Ultragreen Money Update (December 2024)

Climate and ReFi
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We would like to update the Celo community on the status of Ultragreen Money, which currently has an unutilized balance amounting to 29,099.16 CELO. The blog below explains the source of the unutilized balance, as well as the progress of offsets as of today.

Action Requested:

The members of the multisig would like to request approval from the community to execute the following:

  1. Distribute the unutilized balance to environmental and climate projects that have brought activity to the Celo blockchain;
  2. Deliberate and decide on the projects that will receive the unutilized balance for 2024;
  3. Decide and adjust the percent allocation of Ultragreen Money moving forward.

Where is the unutilized money from?

There are two sources of funds for the multisig, namely (a) epoch rewards since the genesis of Mainnet; and (b) the base handler fee as approved by the Celo Community via CIP-52. See breakdown below:

Offset Time Period Epoch Rewards Base Handler Fee Subtotal (CELO)
January 2024 1,895.45 1,895.45
February 2024 4,001.89 4,001.89
March 2024 1,630.05 4,676.15 6,306.20
April 2024 1,419.16 2,231.73 3,650.89
May 2024 1,291.62 2,437.12 3,728.74
June 2024 1,314.74 1,314.74
July 2024 1,397.99 8,805.17 10,203.16
August 2024 1,666.84 3,280.86 4,947.70
September 2024 1,781.46 2,971.34 4,752.80
October 2024 1,688.15 2,144.12 3,832.27
November and December 2024 2,640.86 4,682.11 7,322.97
Grand Total 20,728.21 31,228.60 51,956.81

By September 2024, we had purchased a cumulative total of 736 tons of CO2 through purchases from Wren and Toucan, which is 43 times the total annualized carbon footprint of the Celo blockchain (using the 2023 estimates of CCRI). Moreover, we have also purchased an equivalent of 3,280 MwH worth of renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Arkreen, 69 times the total annualized electricity consumption of 47 MWh for the Celo network.

Offset Time Period Total CELO used TCO2 - Wren TCO2 - Toucan MWH - Arkreen
January 2024 1,895.00 41.3 269
February 2024 4,001.00 60.8 5
March 2024 6,306.20 161.43 15
3,091.00 1,551.04
April 2024 3,650.89 59 4 520.125
May 2024 3,728.74 64.13 6 531.25
June 2024 1,314.74 14.72
July 2024 1,397.99 15.65 3 419.75
Subtotal 417.03 302 3,022.17
August 2024 1,666.84 16.34 1 258.00
September 2024 1,781.46 22.44 2
Grand Total 30,522.01 433.37 303 3,280.17

Hence, we decided to accumulate the funds from the base handler fee, given that the year-to-date offsets already significantly cover our annualized footprint and electricity consumption by a high factor. In anticipation of our migration to become an L2 of Ethereum, we further anticipate this footprint and consumption to reduce. Thus, it presents an opportunity to use the funds to support strategic initiatives that can further amplify the multisig’s impact.

The table below summarizes the funds accumulated from the base handler fee as of end-November, including the unutilized balance from 2023:

Month Unutilized Balance
From 2023 2,886.55
July 2024 8,805.17
August 2024 3,280.86
September 2024 2,971.34
October 2024 3,832.27
Nov & Dec 2024 7,322.97
Total Unused CELO 29,099.16
CELO Price (12/2) 0.96
USD Equivalent 27,935.19

Note that we have paused the purchase of offsets since October given some UI issues, and while waiting for the committee to deliberate on the funds from the base handler fee.

Proposed utilization plan:

The CCNM committee proposes to open the fund for proposals for new onchain offsets and/or other environmental initiatives on Celo.

We propose to call for proposals from the community for projects that can demonstrate concrete environmental impact, for example:

  • Grassroots projects that originate carbon credits onchain
  • Community projects that rehabilitate forests/environments in developing countries and record them on the Celo blockchain
  • Plastic recovery initiatives that utilize blockchain technology

The committee recommends to select the top 5 projects and equally divide the unutilized balance based on the following criteria:

  • Live on the Celo blockchain (proof of onchain activity)
  • Focus on environmental action and ReFi
  • Demonstrated impact on communities and the environment

We will solicit proposals until 31 December 2024, and announce the decision by 15 January 2025.

