Integrate CHAR to access $250k in builder rewards

Imagine if climate action was woven into the applications that we use every day. Every company we engage with and transaction we take part in could drive the world closer to getting a handle on climate change. We believe that world is within reach; and we're catalyzing the companies, builders, and individuals who are creating that reality.

Today, we're excited to announce a total of $250k in grant funding available to apps integrating CHAR: the world's first onchain carbon dioxide removal credit pool, and a building block for planet positive applications.

Learn more: What is CHAR and how does it work?

In addition to monetary grants, our team will support selected builders with our deep carbon market expertise and provide technical assistance to integrate onchain carbon credits. In some cases, we may also connect you with key players in the ecosystem, such as the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme.

Retire biochar, get up to $10,000

We've learned from experience that the amount of time it takes to deploy grant funding can be a challenge for founders, so we're building a cleaner path to supporting projects. While we're still going to utilize an application process for certain ideas we'd like to see built, we also want to let builders/founders get access immediately to funding for their projects. Enter our Retirement Incentive:

Take action on your idea that retires onchain carbon and we will award you with $100 for every biochar credit retirement generated via CHAR. There's no waiting to know if grant funding exists for you, and no limit on your ideas to incorporate carbon onchain. You submit a log of transactions or retirements from your application and we give you $100 per credit retired.

Let's look at a few practical examples:

• You start a project and your newfound users retire 75 tons of carbon via the CHAR pool. After sending Toucan the log of transactions and retirements we send you $7,500 and you're able to come back up to an additional 25 tons.
• You lean into social signaling, bringing retirements via CHAR to Farcaster or another social app. Get $100 for every ton retired via your integration, up to a maximum of $10,000.
• You're running a carbon marketplace and decide to source biochar credits from the CHAR pool. One of your corporate customers retires 12,500 tons of carbon and you source 500 tons from the CHAR pool. After sending Toucan the log of the transactions and retirements we send you $10,000 for the first 100 tons retired.
• You buy a ton of carbon from the CHAR pool for your own personal emissions. We appreciate you, but you are not eligible to receive $100.

Related: Climate Action, Now on Base

Call for builders

We have a few ideas we’d like to see developed and are ready to support teams that can make them happen. If you have a novel application in any of the areas below, feel free to complete the builder form at the bottom of this page.

• Gamified Climate Action Campaigns: Toucan is collaborating with the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme (developers of the Cambridge Blockchain Network Sustainability Index), to make the carbon footprint of Ethereum accessible via an API. We’d like to see a project that gamifies offsetting Ethereum’s footprint. The selected team will receive grant money from Toucan. We’ll also connect you to the team at Cambridge and provide you with direct technical support for integrating CHAR.
• Climate Action x DePIN: There’s a host of use cases that leverage DePIN in applications from environmental monitoring to individual home energy management.
• Builder Tooling: Create products that make integrating climate action easy for the broader Web3 ecosystem.
• New Financial Products to Drive Demand: Create DeFi infrastructure that helps turn carbon credits into a productive asset.

Digital assets offer a formidable opportunity to scale up climate action, making sustainable solutions accessible to a wide audience. This rapidly evolving space provides unprecedented tools for integrating environmental stewardship into the fabric of everyday transactions and investments.
– Alexander Neumüller, Research Lead for Digital Assets Climate Impact at Cambridge Digital Assets Programme

How to get involved

Follow us on Twitter for more details and information about the application process in the coming weeks, or apply straight away for a builder grant. If you're building on Base, you can also join our Base x Toucan Telegram group. Leave your information here if you’d like to receive news straight into your inbox.