Cardano achieves goal to plant more than 1M trees

Cardano (ADA/USD) has reached the first goal in its restoration efforts. The Cardano Foundation announced it has now planted over a million trees. It is an NPO that oversees developments on the Cardano network. Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard tweeted:

The Cardano Forest is 100% funded, we’ve reached the 1 million trees milestone. All trees planted will be recorded on the Cardano blockchain for enhanced transparency and serve as public proof of land restoration activities.

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The Foundation collaborated with crypto startup Veritree for the project. Veritree allows verifiable tracking by using blockchain technology to record the supply chain of tree plantations.

One tree planted with each ADA/TREE exchange

Each time someone exchanges one ADA for a TREE token, Veritree plants a tree. Holders can redeem TREE tokens for NFTs and digital trees on days specially designated for this purpose. The rarity of the NFT issued depends on the initial amount of Cardano exchanged.

Wallet exchanged 100K ADA for 100K TREE

The effort was supported with large amounts of ADA, transactional data shows. One wallet exchanged 100,000 ADA for 100,000 TREE, equivalent to more than at $118,000 at the time. This was the cause’s biggest donor. Other major donors exchanged amounts ranging from 5000 to 87,500 ADA.

A climate-positive blockchain

Cardano’s restoration efforts are part of a broader activity to become a climate-positive blockchain. The negative environmental impact of blockchain technology has resulted in huge criticism.

Mining is especially energy-intensive. It involves specialized computing systems that mine blocks by solving millions of calculations each second. These use up a huge amount of electric power in the process.

Newer blockchains are environmentally friendlier

Newer blockchains like Cardano, Cosmos (ATOM/USD), and Terra (LUNA/USD) are based on proof-of-stake rather than proof-of-work. They rely on ‘stakers’ who maintain the blockchain by locking up their tokens on public nodes.

Planting trees is a step in the direction of more environmental friendliness. It is a simple ethos: planting more trees can offset the damages incurred by human activity in other parts of the world, at least in theory.