As discussed at the outset, Climate Change is a complex, interconnected systemic problem. There are many other important considerations we took into account (and are still adding!).
Our belief is that data and ground truth is of ultimate importance and value and that high quality carbon, ecological assets and impact are only as good as the MRV and ground truth. **** If we are not creating real on the ground measurable change what is this point of our work?
While a decent amount of our value add will be based on intangibles such as story, feeling, connection, excitement etc, it will all be based on the underlying data and rooted in place: the baseline, the change over time and effect on the property, ecosystem and region. Project and data transparency, credibility and legitimacy matter: as a society, we may only get one chance to do this right and it has to be built on data.
A new and emerging field is dMRV (digital and/or decentralized MRV). It is related to remote sensing but also the deSci movement.
Each Basin project will have a site specific MRV assessment done related to what data sources can we use, the cost related to each and the benefits and pitfalls of each. Basin projects will have a mix of point source / ground truth capture, IoT, remote sensing and satellite to provide a reasonably commercially acceptable project confidence interval.
We see the opportunity through the ReFi movement (Regen Network, Astral Protocol, Athena Protocol, Shamba etc) and emerging global data pools (dClimate, Ocean Protocol, Digital Gaia, etc) to establish regional-level data baselines to create an MRV index that aggregates property-level data within a region. Basin and others, using open frameworks, can compare the index to the baseline to measure methodology performance at a regional as well as the property level. This dilutes stochasticity of natural events and creates robust regional MRV standards.
Decentralized science (DeSci) is a movement that aims to build public infrastructure for funding, creating, reviewing, crediting, storing, and disseminating scientific knowledge fairly and equitably using the Web3 stack. Inherent in Basin's transdisciplinary strategy and community is an opportunity for DeSci to be used and further developed.
"Active Inference separates the problems of optimising action and perception by assuming that action fulfils predictions based upon perceptual inference or state-estimation. Optimal predictions are based on (sensory) evidence that is evaluated in relation to a generative model of (observed) outcomes. This allows one to frame behaviour as fulfilling optimistic predictions, where the inherent optimism is prescribed by prior preferences." Friston et al 2016
Open Earth, Regen Network and others are working on building Active Inference into dMRV and generative models to understand the quantitative and qualitative dynamics of living systems. We plan to assist, contribute and utilize ActInf in Basin Projects.
Each carbon and ecocredit methodology will have specific data collection guidelines and timelines. These range from continuous data streams to annual measurements. We also see opportunities to incentivize ongoing data collection by “boots on the ground” stewards using mobile phones, for example, engaging them in place-based value assessment through our Scout model.
For the bulk of our projects we will use remote sensing technologies. Satellite or aerial imagery will be used where it can be leveraged to measure vegetation and land characteristics to create a model of sequestration and positive ecological impact. In other cases we will install remote monitoring stations which can collect continuous data but only require seasonal maintenance. In many cases we will need “boots on the ground” data collection but will work to minimize it to the largest extent possible by using externally incentivized services like Orgo, OFP, EcoLabs TIA, Fix6, Earthshot, Regen, etc.
Data is part of our business model to make climate projects financially feasible. Privacy is of utmost importance for data sharing and we are looking at ZKProofs and IPFS for both location and personal information protection. There are many exciting privacy projects in the works including but not limited to Gitcoin Passport, BrightID, ZKMaps, etc.
In a world of rapidly changing climate and extensive nature degradation, the "winner take all" model should be put back and kept in the ground with fossil fuels. It is imperative that the environmental movement and the climate business operate as an ecosystem. Just like in nature.
With most blockchains already on Proof-Of-Stake (PoS) the negative climate impact of this technology is almost nil and will in fact be climate and nature positive through automated mechanisms to make network activity carbon neutral or net negative.
With EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), layerZero Omnichain, blockchain bridges, and ecosystems like the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) a world of interoperability and composability is and will be possible.
Basin is being built to be used in any blockchain ecosystem.
The climate crisis demands collaboration and Basin is building in public and learning in public. Most of our work is open and available under Creative Commons License.
However, there is a difference between the Environmental Movement and the Climate Business. We have kids, families and livelihoods just like everyone else. We are earnestly working to balance individual and collective needs, goals, aspirations and motivations however messy this may be.
JEDI is top of mind for Basin especially with Climate Adaptation and CJ/EJ. We have attempted to bake CJ/EJ into the ground up movement that Basin is with local stakeholders involvement and the nature of DAO. However, who shows up to do good work is who shows up. We don't care if this ends up being all women, all male, all black, all white, all gay, all straight or a combo. If you care and want to do good work in a respectful and inclusive way then, welcome aboard the expedition.
basin.global is built, well, to be used globally. However, v1 is built using US customs and laws. v2 will expand to other jurisdictions with strong rule of law. v3 will focus on emerging markets.