracting tokens from remote locations without internet connectivity as they can transfer before initial verification using Field Transfers.
A Basic-Token is a capture created in a monitoring session; this state of this token exists only in isolated networks that are not open to verification from a Greenstand node; typically, it resides on the mobile device that created it. A Basic Token’s “tagged” attributes and claims cannot be verified or validated by other entities before reaching the cloud-based nodes.
Basic Tokens are subject to:
Questionable manually entered data
No valued tags
Conflicting ownership claims
Basic Tokens become Mature Tokens when ingested into a Greenstand node and placed in a wallet for further data validation.
In the Mature Token state, additional data or corrections to tagged attributes may occur as the token is subject to further evaluation against an ever-increasing data set. Mature Tokens are subject to changes in tags that may affect RVI calculations. These tokens reside in API-based wallets on Greenstand nodes.
Basic Tokens with conflicting claims do not mint into Mature Tokens until resolving such claims. Mature Tokens that later develop conflicting claims are tagged as such.
Basic Tokens may be placed into a holding state and blocked from trading until validated. Basic Tokens are blocked when they are not able to be minted into a Mature State due to:
A lack of initial ownership data
Originating from a flagged source
A conflict of ownership on the originating wallet
The underlying environmental asset has a conflicting claim.
Subsequent monitoring events or the amalgamation of new data may be used to establish a Blocked Token’s validity, ownership, or impact claims. A token in this state may be minted as a Mature Token when/if appropriate tags are attached, and the token is verified free of conflicting ownership claims.
Note: Conflicting ownership claims may be due to contracts and liens issued against bio-assets linked to the tokens.
In this state, the token’s attributes/tags may not change. A token becomes immutable by permanently ‘baking’ tags into the token on a blockchain ledger, exporting it to another system, or converting it into a fungible or Locked token.
A Locked Token is no longer able to be modified or traded. This state occurs when the token is securely retired by a claim or transferred to an external system. A Locked Token may reside in an Application Protocol Interface (API) or Blockchain based ledger system.
Mature Token minting trigger = Capture + initial tags + initial wallet + no conflicting ownership claims
Greenstand Tokens are derived from data on land restoration activities and environmental monitoring work that ‘captures’ an environmental state and produces ‘claims’ of having created ecological wealth. Each token contains data surrounding a ‘capture’ and a ‘claim,’ such as a picture of a tree that a grower claims to be tending and a grower’s request to send the token to a specific entity.
Initial token ownership claims are established by analyzing user and ecological data linked to the captures; captures contain records and data related to an interaction between human behavior and environmental change; they also contain an initial wallet id.
The initial verified claim for impact ownership establishes the originating wallet for that token. Minting a Mature Token requires identifying a “responsible entity” and an initial wallet. This originating wallet must initiate the first token transfer, which may happen via a Field Transfer.
Conflicting token ownership claims are primarily limited to the initial conversion of a Basic Token into a Mature Token by placing it in an initial wallet owned by an entity.
In the minting process, conflicting impact ownership claims resolve by prioritizing the entity nearest to the ecological impact so that the highest priority goes to the individual growers, village coordinators, community-based organizations, and international organizations.
A Basic Token with a conflicting or false ownership claim becomes a Blocked Token.
Note: This does not prevent situations where growers work under contract, are part of a significant movement, or are active on communal or open lands.
Token trading uses open-source or proprietary digital tools. Transaction types include Field Transfer, Wallet/API-based trading, and Blockchain-based trading.
Trading a Basic Token may take place via peer-to-peer transfers, or field transfer requests. Once a token is minted into a Mature Token, it is exchanged by interacting with the Greenstand Network’s chain of custody system via API calls (typical for online banking). Immutable tokens trade via smart contracts on a blockchain-based ledger (typical for crypto-currencies).
Basic Tokens allow offline peer-to-peer token transactions before the token reaches a network for evaluation.
Any claims made on a Basic Token are not validated until verified against the network’s ledger and master database; thus, these requests may result in conflicting ownership issues and the Basic Token becoming a Blocked Token.
Once a token becomes a Mature token, it is available for trading and can be transferred to any other wallet or exported to other trading systems.
Executing trades against a Mature Token requires calls to a centralized wallet/API-based system on a Greenstand Node.
These wallet systems have User Wallets and Root Wallets. Root Wallets at the node level allow the creation of new wallets. Access at this level can trigger transfer requests from own/managed wallets to any other wallet in the system. Root Wallets may grant wallet trading access to specific wallets for users, third parties, and customers.
Wallet users may:
post transfer requests
receive requests
retire tokens
Create trust relationships
Lock tokens in the wallet/API-based trading system
Export tokens to external trading systems
Exporting tokens from the API-based database system to the Greenstand Network or other blockchains enables anonymous trading through the execution of smart contracts and trading against other blockchain currencies on major exchanges in the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Exporting a token moves it to a Locked State in the Wallet/API-based Trading system.
