JustCarbon, Likvidi Launch Blockchain Markets for Carbon Credits

JustCarbon and Likvidi both announced the start of trading platforms for tokenized carbon credits, giving participants the ability to trade greenhouse-gas emissions and lower their carbon footprints.

JustCarbon opened a marketplace for its JustCarbon Removal Units (JCRs), it said Thursday. Likvidi announced a platform for its Liquid Carbon Credit (LCO2) on Wednesday.

Both LCO2 and JCRs are blockchain versions of carbon credits issued by Verra (VCS). JCRs also represent credits issued by Gold Standard. Each is equivalent to 1 metric ton of carbon.

The two companies join a growing band of institutions exploring how blockchain technology can be used to improve environmental management. China introduced a carbon trading system last summer, and late last year the University of Cambridge said it was working on a similar project, looking to develop a blockchain-based market for trading carbon credits that will support reforestation projects to preserve biodiversity through the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits.

"The world is now waking up to the challenge of reducing carbon emissions. Governments alone won’t achieve this," Likvidi CEO and co-founder Ransu Salovaara said in an emailed statement.

JustCarbon aims to build a transparent and effective “nature-based carbon sequestration marketplace,” it said in a press release. The project also wants to provide a way for smaller companies to offset and trade their greenhouse-gas emissions. The tokens have been built to operate cross-chain and will be tradable on third-party exchanges from today.

Buying a carbon credit gives the holder the right to offset one metric ton of carbon or greenhouse gas equivalent. In order to obtain an offset, the token must be destroyed.

JustCarbon's platform will be administered by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), which means that no single entity or vested interest group will own or control it. A separate token, the JustCarbon Governance Unit (JCG), will facilitate community voting and decision making for the DAO.

Likvidi is working with DAO Maker. The platform will run on Avalanche.

JustCarbon has also partnered with NFT Design Works, a creator and curator of digital collectables, so that non-fungible tokens (NFT) can benefit from carbon offsetting.