🌍 EarthFund rewards

Rewarding the Carbon Removal community for making the world a greener place

Find out more about the second EarthFund airdrop, how rewards were calculated, and why we’re excited about the idea of rewarding people for doing good.

👋 We’re EarthFund, the decentralized platform using blockchain, DAOs, and crypto to give you more of a voice in the shape of tomorrow.

This is a short post to give you some insight into the airdrop payout for the first Carbon Removal DAO community rewards.

The entire EarthFund platform is built on a simple idea:

You join communities dedicated to causes you’re passionate about. You vote on what projects get the funding they need. And you get rewarded for being part of a better tomorrow.

In practice, that means that every time a fund pays a grant out to a project, you and everybody else who have your governance tokens staked get a share of the community rewards.

💡 What are community rewards? Community rewards are decided by each community and are a percentage on top of the grant amount that goes back to everybody who has staked the token in the cause. It’s a bit like a yield you’d earn for supporting a protocol, except you’re earning a yield for building a better tomorrow.

$350 USDT of rewards for the Carbon Removal community

In the last few weeks, the Carbon Removal DAO has unanimously approved sending two microgrants of $2500 to projects focusing on community-led reforestation projects in Mozambique and Ghana.

Project #1: Reforestation in Agogo, Ghana (an exciting ReFi project)

Last year, Ghana lost 101 thousand acres worth of natural forest, which is the equivalent of 62.9 metric tons worth of CO2 emissions.

EcoMint is working with the Strategic Youth Network for Development, a local NGO, to rebuild a tropical dry forest destroyed by logging in Agogo, Ghana.

And the Carbon Removal DAO’s grant will go towards planting 600 trees covering an area of 400 m2 to help rebuild the forest.

The forest will be replanted, managed, and protected by community members from a nearby village, and ownership of the land involved will stay with the community. As the forest regenerates, it will generate carbon credits which can be sold to fund community development.

EcoMint will use NFTs to track the progress of the project- each Angry Teenager NFT represents a square of land in the real world, and will store data on the blockchain from the land and project it represents. This data will be updated dynamically over time, via satellite photography and personal inspections, so we’ll literally be able to watch the forest regrow in real-time.

Here’s what Ben at Angry Teenagers has already said about the Carbon Removal DAO’s donation and impact:

“Thanks to the EarthFund’s donation we will be able to plant 600 trees at a site in Ghana where a rich forest ecosystem has been destroyed by logging. We’ll work with young people in the community to plant the trees, and ensure that the community benefits from the new forest, so that it will remain there forever.”

The DAO has already funded the planting of 600 trees to start, covering around 400 m2. However, as carbon credit revenue comes in, more trees will be planted as a result of the DAO’s initial grant.

You can check the progress of the planting via the NFTs here.

One reason the Carbon Removal DAO wanted to support this is project is that it makes innovative use of blockchain technology to improve accountability. The link above may not look like much now, but soon we’ll all be able to see the exact 400 m2 the donation paid to reforest and track the progress of the project over time

Project #2: Reforesting indigenous forests in Mozambique (community-led reforestation)

The Nhamacoa Forest is a remnant of a once enormous Miombo forest destroyed by human activities.

Now covering only 30 hectares, it is surrounded by subsistence farmers and their fields. As the wildlife in the forest is expanding but trapped inside this area, it is essential to increase their habitat.

Illegal logging is an ongoing problem as the machamba owners (farmers and landowners) turn to charcoal making to supplement their incomes, but without protection, the Nhamacoa Forest and its wildlife will eventually be destroyed by human activity.

This project works with local communities to develop community-based forest monitoring, reforestation, and restoration of degraded lands and river beds.

You can read more about the project here.

The project will also introduce beekeeping as a new source of local income to help protect forests from being burned down every year. (The beehives will protect the forest because community members will not set fire to a forest when their beehives are inside.)

The Carbon Removal DAO microgrant of $2500 isn’t just going to reforestation, but to engaging local people into active forest guardianships, and delivering several livelihood and conservation benefits.

In fact, this project — run by the Africa Conservation Foundation — has been commended by the Dalai Lama 👀

“I am greatly encouraged by the work of the African Conservation Foundation for they are motivated by the idea that nature and our environment are an essential gift that we need to protect for future generations. After all, what would life be without a clean, healthy and sustainable environment?”

His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Airdropping $18.42 USDT to every member of the Carbon Removal DAO

Because everybody in the DAO has a max of 500 tokens, the rewards were split equally between all participants.

You don’t need to do anything. The rewards will be automatically airdropped to your wallet. (We’re using the Gnosis Safe Airdrop, an industry gold-standard tool for safe airdrops.)

And while we know that $18.42 isn’t a life-changing amount of money, the beauty of the microgrants is that they’re quick to raise money, result in real action in impactful locations, and can help make an impact all around the world.

As the DAOs on EarthFund scale, these small rewards will stack up and build up as more and more grants are sent out to projects making a real difference.

Changing philanthropy for the better

For the EarthFund team, this is another big moment.

Not only are the community earning money for participating and making the world a better place, but it’s another huge proof of concept moment for us.

With these new projects, we’ve proven out:

• That decentralized crowdfunding is viable and effective for different causes (climate change and mental health)
• That decentralized communities for good are the future (they’re planting trees, after all)
• That you can reward communities for making a difference

TLDR: Do good. Feel good. Get rewarded.

📱 $5K went to community-led reforestation projects around the world to plant trees and help local communities adapt to carbon-positive livelihoods.

💰 $350 was divided out among the Carbon Removal DAO community for helping make the world a better place.

🚀 This proof of concept — philanthropy + community + rewards — is huge for us. It vindicates everything we’ve built so far.

And soon — very soon — the full platform is going to launch and we’re going to see hundreds of DAOs just like NeverAlone and Carbon Removal launch, fund world-changing projects, and reward their communities for making a difference.

This is a new kind of philanthropy that does good and rewards the do-gooders.

And this is only the beginning.

Let’s build a better tomorrow, together.

Team EarthFund