Verified attributes attach to the token to add or subtract validity from value claims. Any number of data sets can be attached to a blocked or mutable token; additional data attached may increase or decrease value.
Tags that are missing or cannot be verified are assumed not to exist and cannot be hard-baked or permanently coded into the token.
Token attributes are associated with tags related to Environmental Impact, Social Impact, and Data quality.
Environmental tags relate to factors affecting ecological change, such as specific location, tree species, carbon mass, previous land use, and biodiversity ratings.
Token creation relies upon the verification and monitoring activities linked to an environmental asset, like a tree. Without that asset or an attempt to create the underlying ecological asset, the monitoring act has no claim of value based on the network´s primary RVI and is tagged as such.
Social impact tags include any data set that implies, supports, or proves impact ownership claims, such as the token’s initial payment to the grower and transaction data. It may include grower types and specifics such as land owner, village coordinator, underserved population, refugee, indigenous, identified gender, and creator ratings.
Processing tags include information on token creation including, data sources, validation process used, and changes to tags. All tokens have a corresponding Change Log containing the token’s attributes and processing details.
Audit and Token Change Logs are stored using blockchain technology and are immutable.
Tokens have the following required or supporting data.
Required Data
Token ID
The Capture’s Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)
Location data
Initial wallet UUID / initial ownership assignment argument (ownership/ownership conflicts)
Time-stamp of photo or monitoring event
Hash of photo or monitoring event
Link to supporting data storage
Processing node and verification method
Token State
Wallet ID
Attribute tags + Verification processor id
Token Tags
Token Change Log
Hash of proof-of-grower-payment / transaction type
Supporting Data
Grower Payment amount
Grower Payment Time-stamp
Grower contract ID
Contract Partner ID
Parent token ID
Relationship to linked tokens
Species of plant
Type of restoration activity
Plant mass estimate
Data quality and acceptability
Carbon sequestration estimates
Additional tags and modifications to tags may occur on tokens in a Mature State.
All tokens in a Mature State are subject to revisions and changes to the token attributes allowing for ongoing improvements and corrections to misattributed tokens.
Once tokens are immutable, verifiable tags are “baked” or “hard-coded” into the token, removing the possibility of future changes.
Adding tags to tokens may take place in any number of manners by manually analyzing and attaching data or through automated systems using AI/machine learning.
A change log attaches to each token containing a record of all relevant tagging entities and verification processes.
All data verification processes shall be ‘reasonably accurate’ as defined by other nodes in the network.
Creating entities maintain a ‘score’ based on the validity and accuracy of the data they provide. Entities producing inaccurate data or false claims receive low scores and are tagged as such and flagged by Greenstand nodes.
Although all token attributes are inherently open for evaluation, certain details shall be obscured for privacy reasons and to protect the underlying environmental asset.
Token data containing personal identifiers that are private by nature shall be encrypted and restricted to access by qualifying nodes with auditing services in compliance with acceptable data and privacy practices. Personally identifiable information shall encrypted when hard coded or permanently baked into an immutable token or any other indelible publicly accessible format.
Typical information to be obfuscated include
Grower-specific information
Grower-specific payment contract information
Precise location data
Data not containing personally identifiable information, such as environmental impact and token processing data, shall remain open and publicly accessible to the fullest extent possible.
The Greenstand node minting the token is responsible for verifying claims made by token Creators.
All token claims and verification processes are verifiable and open to auditing by other nodes.
All active Greenstand nodes maintain complete Token Change Logs written as permanent and immutable records using blockchain technology on the Greenstand network.
The Greenstand Network operates on an Ethereum side chain as a private blockchain network with a public ledger that allows all data blocks to be publicly verified. The data collection, verification, and minting process shall remain decentralized using nodes to feed into a common, decentralized ledger. Only Authorized Private Nodes, Greenstand nodes, gain write access and can seal blocks and mint the native currency, TRing.
Governance is through a network of verification nodes that maintain an agreed-upon level of data quality and shall not allow more than 50 percent of the network to be governed by any single entity or coalition.
Only Authorized Private Nodes can publish canonical blocks and minting Greenstand Tokens is limited to the Greenstand nodes.
Greenstand Node authorization is granted and removed by a consensus of existing authorized nodes.
Greenstand Nodes are responsible for ensuring data integrity and credibility to the network. They must:
Maintain the required tools and systems to verify data, process data, and mint tokens.
Publish their contracts and adhere to current audit standards.
Provide access to underlying Greenstand Token data for auditing and processing token ownership conflict issues.
Sealing nodes are compensated using minting and transfer fees based on the value of tokens created and exchanged as defined by the networks’ master RVI. Payments are in TRings at a rate set by the consensus of Greenstand Nodes.
A TRing is the native currency of the Greenstand network and is created by depositing Greenstand tokens.
The Greenstand Token resides on the network as an ERC721 token. Any Greenstand Token may be converted into TRings as an ERC20. The number of TRrings created from this conversion is calculated using the Greenstand network’s master RVI.
The TRing is divisible by 100 units called Grain.