We invite community members to also share their comments and suggestions below.

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Thank you, Jack for this update! For the community’s information, the member organizations of the Celo Carbon Neutrality Multisig are Celo Foundation, cLabs, Climate Collective, Mercy Corps Ventures and Gainforest.

Looking forward to inputs from the Celo community.

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Adding Ecological Hypercerts into Ultragreen Money

We would like to propose to add environmental hypercerts (Ecocerts) that represent conservation impact achieved by local communities, with outcomes validated through onchain data and AI verification. Each hypercert should be evaluated through various monitoring methods, such as field data, drone images, satellite imagery, and community participation. By tokenizing verified conservation activities, these hypercerts create a direct link between funders and verified environmental outcomes, enabling efficient resource allocation and providing communities with reliable income streams for their conservation efforts.

We are proposing to integrate these environmental hypercerts into Celo’s UltraGreen Money, with the GainForest XPRIZE Hypercert as our initial test case. As winner of XPRIZE Rainforest’s “Most Impactful Approach” award, GainForest has achieved verified conservation impact: $32K in conservation data income, 13 capacity-building workshops across three continents, and partnerships with 28+ local communities. All of our impact is exclusively attested on the Celo network. (GainForest advocated to Hypercerts to migrate to Celo in 2023).

Strategic Benefits for Celo

By incorporating environmental hypercerts into UltraGreen Money, Celo will: 1) Fund on-chain infrastructure for impact verification; 2) Expand beyond traditional carbon credits; 3) Create alternative revenue streams for communities. 4) Position Celo as a pioneer in establishing hypercerts as an impact primitive within the Ethereum ecosystem.

This pilot involves leading organizations in the impact-based PGF ecosystem, including Hypercerts Foundation, VoiceDeck, and GainForest’s community partners, with additional interest from Gitcoin, MaEarth, and Filecoin. The GainForest XPRIZE hypercert serves as an initial test case snd in the next weeks we will enable further community-created hypercerts from both GainForest’s network and the broader ReFi ecosystem to be proposed in this forum.

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I fully support the introduction of Hypercerts (Ecocerts) in partnership with Gainforest. This move allows Celo to broaden its sustainability portfolio and strengthen its role as a leading sustainable ecosystem through a bottom-up approach. Although the traditional Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) has encountered issues such as slow adaptation and credibility concerns, credits like biochar continue to be important in my opinion. By combining Ecocerts with these high-integrity VCM credits, Celo can create a more diversified and resilient strategy for promoting sustainability.

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Adding to the hypercerts discussion, I also want to highlight that hypercerts can be used as an impact certificate primitive for any environmental project.

As part of the “call for proposals from the community for projects that can demonstrate concrete environmental impact”, what if the concrete environmental work were tokenized in a hypercert?

Utilizing hypercerts as the framework would help standardize the decision making process.

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The Hypercerts Foundation would like to express the support and excitement about Gainforest’s initiative to use hypercerts for ecological impact and integrate it with Celo’s UltraGreen Money!

The ecological impact we need to create together goes far beyond carbon credits. Hypercerts enable tracking of any action designed to create positive ecological outcomes, while allowing for evaluations across multiple dimensions of impact. This flexibility makes hypercerts a powerful tool for building open, collaborative networks to fund and assess ecological impact.

Gainforest is leading the way in innovating smarter approaches to funding ecological impact, combining cutting-edge technology and human-centered approaches. We’re excited to support their efforts in adopting and integrating hypercerts.

If you have any questions about using hypercerts for ecological impact, we’d be happy to share more about the underlying approach! :blush:

Cheers
Holke for the Hypercerts Foundation

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I love this approach, @ddd - it’s also very aligned with some early conversations CeloPG has with Octant. We’re aiming to co-host a significant Climate initiative in 2025, with one of the program elements being a budget to purchase onchain environmental credits and hypercerts.

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Hi all,

Djimo here representing Silvi

First and foremost, we’d like to support the idea proposed above by @ddd to integrate Ecocerts into Ultragreen Money.

Secondly, we’d like to propose expanding the scope of Ultragreen Money from being just a carbon/climate fund to becoming a Nature fund that prioritizes nature-based solutions and environmental stewardship. I believe this is exemplified nicely by @Jack_P with the examples of forests and cleanups.

