After its XPRIZE Carbon Removal, Elon Musk, is launching the “Hodl the Rainforest”, project that challenges the crypto sphere to save our vital habitat.
In a recent Tweet, Elon Musk, challenged openly the crypto world to “Hodl* the rainforest” which in the crypto parlance, implicates that nature should not be sold but rather protected.
Universal Protocol Alliance (UPA), a coalition of Blockchain companies including Bittrex Global, CertiK, Fifth Era, Hard Yaka, Ledger, Trovio, SFOX and Uphold, have responded, and made the “Hodling the rainforest” possible through a unique technological breakthrough : tokenized and transparently substantiated certified voluntary carbon credits.
Universal Carbon (UPCO2) the world’s first tradable REDD+ carbon credit token becomes the first environmental crypto commodity to be listed on Bittrex Global – the leading Liechtenstein-based digital asset trading platform.
“We are excited to be providing every Bittrex Global user with access to UPCO2. With this important new listing, we’re enabling institutional and retail investors to both invest in the appreciation of carbon credits and offset carbon footprints while helping to save the world’s rainforests.”
Tom Albright, CEO, Bittrex Global
Launched last December 1st 2020, each UPCO2 Token represents one tonne of CO2 pollution averted by a certified REDD+ project preventing rainforest loss or degradation. Every token is backed by a digital certificate issued by Verra and other international standards agencies, which allows certified projects to turn their greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions into tradable carbon credits.
In the lead-up to the creation of UPCO2 and BTC0 (an ERC-20 wrapped carbon neutral bitcoin), the UPA consulted many of the world’s leading carbon experts, ultimately forming the UP Carbon Foundation. The UP Carbon Foundation’s role will be to ensure that the carbon credits underlying UPCO2 are diverse, of unimpeachable quality, and, where possible through block issuance, the money paid for fully performed credits can immediately flow into the expansion of protected acreage.
UPA Chairman, Matthew Le Merle is planing to jointly submit its technological breakthrough for the $100 million XPrize Carbon Removal awards funded by Elon Musk and its Foundation aimed at tackling climate change and re-balancing Earth’s carbon cycle.
“UPA is proud to have made Elon’s vision a reality. “Hodling the rainforests” is a critical and tremendous start, as they are the lungs of the world and under siege… but with the advent of digital carbon credits, an entire world of possibilities open up, creating an efficient conduit for market forces to deliver outsize results precisely where they’re most needed.”
UPA Chairman, Matthew Le Merle
* Hodl refers to the acronym Hold On for Dear Life, as a misspelling of “Hold”.
Article: Joana Foglia – Source: Universal Protocol Alliance, Xprize Carbon Removal