The network runs using an Ethereum side-chain with validation by authorized nodes running the Go-Ethereum (Geth) client and using the Clique Proof of Authority (EIP-225) consensus protocol (https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-225)
Modifications from the Main Ethereum chain:
The network operates on Proof of Authority rather than Proof of Work or Proof of Stake. It maintains a master Relative Value Index (RVI). Adopting any changes to this master RVI requires network consensus.
TRings replace Ether (ETH) as the native network currency. Unlike ETH, which is created from mining blocks (the validation of transactions on the Ethereum Blockchain), TRings are ERC-20 tokens and only minted from depositing and converting Greenstand Tokens (as ERC 721 tokens) using the adopted current Master Relative Value Index.
Payments and revenues for sealing are made to Greenstand Nodes using a contract method of distributed payments in TRings, instead of gas fees in ETH.
API
APIs or Application Programming interfaces enable communication between computers. They facilitate communications between mobile apps and cloud-based computers and exist in most modern applications. Modern Banking systems rely heavily on API-based systems.
Biosequestraion refers to the capturing and storing of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by continual or enhanced biological processes.
Blockchain
A distributed technology where changes to the state of data or ownership claims are transparent for all parties involved.
Broker
An individual or entity that trades tokens.
Capture
A capture is a time-stamped, typically image-based, verification data package that provides proof of a new or existing environmental asset or an activity linked to such an asset. A capture is a data set derived from a monitoring event used to prove ownership and custody.
Carbon
A building block of all life and a measurable substance that is temporarily stored in soils and plant life. A product of combustion and a primary cause of global warming.
Chain of custody
A process of determining ownership of assets at any time and generally contains records of the sequence of custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of tokens.
Clique Proof of Authority (EIP-225)
EIP-225 is an energy-efficient protocol for a side chain of the Ethereum blockchain that uses a Proof of Authority protocol instead of Proof of Work mining protocols and is much more environmentally friendly.
**Conflicting Claim**
A token has a conflicting claim if the responsible entity is not established or if the specific environmental asset used as the base for that token has a contradictory claim. These may include attempts to violate standing contracts or leans against the supporting bio-asset.
Environmental Building Block
A tangible ecosystem asset that facilitates land restoration, can be codified, and referenced.
Field Transfer
A field transfer enables the movement of a Basic Token before its claims undergo verification against a master internet-based dataset and ledger.
It may happen as a transfer in a peer-to-peer network or as a string of requests attracted to a basic token.
Fungible Token
Fungible tokens are identical tokens and mutually exchangeable. In the Greenstand system, RVIs produce fungible tokens from Non-fungible Greenstand Tokens.
Grain
A Grain is 100th of a TRing
Greenstand Token
A Greenstand token is a Non-fungible environmentally backed token that facilitates the trade of Social and ecological impact. It is a Mature, Immutable, or Locked token on a Greenstand node or in the Greenstand network. A Greenstand Token is created from a Basic Token containing a data set meeting a minimum standard of data and data quality. Its value is measured using an RVI.
Grower
Entity attributed as responsible for impact creation.
Master Relative Value Index (RIV)
The Master Relative Value Index is used to mint TRing as the network currency. Modifications to it require a consensus of the Greenstand nodes.
Nature-based Solutions
“Actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing benefits for human well-being and biodiversity.” (FAO)
Non-Fungible Token
A unique token with unique attributes.
Root Wallet
A Root Wallet is a level of wallet permission on a Greenstand node that enables a user to make API calls that trigger the creation of new wallets and transfer requests from their own or managed wallets to any other wallet in the system. Root Wallets may grant wallet trading access to specific wallets for other users, third parties, and customers.
Smallholder farmer
A group of approximately 1 billion people whose primary source of income comes from agricultural practices on small plots of land that they may or may not own.
Subsistence agriculture
Small-scale agriculture typically involves small plots of land and entraps approximately a billion people in economic poverty.
Token
A unique string of characters. Greenstand tokens are “tagged” with specific attributes and placed into a chain of custody system.
Token Change Log
A token change log is an immutable log on the Greenstand network that contains a complete record of all transactions and all changes to each token’s attributes.
Token State
Pertains to which actions or operations may affect the token, such as its ability to be traded or have its attributes changed. Greenstand tokens have Basic, Mature, Blocked, Immutable, and Locked states.
Tree Planting
Globally ‘tree planting’ is currently being counted as a “pledge” or as any number of obscure actions that may or may not lead to a growing tree, including the collection of funds, the transfer of funds, the dispersing of seeds, or education on planting. In the Greenstand system, “tree planting” is represented by a Greenstand Token without a parent_id.
TRing
TRing is the native currency of the Greenstand network. They are created by depositing Greenstand Tokens. The number of TRings produced per Greenstand Token is calculated using the Master Relative Value Index. A TRing is divisible by 100 to create Grain.
Wallet
A wallet represents an account in a chain of custody systems for entities to maintain ownership and manage specific tokens. It is a container that holds tokens and allows them to be exchanged with other parties.
