Climate change is not a new phenomenon and no country is spared from its pangs. Governments & institutions have been slow in tackling it and the results are for everyone to see. The devastating hurricanes in the Atlantic, the extended droughts in the West, and the horrific floods in South Asia are all examples of the increased intensity of natural disasters due to climate change. Though there has been a gamut of initiatives that have promised to fight climate change, one of the most promising ways has been the use of carbon credits.
Carbon credits are a type of environmental commodity or certificate that companies and individuals can trade that represent carbon dioxide that’s kept out of the atmosphere by some act of conservation like reforestation. By putting a price on carbon emissions, carbon credits can help to internalize the costs of climate change and encourage businesses and individuals to find ways to reduce their emissions. Additionally, carbon credits can be traded on a market, which allows for the flexibility to find the lowest-cost emissions reductions and to reward those who are able to achieve the largest reductions. But the carbon credit market has long suffered from issues like lack of transparency, double counting, and/or creative accounting.
Tokenizing these carbon credits on the blockchain is obviously a better solution since the credits can’t be sold/traded once they’re retired, the data is publicly verifiable, and immutable too. That’s why Chorus One collaborated with Regen Network, a platform that originates digital carbon assets unlocking regenerative finance in the world of web3 to offset our carbon footprint for the years 2021 and 2020. We run and operate nodes for Proof-of-Stake networks that are extremely energy-efficient compared to, say, Bitcoin, but that’s not the end of it. We calculated our approximate CO2 emissions for the last 2 years by estimating our team’s device usage, travel to company retreats and conferences, emissions by the data centers we utilize, etc.
This also contributes to the Cosmos ZERO Carbon Campaign, an Interchain Foundation initiative for the entire Cosmos ecosystem to achieve net-zero carbon emissions for their network validator node infrastructure and operations.
CosmosZERO is the first all-ecosystem governance process, and not only keeps Cosmos at the cutting edge of competitive advantage with protocol governance leading the way across the ecosystem to offset our carbon but also is helping usher into the IBC ecosystem the new asset class of interchain carbon credits, which many believe will be uncorrelated with the crypto cycles —
Gregory Landua, Co-founder, Regen Network
We arrived at a total of 130 tons and used the Regen Marketplace to retire an equivalent amount of CO2 via The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project and The Kasigau Corridor REDD Project. Regen Marketplace was recently launched and allows individuals and institutions to buy, sell, and retire on-chain ecological assets in a few clicks. You can view Chorus One’s portfolio of retired eco credits here.
We hope to encourage more organizations to retire their carbon offsets on-chain. At the end of the day, we have to remember that this planet is the only one we have and we have to do our part to protect it.
We are excited to announce that we have onboarded XPLA network as validators. XPLA (“Explore and Play”) is a proof-of-stake, Cosmos-based, gaming-specific L1 developed by Metamagnet in collaboration with its primary partner, the Com2uS Group, one of Korea’s leading public gaming companies. C2X, a blockchain gaming platform, was also created by Metamagnet. While C2X will remain as a gaming platform, XPLA intends to be a gaming mainnet that serves as a center for any third-party studio to make games and create media content. Game developers can quickly transition their Web2 creations to Web3 using the XPLA SDK.
With the advent of the Blockchain industry, applications that use NFTs have taken over the planet, some of which are money grabs and, in the worst instances, frauds. Because of these uses, the NFT market may pose significant dangers to both users and investors. The XPLA chain was created to address these issues and to establish the benchmark for the long-term, sustainable development of blockchain applications. XPLA chain is designed to be a platform that may embrace the blockchain media content ecosystem, with a focus on gaming, content, and entertainment that will continue to progress in the future.
Tendermint serves as the basis for XPLA, also powered by the Cosmos SDK and a PoS algorithm. The XPLA chain is designed to support not just the Cosmos ecosystem but also the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which will boost XPLA chain ecosystem usage by enabling Ethereum-based blockchain and dApps. Validators like Chorus One operate full nodes, contribute to consensus via vote broadcasting, validate new blocks on the blockchain, and participate in blockchain governance. Validators may vote on behalf of delegators, and their voting power is weighted according to the total amount staked. The validators and delegators will earn a portion of the transaction fee as compensation for new block verification and will participate in the mainnet operation with the shared objective of developing the ecosystem by managing the mainnet node. The top 130 validators enter the active set.
Validating Rights: The weight of validators is determined by the amount of staking tokens bonded as collateral.
Token distribution: The maximum supply is $2Bn XPLA tokens. Refer to the whitepaper for a detailed overview of the tokenomics.
Inflation rate: 0%
Slashing: Pledged tokens can be slashed.
