CARBON Copy - Information Hub for Web3 Regenerative Finance (ReFi)

Project Description: We fill the information void in Web3 regenerative finance (ReFi) by providing a combination of news, education, expert analysis, industry reports, and project evaluation to help industry stakeholders better understand the space and to get projects more exposure. A core part of this is our comprehensive, curated ReFi company database. Each company has its own profile page complete with contact info, news, media coverage, content feed, token and fundraising data, and more. Each category in our taxonomy also has its own dedicated page showing aggregated data.

As part of our impact data integration efforts, we released a beta of our ReFi Impact Dashboard that aims to quantify the work being done by ReFi projects. The data is also publicly available via API upon request.

Public Repository: CARBON Copy · GitHub

Budget Breakdown

Milestone 1: Expanding our impact dataset and improving impact dashboard interactivity ($1,500-$2,500 / 0.3-0.63 ETH)

  • Expected Outcome: A fully interactive dashboard with a complete set of ReFi metrics and 50-100 projects integrated.

Milestone 2: Launching a beta of our ecosystem management tool ($1,500-$2,500 / 0.3-0.63 ETH)

  • Expected Outcome: The ability for projects to own and update their profile page and a plan for transfer of the ownership of the database to the ReFi community

Funding Requested: $ / ETH $3,000-$5,000 / 0.75-1.2 ETH

Plans should you fall below, reach or exceed funding goals:

If we fall below the funding goal, we will continue data integration on an ad hoc basis, with the hope of raising enough during GG23 to ramp up.

If we reach the funding goal, we will be able to ramp up data integration and start development of the ecosystem management tool.

If we exceed the funding goal, we will be able to implement the above more quickly.

Impact Measurement and Reporting

Inputs > Activities > Outputs > Outcomes > Long Term Impact

Short-term Outcomes (0-3 months):

We’d like to finish v1 of our impact dashboard and find ways to integrate it with other projects in the ReFi community. We’d also like to get started on the development of the ecosystem management tool.

Mid-term Outcomes (3-6+ months):

We would like to see a more consistent increase in traffic over the next 6 months, better geographical representation in our content, and projects owning/updating their own profile pages.

Long-term Impact (5+ years):

In 5 years, we see CARBON Copy as the decentralized Crunchbase and CoinDesk of ReFi. In other words, the go-to place for everything ReFi. We see it as a tool that helps investors and ReFi projects connect and a source of data for researchers to produce reports.

Outcomes Measurement:

We will measure our impact in three different ways:

  1. ReFi Data aggregated
  • How many projects, builders, and tokens in the DB
  • How many projects have been integrated into the Impact Dashboard
  1. Content
  • Number of industry reports produced
  • Feature articles published
  1. Reach
  • Website traffic
  • Farcaster/X followers

Interim Reporting

Regular Updates:

We provide monthly updates on Karma GAP, quarterly updates on Giveth, and feature/content updates as required on Farcaster.

Milestone Verification:

We use Karma Gap to track grant milestones. You can also visit our own profile page on CARBON Copy to see an overview of our progress.

Sustainability Plan

We think that grant funding can keep us going while we put together a revenue model that can sustain operations. We’re exploring two different avenues:

  1. An annual subscription paid by ReFi projects to take ownership of their CARBON Copy profile page
  2. Producing reports and other forms of content in exchange for remuneration

#1 will require grant funding in order to create the necessary smart contracts and app changes (this would eventually turn into the ecosystem management tool) #2 is something we will approach impact investors and other impact organisations with starting in 2025.

Case Studies and Testimonials

Gathering Feedback:

We plan to use a couple of approaches:

  1. X spaces with ReFi builders - We want to start talking more directly to builders in the ReFi space to get a better understanding of how we can help them promote their own impact and make CARBON Copy better.

  2. Initiate discussions in ReFi communities - We currently piggyback on other ReFi communities, such as Climate Coordination Network and Let’s GROW DAO. By engaging with community members in those spaces, we generate a lot of useful feedback about how we can make CARBON Copy more valuable to ReFi.

Showcasing Success:

Something we want to look at in 2025 is better understanding how CARBON Copy is being used to help projects. We’d like to post case studies on our site and social media to give other ReFi projects ideas on how they might use us for their benefit.

Advancing Values of Freedom and Privacy

Privacy
Aside from Google Analytics, the only piece of user data we request is an email address for our newsletter subscription on Paragraph. We’ve always considered it important to not collect user data that is not publicly available. Despite the obvious advantages of a sign in module for a site like ours, we decided against it. We will eventually implement “Connect Wallet” functionality, but it will never be associated with a user’s name unless explicitly requested by the user.

Freedom
We support projects that are building an incentive layer for ecological and social impact. What this ultimately means is that people in areas most affected by climate change and income equality are being given the opportunity to generate additional revenue streams and, thus, a better chance of financial freedom.

Supporting Decentralization

While we are currently centralized, we know that the future of CARBON Copy is decentralized. This means:

  1. Control of our project database should be transferred to the ReFi community
  2. Projects should be able to own and update the content of their profile pages
  3. Content publishing should be permissionless, but approval by an editorial board should be required

We want the decentralized version of CARBON Copy to become a tool that can be leveraged by any ecosystem.

Team Information

  • Kent Babin - Co-founder, editor, and freelance developer - From Canada. Been in the crypto/blockchain/Web3 space since 2015. @kentbabin on X and @kentb on Farcaster.
  • Trinity Morphy - Freelance writer and database manager - From Nigeria. Been with us since February 2024. @TrinityMorphy on X and Farcaster.
  • Savan Wijewardene - Co-founder - From Sri Lanka. Doesn’t have an operational role, but his journalism background helps us with our content creation. No currently on socials.

Social Proof

  • The State of ReFi Report 2024 was published in coordination with ReFi DAO
  • The Impact DePIN Report 2024 was published in coordination with ReFi projects Arkreen, M3tering Protocol, and Shamba Network
  • We’ve been mentioned in various presentations, most recently by DeCleanup Network (from the people behind EcoSynthesisX) at Devcon in Bangkok and by Monty Merlin Bryant and Pranav Khanna at EthCC in Brussels.
  • Inclusion in GreenPill Network’s “On-Chain Impact Networks” book (Page 70, note: logo is incorrect).
  • A verified project on Giveth

Transparency

All of our funding is used to pay salaries and freelancer fees. We keep our operational funds in USDT/USDC/USDGLO across Ethereum, Celo, and Arbitrum. All payments are made in stablecoin and off-ramping is handled by the recipient. In the case of Octant funding, we would convert immediately to stablecoin to reduce volatility risk.

Other funding

Total past funding from external sources: $4,976.41

  • GG21 Climate Solutions Round - $3,861.67
  • GG21 Asia Round - $86.33
  • GG22 dApps & Apps Round - $600.86
  • Giveth donations - $104.79
  • Giveth QF rounds - $322.76