Cryptocurrency with perpetual 2% emission to solve climate change/deforestation

[CookieKawaii]

Seeking feedback/collaborators on this project. cookiekawaii@protonmail.com

Introduction

• A cryptocurrency with bitcoin supply parameters overlaid with a perpetual 2% annual emission rate earmarked for environmental causes could have a significantly positive effect on climate change/deforestation/mass extinction if it became a global reserve currency.
• Coordinating solutions to global environmental problems is extremely difficult.  Nation states end up in a prisoner’s dilemma where individual defection is advantageous but mass defection results in potential catastrophe.
• Global reserve currencies have intrinsic power due to their stability despite debasement.  Currently the US uses this to run deficits, support markets via QE, fight wars offshore.
• Decreasing relative power of the USA in a global economy of variously antagonistic powers results in large powers like China seeking alternative to USD hegemony.  Decentralized, trustless bitcoin is the obvious future winner, however there is a window of opportunity where a currency with more attractive properties could win this race.
• A large proportion of the world with environmental concerns combined with various incentives for governments, companies and the wealthy to support an environmentally focused currency make it possible to beat a more pure supply currency like Bitcoin.
• Effective use of generated funds is a difficult problem which relies on organizational structures to minimize corruption and maximize effectiveness of funds.

Why environmental coordination problems are difficult to solve:

• In a world of nation states, need each country to treat environmentalism as a primary goal and then have coordination with a majority of other nations to be effective
• For rainforest depletion, country containing rainforest has much to gain by felling this, whereas loss of biodiversity and carbon sink is globally felt
• Creates a prisoner’s dilemma where global cooperation is required however any single country breaking ranks is advantaged, and therefore global cooperation is likely to constantly fail

Why global currency has potential to help this:

• Global reserve currencies become extremely robust, and can sustain significant supply increases without collapsing
• Currently US dollar has this property, which allows US to do the following without obvious currency devaluation:
• Undergo large rounds of QE
• Run large deficits based on foreign purchasing of bonds therefore funding wars etc.

Why global currency is inevitable:

• Increasingly globalized and interconnected world means currency exchange is occurring constantly, and becomes a huge profit centre for financial service providers/banks - exploiting the complexity and lack of transparency to make outsize profits on these transactions
• Increasing significance of non-US global powers (China, Russia) who are adversaries of and inherently suspicious of the US and therefore the USD
• Blockchain makes a trustless, decentralized currency possible outside of the control of a single country, which for most participants (other than the US) is preferable to USD reserve status

Why this currency will be chosen above others:

• Bitcoin is likely to become global reserve currency due to fixed supply parameters
• Hypothesis is that a currency undergoes flywheel effect based on characteristics, leading to feedback loop of increasing value
• Central core environmentalist values of global population leads to virtuous cycles:

• Governments with environmentalist credentials are more likely to accept/encourage use of this currency
• Merchants/banks encouraged to accept this currency to signal environmentalist priorities

• Consumers use this currency to signal priorities
• Wealthy people with decreasing marginal utility to wealth often support charitable causes eg. the “Giving Pledge”.  Large concentrations of wealth transferring into an environmentally focused currency could occur

Features of the currency - POS

• Energy/sustainability issues associated with POW - POS is ideal
• Needs SIMILAR supply parameters to BTC in order to be competitive (“number go up technology”), but with a limited modification with highly positive externalities coupled with other advantages could beat BTC despite having slightly worse supply schedule
• 21 million coins on decreasing scale overlayed with constant 2% inflation forever going to environmental fund
  

Challenges of fund dispersion:

• Effective use of funds presents huge challenge
• Many of the key economies are highly corrupt
• Reward “preservation” also creates material rewards for increasing perceived risk of not-preserving (Solomon dolphin scenario).
• No clear solution to this problem due to the lack of clarity in useful endpoints, key is to create structures that decrease risk of corruption and uses scientific parameters to maximize effective use of funds
  

[avikz]

Noble thought! But I don't rally understand a need of another cryptocurrency here! At this point of time, when we have thousands of cryptos available in the market, how on earth another crypto is going to make a difference?

I am not against cryptos but I really feel that we have more options than required. Technological developments are needed but that doesn't need to be tied with a cryptocurrency everytime.

It will just ruin your work and time in this immense competition!

[odolvlobo]

Some issues to consider:

1. How would the funds be administered? Who would decide how they are spent?
2. You are essentially proposing a 2% tax on everyone that uses the currency. Wouldn't people choose a different currency to avoid the tax?

[fiulpro]

The thing is , the carbon footprint of a Cryptocurrency for example , Bitcoins is due to minning and soon when all the Bitcoins will be mines there will be nothing left to increase the pollution .
At the same time the miners can obviously use the renewable resources so that they can get money, not at the cost of the environment.
I do think having a whole new Cryptocurrency for that would be excessive, when you can just collaborate and work with the existing one.

[el kaka22]

The thing is global money isn't a must plus it is also a horribly difficult thing to achieve as well. Everything you have written have good intentions in it and I understand why you would want something like this but the reality is that politicians are the ones who will decide on things like this most of the time and they do not want this to happen in order to not lose power.

If a politician has the same level of power as any other person and if a politician is held accountable for their actions like any other worker who gets fired for being bad, that would mean end of bad politicians and all their bribe money which they will not allow. Think of it this way, the world is running out of time and human species will be gone soon if we don't do anything about it, yet politicians get paid by oil companies so they do nothing about it. When you think that, you will realize why your system won't work.

[Hydrogen]

Interesting.  

One of the biggest obstacles imo to designing and implementing a successful money exchange paradigm is: creating value. Especially with a topic like climate change where adopters aren't likely to see tangible benefits due to the issue of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere being completely invisible to human eyes. We don't see the issue, we only feel the side effects.

There are plenty of projects focusing upon planting trees and minimizing deforestation.

Perhaps it might bode well to focus more on the human element. Its less saturated and the potential for gains more tangible. In practice the way this might work is.

Early adopters and end users of the coin would be entered in a lottery. Periodically, a number of them would become eligible to win solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, organic plant growing equipment. Items which could enhance their capacity to reduce carbon footprint, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help combat climate change. With information and experiences being shared, documented and updated. All to empower others to do the same.

That could be a more effective way of producing tangible value, that people would see firsthand moreso than they would with seed planting runs and such. Of which I've never seen much documentation on at all.

[Febo]

Cryptocurrency with perpetual 2% emission to solve climate change/deforestation

Best use case of blockchain is to replace currency. That is it. It dont need to solve something else by doing it. Lets solve  other problems with other solutions. 
Yes utility tokens can be useful for some things, but in most cases  will be just to expensive solution to be useful. Not me to judge that but time will tell.

[TopExchanger]

It will be so expensive solution to be useful.