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Algorand plans to achieve a carbon-negative network by implementing a "sustainability oracle" in partnership with ClimateTrade in a move that could make blockchain adoption more environmentally friendly. The partnership enables Algorand to notarize its on-chain carbon footprint and then lock the equivalent amount of carbon credits into a so-called green treasury.

Gemini Trust purchased about $4 million in credits to help offset the carbon emissions footprint of the Bitcoin it holds in custody. The firm made a donation in that amount to Climate Vault. The nonprofit purchased the permits, which will prevent more than 341,000 metric tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere. Gemini plans to continue to offset its carbon footprint until only renewable energy is used in securing the Bitcoin network.

ALLCOT is onboarding ALLCOT's 500 million metric tonne portfolio of carbon credits to the Hedera Guardian ecosystem. The Guardian enables contextual and granular, digitally attested, data by actors fulfilling roles within these methodologies for projects in the ALLCOT portfolio. By digitizing the traditional methods of measuring, reporting, and verification (dMRV), the Guardian enables completely transparent, auditable, and fully discoverable information surrounding these ALLCOT carbon credits. This simplifies and streamlines the verification as we transition to a more digitally native validation process by independent third parties by order of magnitude.

The Bank of Korea and Korea Exchange signed an agreement to collaborate in exploring distributed ledger technology (DLT) and central bank digital currency (CBDC) for carbon trading. Simulated trials will take place in the third and fourth quarters of 2024. Both organizations already have related programs. The Korea Exchange is currently conducting simulated DLT experiments and plans to support listed security tokens next year. The central bank said this trial would form part of its CBDC usability tests. However, both the exchange and central bank emphasized this is just a test. It will not impact the functioning of current carbon credit markets. http://www.bok.or.kr/portal/bbs/P0000559/view.do?menuNo=200690&nttId=10080261&pageIndex=1

"With ongoing conversations around sustainability, the environmental impact of blockchain technology and popular, but energy-intensive, cryptocurrencies, we're pleased to share that Celo is a carbon negative blockchain. Very simply, the Celo network's Proof-of-Stake (POS) consensus algorithm naturally requires a tiny fraction of the energy usage of Proof-of-Work (POW) algorithms as used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. And at capacity, the Celo network could process up to 7 million transactions per ton of CO2 emitted by its infrastructure."

ANZ customer Victor Smorgon Group successfully purchased tokenized Australian carbon credits (BCAU) using the ANZ-issued stablecoin A$DC. This transaction is an important step for ANZ as the bank explores greater circulation of the stablecoin. In this transaction, Victor Smorgon Group used A$DC as a medium of exchange to purchase the BCAU carbon tokens from Zerocap, an Australian crypto asset investment platform.

"CarbonUSD, or CUSD for short, is a compliant fiat-backed stablecoin where users can deposit and withdrawal real USD. To mint new CUSD tokens, users can make fiat deposits via ACH or Wire Transfer with our financial partner, Nevada-based Prime Trust. Frequent third-party attestations by leading auditor Cohen & Co. verify publicly that each token is backed 1-to-1 by escrowed funds in FDIC-insured accounts with Prime Trust's banking partners."

"Today, Bitcoin consumes as much energy as a small country. This certainly sounds alarming - but the reality is a little more complicated. The author discusses several common misconceptions surrounding the Bitcoin sustainability debate, and ultimately argues that it's up to the crypto community to acknowledge and address environmental concerns, work in good faith to reduce Bitcoin's carbon footprint, and ultimately demonstrate that the societal value that Bitcoin provides is worth the resources needed to sustain it."

"The big waste theory calls for a ban on cryptocurrency. The vital cog theory calls for acceptance. Splitting the difference, why not fix the mistake of overconsumption by levying a yearly tax on the value of cryptocurrency holdings? Like a carbon tax, it would force mainstream users to internalize the costs of consuming decentralization. But unlike a ban, it would allow outsiders and hobbyists to continue to use decentralized products."

Bitcoin mining consumed enough electricity last year to release carbon emissions on a par with Estonia, according to a study that suggests the climate change impact of the crypto-asset is not as bad as previously thought.

