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Can Blockchain Help King County’s Urban Carbon Credits Go Further?

Published on September 15, 2022

Dirt trail leading through bushes and trees in Fauntleroy Park in West Seattle
Image Credit: TIA International Photography (CC BY 2.0)

In June, King County made headlines for a huge deal in the fight against climate change: three parcels of land – in King County, Issaquah and Shoreline – got the highest prices ever for carbon credits generated by urban forests.

The purchaser is Regen Network Development, a Delaware-based blockchain company that plans to offer the credits for resale in the coming days. Regen is among several technology companies working to connect carbon credits to digital tokens via blockchain, a system advocates say makes carbon credits more transparent and accountable.

Since blockchains use decentralized computer networks to provide permanent records that can’t be altered, they manufacture trust, said Sreeram Kannan, a professor of computer engineering who runs a blockchain research lab at the University of Washington.

He said this technology could be a powerful tool for carbon credit markets and other ways of fighting climate change. “Because we do need global cooperation for solving something like the climate problem,” Kannan said.

Continue reading at KNKX Public Radio.

 


Originally written by Bellamy Pailthorp at KNKX Public Radio.
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