Chorus One Commission: 7.5%
Re-Staking: You need to withdraw rewards and re-stake them with some frequency if you want to make use of compounding returns hence additional delegation is needed for compounding.
We are excited to announce that we have onboarded Teritori Network as validators. Teritori is a multi-chain hub aimed to link IBC and non-IBC communities, trade services and NFTs, start new projects, and expand current ones. To facilitate trade, Teritori allows users to affirm their Web3 identity & protect their reputation. The center prominently contains daily-use dApps such as an NFT launchpad, a marketplace, and social features for people and communities: Innovate, Trade, and Organize. The network will also include a DAO tooling suite, a job board, and a multichain dApp store.
Following the bull run, the Teritori team examined the ecosystem and addressed existing concerns: despite the desire to decentralize everything, most of the technologies we use on a daily basis remain centralized, resulting in scams and security vulnerabilities. Builders, on the other hand, have struggled to locate the people to execute the right job in their projects. Because the majority of our interactions are driven by community approval, protecting our identity and reputation has become critical. Teritori also plans to introduce Berty Protocol to offer a decentralized alternative to the existing Web2 communication tools we all use on a daily basis. With the transparency that’s provided in tool sharing and identity verification, Teritori seeks to solve these pain points.
Teritori is based on the Cosmos SDK chain and the governance/utility token TORI. TORI is initially very inflationary. The Teritori DAO and TORI holders will be able to vote on the blockchain’s future direction as well as the next features/dApps to be added to the ecosystem. 40% of tokens released per block will be in the form of staking incentives given to validators like Chorus One and delegators who assist to protect the chain. Validators and delegators are critical to the Teritori network’s security. At genesis, there will be 100 validators according to their stake. Additionally, Teritori is monitoring the latest developments on GNOLand in order to be among the first projects to deploy the dApps on this new ecosystem when live.
Validating Rights: The weight of validators is determined by the amount of staking tokens bonded as collateral.
Token distribution: Similar to Bitcoin’s ‘halving’, issued Tori tokens are reduced by ⅓ every year. 200M Tori tokens were issued at mainnet genesis.
Inflation rate: 126.59%
Staking APR: 491.40%
Slashing: Pledged tokens can be slashed.
Chorus One Commission: 5%
Re-Staking: You need to withdraw rewards and re-stake them with some frequency if you want to make use of compounding returns hence, additional delegation is needed for compounding.
Navigate to https://phantom.app/ to create or restore your Solana wallet.
If you do not have a wallet yet, you should create a new wallet and note down the seed phrase and store it in a safe place. Follow the onscreen instructions and make sure to fund your wallet with some SOL tokens before you proceed with staking
Make sure to not share or lose the secret recovery phrase (mnemonic)
If you already have a wallet, you can restore it on Phantom using the associated seed phrase. Follow the online instructions to restore your SOL account.
Once you entered the 12 or 24 words you can then restore your wallet and optionally set a password on your account.
Once you have funded your Phantom wallet with Solana, you can click on the Phantom extension to see your account details.
Once logged in, you will be able to view all the SPL assets that you possess. If you do not already have SOL tokens you can get them from a friend or buy them off-exchange and transfer those to your wallet.
Once you do that you will be able to see the SOL tokens in your wallet.
Go ahead and click your SOL balance and on the top right, you will see 3 dots. Click the dots to reveal the staking menu. Click the menu-item Stake SOL
You will be shown a list of validators along with a search button. Go ahead and type Chorus One in the search panel. Chorus One's validator will show up. Go ahead and click on the validator name.
Choose the amount of SOL you would like to stake and click on Stake
Make sure to leave some SOL in your account to pay for the transaction fees
Once you click Stake you will immediately see that your wallet is staking your SOL to your chosen validator. You can also click on the View Transaction link to see the status of your transaction in a blockexplorer. If you look at the Confirmations field you can slowly see it increasing from 0 to 32. Once it reaches the MAX number of confirmations your transaction gets added to the blockchain
Make sure to note down the transaction hash or the link provided on the screen. This allows for easier debugging in case of a failed transaction.
After your transaction is successful you can go back to your Phantom wallet, click on the Solana balance, and see your stake accounts.
Congratulations! You are now staking your SOL!
If you click on your stake accounts you will see that your stake is activating. It takes 1 epoch for your stake to activate. An epoch in Solana lasts for approximately 2-3 days. After this period your stake will show up as active and will start earning rewards.
If you click on your stake balance, you will be given the option to unstake. Unstaking also takes an epoch. Once you click Unstake your stake will start deactivating and will become fully inactive after a maximum of 3 days (1 epoch).
After the stake become inactive you can withdraw it back to your Solana account
