One of the most compelling examples of this phenomenon is the Colombian cacao sector. There are approximately 38,000 cacao farmers in Colombia, and of these farmers 90% are smallholders and 73% live below the poverty line. This is mainly due to a lack of access to markets and fair prices, investment, capacity building, insurance, technology and an inadequate governance and policy framework.

In addition, artificially depressed prices for premium “fino de aroma” cacao put producers under pressure to revert to the production of cocaine in order to survive. Strong demand for cocaine bolsters the illegal armed groups which destabilize Latin American societies by undermining the authority of governments and the rule of law, and eroding transparency and the trust of citizens.

Following the 2016 peace agreement that ended a war lasting over 50 years with the FARC (Colombia’s largest guerrilla group), the Colombian government has identified over 100,000 hectares of coca plantations in post-conflict regions. To date, 77,000 families have voluntarily agreed to remove their coca plants. However, participation of the private sector is crucial to mobilize capital and provide the education and tools necessary for a farmer’s success in sustainably replacing their coca crop without suffering financial ruin.

Starting in Colombia, Choco4Peace is focused on empowering smallholders, particularly women, youth and indigenous people willing to transition from the production of cocaine to the cultivation of specialty “fino de aroma” cacao. This is accomplished by using smart-contract Blockchain technology to create a Decentralized Inclusive Economic Network (DIEN). This network aggregates cacao producers with stakeholders from the cacao industry, giving cacao entrepreneurs access to markets and fair prices, investment, capacity building, insurance, technology. Within this platform, the presence of transparency and traceability mitigates risk, mobilizes investments, and builds trust among members.

By promoting the growth of cacao, Choco4Peace not only diminishes the production of cocaine, but works toward solving the critical cacao supply deficit of 1 million tons per year (by 2020) while striving to meet six of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) from the United Nations.

Jellycoin is designed in such a way that anyone that takes the (previously classified) residues to the recycling center is credited with tokens. These tokens can be used either to consume at the local shops or to pay local taxes. When the Jellycoins are transferred to the government as taxes they are burnt (otherwise, the monetary mass would tend to increase infinitely since the production of residues is a continuous flow). The government is willing to reduce its income in legal tender since, as a result of the implementation of Jellycoin, some of the expenditures related to waste management will be saved. Thus, Jellycoin not only encourages people to behave in a more environment-friendly fashion, but also strengthens the local trade circuits.

The fact that some activities are not considered profitable by the market doesn’t imply that they would be unable to produce valuable goods and services for the society,

The aim of the Circular Economy Zone is to take advantage of the valuable resources that society discards in order to transform them into useful products, and into a source of income for community members, This can be achieved through the implementation of a token that rewards those who contribute to recycling,

All the members of the community who collaborate in the recycling process (households separating at source, or collectors transporting waste to recycling centers) are paid by the system with a token that indicates the quantity of waste, in kilos, they’ve brought. The recycling centre uses the waste for the production and sale of “green inputs” for industries.

The token generated by the recycling centers is useful because it can be used for everyday transactions: households and collectors can use it to purchase products from local businesses, and even to pay local government taxes. Local businesses, once they received the tokens, can also pay a portion of their taxes with tokens or buy products from other businesses,

By accepting tokens as part of tax payment, the government forgoes income in legal tender. However, this is compensated by the savings that result from the drop of the outlays in legal tender that the current (inefficient) way of waste management entails. The system can be designed so that the government can improve its balance sheet, even when it forgoes a part of its revenues in legal tender,

Through this virtuous economic cycle involving waste management, the community products and a special purpose token, the behavior of the various actors are aligned in a way that benefits the environment, the local economy and the common good.

Also with this form of approach is possible to register and to measure the carbon footprint of the waste recovered from the city that joins the system.

Caretakers stake funds on the well-being of a patch of forest, supporting local land owners, forest protection and restauration efforts. If satellite images show that that patch remains forested several months from then, the value of this patch increases automatically.

Our smart contract architecture connects donors from private and public sector with caretakers. We use machine learning to provide risk scores and verify outcomes.

We use a decentralized performance-based staking game to incentivize donor contribution and kickstart sustainable projects.

We want to find radical ways to exponentially stimulate climate action. We start field testing our ideas with a pilot in Brazil in early 2019 – and scale to the whole world next.

Earth Ledger brings individuals, organizations, and ideas together to identify, invest in and implement the best solutions to the challenges we face.

Built as a system for the common good, the platform provides a range of ways for people around the world to connect, contribute, and collaborate towards a green economy and thriving communities.

The partnership

The primary goal of this partnership is to create a large-scale liquidity network for WGP token holders in the WGP ecosystem. WGP token holders will be able to use WGP to make everyday purchases of real products and services in a matter of a few quick taps. Through the Zeex network, WGP token holders can look forward to spending WGP on a wide range of global brands and retailers, such as Amazon, iTunes, Google Play Store and so on.

Guy Melamed, CEO and Co-Founder of Zeex, said: “At Zeex, we look for creative solutions and innovative partnerships that will help us drive greater market acceptance of cryptocurrency. Together with W Green Pay, we believe we can influence the public to adopt the usage of cryptocurrency through a meaningful and impactful way.”

Going forward, WGP will be integrating Zeex’s blockchain payment platform onto the HOOXI Mall — an inhouse e-commerce platform that allows WGP token holders to spend their WGP on discounted products and services offered by corporate sponsors of W-Foundation and the HOOXI campaign.

“Through this partnership, we hope to leverage on the strengths of both organizations to drive mass market adoption of the HOOXI mobile application, and provide the best user interface possible for WGP token holders. We believe this collaboration with Zeex will bring about new opportunities for WGP in the cryptocurrency space,” added Youree Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of W-Foundation.

Energy transitions require not only technology innovations but new market arrangements. Our processes identify demand for these new arrangements, and then source, validate and accelerate solutions.

Unlocking innovation today will allow us to most effectively tackle the energy ‘trilemma’ of low cost, low carbon and resilient energy for all. No global organisation exists today to support this innovation. Energy Unlocked aims to fill that gap.