Roubini predicted that "since the fundamental value of bitcoin is zero and would be negative if a proper carbon tax was applied to its massive polluting energy-hogging production... the current bubble will eventually end in another bust. He concluded by saying that "risky, volatile bitcoin doesn't belong in the portfolios of serious institutional investors. Many of its retail backers are suckers being manipulated by an army of self-serving insiders and snake oil salesmen. Tesla's Elon Musk and MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor may be betting the house on bitcoin. That doesn't mean you should."

"Eesti Pank carried out a research project into the technical possibilities for a digital euro alongside the European Central Bank and seven other central banks of the euro area. The experiment established that a novel blockchain-based solution could in theory support almost unlimited numbers of payments being processed at the same time with  a very large money supply and with a smaller carbon footprint than the card payment system. The blockchain-based solution would also permit a good balance between privacy and the need to meet anti-money laundering requirements."

IMF published a working paper on crypto-asset taxation. The greatest challenges are for implementation: crypto's quasi-anonymity is an inherent obstacle to third-party reporting. Design problems arise from crypto' dual nature as investment assets and means of payment: more straightforward is a compelling case for corrective taxation of carbon-intensive mining. Ownership is highly concentrated at the top, but many crypto investors have only moderate incomes. The capital gains tax revenue at stake worldwide may be in the tens of billions of dollars, but the more profound risks may ultimately be for VAT/sales taxes.

The National Australia Bank (NAB) aims to launch an Australian dollar-pegged stablecoin (AUDN) in the middle of 2023. Its purpose would be to allow its customers to settle transactions in real-time using Australian dollars, and several other purposes including "carbon credit trading, overseas money transfers and repurchase agreements." The stablecoin will launch on the Ethereum and Algorand blockchains. NAB is the second major Australian bank to be involved in the creation of a stablecoin. Earlier, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) teamed up with crypto custodian Fireblocks to mint a stablecoin pegged to the Australian dollar.

After eight years of promises the merge of the ETH blockchain into the new Beacon Chain system, formerly ETH2, is scheduled for some time between 15 and 20 September 2022. If it happens this time, then hooray! Proof-of-work mining is a crime against humanity. Using a country's worth of electricity, and thus pumping huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, is unconscionable. But that won't suddenly make cryptocurrency good. Proof-of-stake still doesn't fix all the other problems with Ethereum, or cryptocurrency more broadly. For example, decentralisation is always fake. Proof-of-stake pretends to change that - and it just doesn't.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub presented the results of their Genesis 2.0 initiative. The project aims to explore the use of blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT) for a global environment cause. The project resulted in two prototypes of tokenized green bonds, developed by two separate international teams, which are "de facto verified carbon credits" recognized by either international, national or other verification mechanisms.

On September 15, 2022 the Ethereum blockchain merged with a special-purpose decentralized ledger called the Beacon Chain, concluding its transition to near-carbon neutrality. Since its inception, Ethereum has been based on the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) system. Now it will run on a proof-of-stake (PoS) system in which miners have been replaced with validators, who pledge, or stake, ether tokens as collateral to verify transactions and accrue interest on the staked assets as a reward. As a result, the network's energy usage should drop by more than 99%, according to the Ethereum Foundation.

In July 2024, DeCurret plans to commercialize its DCJPY tokenized deposit network of over 100 Japanese institutions and enterprises that have explored proofs of concept (PoCs) for various use cases. DeCurret outlined several consumer oriented use cases, including retail in-store usage, to buy non fungible tokens (NFTs), and consumer carbon credits. All of them have programmable money elements. The DCJPY platform envisages a financial zone where banks issue deposit tokens and the money transfers take place, and separate distributed ledger technology (DLT) business zone networks (e.g., a metaverse zone, an NFT zone and an environmental value zone).

The Bank of Korea (BOK) will reportedly launch two wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) tests. The first will be a pilot in which banks will issue tokenized deposits as programmable vouchers, and settle them between each other using wholesale CBDC. This tokenized deposit pilot will involve up to 100,000 people starting in September or October 2024. The second test will be a proof-of-concept that will involve banks using wholesale CBDC to settle carbon credit transactions on the Korea Exchange. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/11/602_363810.html

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected the One River Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Trust spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) application filed by One River Asset Management for listing on the New York Stock Exchange Arca. According to the SEC, the application did not address the core concerns bordering on price manipulation noting that the company utilized the same standard used in its rejections of previous proposals to list bitcoin-based commodity trusts.