Finally, in line with your invitation for community proposals, we’d like to bring directly into this forum our proposal for UltraGreen Trees - powered by Silvi’s TreeForwards (our mechanism for funding and verifying tree planting initiatives directly on Celo). TreeForwards builds upon our existing infrastructure—used to monitor tree planting projects worldwide—and integrates seamlessly with Celo’s regenerative mission.

Key Highlights of TreeForwards:

Onchain Integration: TreeForwards ties user actions and contributions to tree planting campaigns, recording all funding, geospatial planting data, and growth tracking directly on the Celo blockchain. This ensures transparency, immutability, and data accessibility for community members and environmental auditors.

Real-World Impact: Through existing global partners, TreeForwards would enable the multisig to channel funds into verified tree planting efforts that support biodiversity, forest restoration, and climate resilience, especially in regions most impacted by deforestation.
MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification): We leverage decentralized MRV participation, custom configurable methodologies, open-source data feeds, and drone/satellite imagery to provide publicly available, real-time updates on the status of trees planted, their growth, and survival rates. This ensures that every CELO spent directly correlates to measurable ecological outcomes. The goals defined by an Ultragreen Trees fund can also incorporate Ecocerts as discussed in an MRV workshop last week by MaEarth (mentioned above) along with @holke. Silvi is currently building Ecocerts into its tooling

Synergy with UltraGreen Money: By funding trees through TreeForwards, UltraGreen Money can diversify its impact beyond carbon credits and RECs. This complements ongoing decarbonization efforts by adding verifiable nature-based assets and fostering community engagement. It also aligns with Celo’s original vision of tokenizing natural capital to underwrite stable-value assets.

Our Request:
We kindly request consideration of a dedicated TreeForwards wallet managed by Silvi as one of the projects receiving a share of the unutilized CELO balance. This would not only help expand the scope of UltraGreen Money’s environmental impact but also serve as a model for how onchain funding can tangibly restore ecosystems, empower local communities, onboard new Celo users and set new standards for ReFi-based environmental initiatives.

We’d be delighted to provide more details, host a demo, and collaborate with the committee and community members to illustrate how TreeForwards can deliver lasting, verified, and onchain-documented environmental benefits. Feel free to explore our app at app.silvi.earth

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I can see how hypercerts can address two major challenges in conservation: funding and impact reporting. Most nature stewards rely on rigid grants with heavy reporting. But Ecocerts provide a flexible, reliable income tied to verified outcomes. So, communities can focus on making real ecological impact on the ground🌱

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Really excited about this proposal! Would like to emphasize that traditional carbon credits often fail to deliver real climate impact due to verification problems and reversibility risks - which is why moving beyond carbon credits through on-chain data and AI verification approach like Ecocerts is exactly what we need.

This could be a game-changer to unlock a new market of environmental impact investors who have previously been hesitant due to transparency challenges.

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Echoing the community’s sentiments and adding our support from Ma Earth for the proposal around Hypercerts / Ecocerts. We think it has solid potential to bring more integrity and trust to nature markets, and especially the open evaluation system can be a protocol for impact funding that will benefit both Celo and Ethereum. Ma Earth intends to build with these tools too and this will help bring more alignment across the ecosystem.

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Hello everyone,

I’m Sakwa from Bees and Trees Uganda, a social enterprise that motivates smallholder farmers to restore degraded land through incentives. We provide beehives and coffee seedlings, encouraging farmers to integrate coffee shade trees and bee forage species into their farms, enhancing biodiversity and livelihoods.

In December last year, we got a generous grant from our friends at Ma Earth, thanks to donations from this community! We are actively looking for more funds in order to reach our fundraising target for the project.

We have already issued a Hypercert representing our verified conservation impact: 734 trees planted and marked on the GainForest Green Globe, contributing to land restoration, climate mitigation, and landslide prevention. Our work directly benefits farmers by providing additional income through honey and coffee sales while supporting pollination and food security.

We strongly support integrating environmental Hypercerts into Celo’s UltraGreen Money and would love to see our existing impact included in this initiative. We welcome any support to scale our efforts and ensure farmers continue to receive incentives for sustainable restoration.

Thank you!

