TREE Delisting from Lykke is a New Start for Mangrove DAO

The trees on the image above are called mangroves and their particularity is that they are tolerant to salty water. Indeed, they normally flourish in coastal waters creating a unique habitat for the local species. But it’s not their curious appearance or contribution to the tropical fauna diversity that make them a topic for a cryptocurrency blog. It appears that mangroves are considered to be one of the top three carbon-capturing ecosystems on Earth. They sequester carbon dioxide and pile most of their carbon on the ocean floor, unlike the terrestrial trees. So what does that have to do with cryptocurrency?

Mangrove tree deforestation due to human activities has become a very crucial topic in recent years. Most mangrove forests appear to be located in counties with a developing economy where ecological concerns are still secondary to the immediate gains deforestation can generate. The incremental pace with which this deforestation is taking place has become a concern not only for ecology enthusiasts but also for governments and non-governmental organizations. This concern has raised the question of how the restoration of mangrove forests can be incentivized economically. The thing is that in our lucrative world people barely act if there’s no tangible incentive motivating them…

One of the possible solutions was found in 2017 by the TREE project. It’s an innovative initiative that designed a whole system of mangrove restoration funding powered by the blockchain and based on carbon-credit incentives. The TREE project issued TREE coins. One TREE coin represents one mangrove tree planted in the Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park in Myanmar managed by Worldview International Foundation (WIF). It is a natural capital token, a new generation of tokens that aim at creating economic incentives to motivate people to preserve the natural capital. At the moment of issuance, one TREE was equal to 1 USD, the information about the circulating supply is available on the project’s Medium page. The tokens are backed by carbon credits. It’s estimated that one person generates about 5 tons of carbon emissions per year (see https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-per-capita/), this is what 10 mangrove trees can sequester over a project period of 20 years. The idea is that one can remain carbon neutral by supporting planting of a few mangroves each year.

The TREE economic model is designed in a way not only to incentivise TREE investors to fund mangrove restoration by purchasing the token but also to contribute to the local development so that the mangrove trees have a higher value alive than cut down for the local population. Lykke has supported this initiative from its very conception in 2017. The TREE coin has been listed for zero-fee crypto trading at Lykke throughout these years. However, under the new listing and delisting policy at Lykke, the coin performance was not in line with the new KPIs. As of the end of 2021, the TREE coin will be fully delisted from Lykke exchange. However, this milestone has become a new start for the TREE project.

TREE is becoming Mangrove DAO and is issued on the Polygon Network. Mangrove is a new digital token that not only represents one mangrove tree, but it also entitles its owners to have governance rights in the Mangrove DAO project. The evolution of the project is a logical continuation of the WIF’s effort at mangrove restoration. WIF's carbon credits are traded on the voluntary carbon market and bought by companies and individuals who would like to voluntarily compensate for their carbon emission. Each TREE coin will be converted into Mangrove tokens at a 1 to 1 ratio. This conversion completes the first stage of the project. Indeed, WIF has successfully finished the restoration project funded by TREE coins and registered it with the Verra Carbon Standard (VCS project # 1764).

In the new Mangrove DAO project economic model, verified carbon credits will be tokenized by WIF or by an appointed agent on behalf of WIF using Toucan Bridge, as fractionalized NFT tokens (TCO2-VCS-1764-xxxx). Blue Carbon Reference Token pool will be launched to represent 1 generic VCU of Blue Carbon. The liquidity pool for Blue Carbon tokens will then be listed and traded on Sushiswap. 

Starting from December 2nd, 2021, a new stage of development started in this project. The TREE holders who store their assets at Lykke exchange have to withdraw their TREE colored coins to the Polygon Network deposit address. The Lykke support will perform all the necessary steps to withdraw the TREE token to the Polygon Network. The deadline for the conversion is until January 2, 2022. Learn more about the new token and the roadmap of the Mangrove DAO project at its official website.