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Hi all - I am new here. Huge thanks for the transparency @jack_p :seedling: As someone who’s worked in climate, I want to cheer for leaning into grassroots communities with these funds. Let’s make sure this isn’t just about moving CELO, but about uplifting the folks on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

A few thoughts:

  • Hypercerts should be inclusive, if we design with, not just for these communities. Co-create simple tools (like mobile-first hypercert templates?) so grassroots groups don’t need a PhD in crypto to participate.
  • Prioritize trust, not transactions. I’ve seen too many projects parachute in, throw money, and leave. What if we partner with local ReFi hubs to ensure funds reach the farmers, forest guardians, and waste-pickers already doing the work?
  • Celebrate stories, not just stats. If we fund a mangrove project, let’s amplify the voices of the folks leading it—maybe even attach their stories to hypercerts. That human connection turns carbon metrics into movements.

Also are there any updates on the ultragreen money distribution? @ddd @Angelo.Kalaw

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Welcome @Marie-Claire - amazing perspective, thanks for sharing! I believe the approach Ecocerts has taken so far is precisely in line with this.

Excited to see how we can further accelerate this.

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Hi, I’m Yuda from Yayasan Pandu Alam Lestari (PAL), a foundation based in Indonesia and a GainForest community partner. From 2022 to December 2023, we led a pilot agroforestry project in Bawan Village, Central Kalimantan, focused on rehabilitating fire-impacted land. We planted 3,400 trees across 10 hectares while integrating environmental education with sustainable land practices.

Our restoration efforts were supported by local farmers, students, and women’s groups, with regular maintenance every three months. Despite challenges such as poor soil and limited landowner participation, we successfully demonstrated agroforestry as a sustainable alternative to extractive industries like mining and palm oil plantations.

We will be issuing a Hypercert to represent our impact and would love support in integrating it into Celo’s UltraGreen Money. This will help scale our restoration efforts and empower local communities engaged in sustainable land practices.

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Hello everyone,

Here is Gabriel representing our Indigenous Data Coalition. Our Coalition develops and oversees Indigenous and Riverine-led initiatives in the Amazon.

I want to share why our Coalition believes Hypercerts can be a transformative approach for communities like ours.

Our forest breathes, lives, and tells stories—that’s our Amazon. We’re stewards of one of the most critical ecosystems on the planet. Indigenous and Riverine territories, which I call home, protect nearly half of the Amazon rainforest, and while people have been debating about climate strategies in rooms where we were not invited, we’ve been quietly protecting these lands, achieving up to three times lower deforestation rates compared to other regions.

Despite delivering exceptional environmental benefits, our communities receive minimal economic recognition. We invest our lives, traditions, and daily labor into preserving these lands, yet financial, social and political recognition remains minimal. Traditional funding models are not aligned with our livelihoods as they treat our conservation efforts as charitable acts rather than essential global services.

Hypercerts can change this narrative. By leveraging blockchain technology and Celo’s innovative financial model, we can quantify, validate, and monetize our environmental impact. This offers us a direct, transparent mechanism to support real, measurable conservation.

In the Negro River Basin, we’re launching Hypercerts for three communities—Inháa-Bee Indigenous community, Parque das Tribos Indigenous community, and Santa Helena do Ingles Riverine community. These certificates document our holistic approach to biodiversity monitoring, community empowerment, digital inclusion, and capacity building. Each is a testament to our commitment and efforts, verified through GainForest’s Green Globe—an immutable record of our environmental stewardship.

This isn’t just about financial rewards. It’s about recognition. It’s about proving that local communities are not passive recipients of conservation strategies, but active, intelligent architects of environmental preservation. We’ve developed sustainable economic models that demonstrate how traditional knowledge can drive a modern, green economy.

For too long, our contributions have been invisible. Hypercerts can make them visible, valuable, and fundable, potentially transforming how the world sees, values, and supports indigenous conservation efforts.

To everyone involved in this initiative: thank you!

The Indigenous Data Coalition enthusiastically endorses this groundbreaking approach.

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Hi

This is Simon from Climatica Foundation. We are a non-profit environmental conservation organization committed to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers through agroforestry, climate-smart agriculture, and agricultural market research.

In early 2024, we fundraised locally and planted 2000 indigenous trees with 20 smallholder farmers on an agroforestry basis in Uganda’s Teso subregion, an area severely affected by deforestation and climate-related disasters, especially drought. These trees are already making a difference by improving the microclimate, enhancing biodiversity, and increasing farmers’ resilience.

While this impact is promising, we are still seeking more funding to support additional farmers and scale our restoration efforts. We would love to see our work recognized and included in this initiative. Any support is welcome as we continue empowering communities, restoring landscapes, and building a greener future.

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Hi Celo community! I’m Camille, I’m new here. I run Oceanus Conservation, a science-based non-profit environmental organization focusing on the conservation and restoration of blue carbon habitats in the Philippines.
I want to share our latest project in Surigao del Sur, Philippines where we’ve equipped local community members with smartphones to document 3000 mangrove trees for conservation data, gathering crucial data for carbon sequestration analysis while providing fair compensation to community members.
Our partnership with GainForest has helped us build a bridge between traditional ecological knowledge and digital innovation. We’ve distributed PHP 120,000 (USD ~2100) to 12 trained local community members, making conservation work a viable source of income while ensuring transparent and efficient payment distribution.
We’ve captured this verified impact in a Hypercert, and we’re excited about the possibility of integrating our work into Celo’s UltraGreen Money initiative. This is just the beginning! We’re ready to scale this model and demonstrate how bridging science and community conservation can deliver measurable benefits for both nature and people!

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Hi everyone,
SORALO: Protecting Land, Culture, and Wildlife

The South Rift Association of Land Owners (SORALO) is a community-driven land trust that unites 16 Maasai communities across Kenya’s South Rift Valley. This region, situated between the Maasai Mara and Amboseli, is a vital corridor for wildlife and home to pastoralist communities who have coexisted with nature for generations. Guided by the Maasai cultural principles of Enkop’ang (a healthy land) and Erematare (stewardship), SORALO works to secure land for both people and wildlife by promoting sustainable rangeland management, strengthening community governance, and fostering coexistence.

Exploring Hypercerts with Gainforest

We were introduced to the concept of hypercerts through Gainforest, one of our close partners. A hypercert is a digital impact certificate that connects grassroots organizations with individuals and institutions that want to support environmental restoration efforts. Gainforest has been instrumental in helping SORALO explore this innovative funding mechanism. Notably, Gainforest played a key role in enabling SORALO to access funding through the Ma Earth Grant (Gitcoin), further supporting our conservation and restoration initiatives.

Engaging Women in Grass Seed Banks

One of SORALO’s key initiatives in restoring degraded landscapes while improving livelihoods is the establishment of grass seed banks managed by women’s groups. These seed banks operate as a community-driven restoration model: women take charge of the seed banks, cultivating and managing native grasses. Once the grass seeds are mature, they are harvested and sold, primarily for reseeding degraded rangelands. So far, this initiative has enabled the reseeding of over 80 acres of degraded land, contributing to the recovery of vital grazing areas and improved ecosystem health.

Beyond environmental restoration, the grass seed banks have become an important source of income for the participating women. Proceeds from seed sales are placed in a revolving fund, ensuring financial sustainability. A portion of the funds is also allocated to support school bursaries, providing educational opportunities for children in the community. By integrating conservation with economic empowerment, SORALO is not only restoring the land but also strengthening the resilience of local communities.

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Dear all,

On behalf of the members of the CCNM multisig, we appreciate your support and comments on this initiative.

Based on the submissions in the comments section above, we are moving forward with dividing the unutilized balance among the top 5 projects, with each project receiving 5.8K CELO. The two projects that submitted by the deadline are Silvi’s Ultragreen Trees and GainForest’s XPRIZE Hypercert and would receive the said amount. Both projects are live on the Celo blockchain and have demonstrated impact on communities and the environment.

We also note the support to utilize the Hypercerts’ platform to distribute this allocation. Eight (8) grassroots projects have also posted above and expressed desire to receive a portion of the balance. The members of the multisig decided to divide the remaining portion (⅗ of the fund = 17.4K CELO) equally among the 8 said projects by purchasing their respective Ecocerts (2.175K CELO each).

The funds will be disbursed by February 13, 2025.

Moving forward, the multisig members are deliberating on the utilization strategy for 2025 consistent with the mandate under Ultragreen Money and will inform the Celo community of a proposal soon.

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