ReFi Generation

Today we get REC’d, and explore the innovative way Jasmine Energy is pairing the renewable energy credit market, aka RECs, with blockchain technology.

Nathalie brings a wealth of knowledge around the renewable energy space and is an excellent bridge between the traditional and the cutting edge. With her electrical engineer degree she has a broad set of skills, from working in energy compliance markets, installing solar & storage for Bitcoin mining operations, to building electric race car engines for Formula 1.

Nathalie’s systems engineering mindset enables her to take complex systems and synthesize them down to understandable concepts. She walks us through the nuanced ecosystem of renewable energy credits and how they represent the clean energy attributes of renewable electricity, as opposed to the physical energy itself. These energy attributes are important because they help us to know how clean grid energy actually is and holds us accountable to sustainability goals.

Jasmine Energy is a REC tracking app and marketplace for bridging renewable energy credits into non fungible tokens on a blockchain. Why blockchain you may ask? The short answer is allowing for liquidity and accountability. RECs are often a secondary revenue stream for solar developers and financiers, and are important for helping renewable energy generators hedge against the fluctuating prices of spot market electricity.

In addition, the traditional over the counter REC market is mostly all voice brokered, often using excel spreadsheets for tracking. REC brokers take a 10-20% fee, which takes away from the profit of renewable energy generators. By putting RECs onto a blockchain, it can more easily be validated when beneficiary claims are retired, reduce the aforementioned broker fees with less friction across a multitude of currencies, and protect against double counting and fraudulent credits.

In this era of environmental catastrophe, we cannot rely on humans using excel spreadsheets to solve the climate crisis. By using Jasmine Energy, we can ensure energy usage is verifiably green. I hope you enjoy.
Show links:
Jasmine Energy Website
Jasmine Energy App
Nathalie's Twitter
RE+
US Green Building Council - California

I love this episode with Will T. from Kingfishers Media LLC because Will is passionate about regenerative knowledge around community building initiatives.
Kingfishers Media provides educational tools and resources for starting a business in Web3. They are a bridge to help onboard people and to make sure people have the knowledge needed to engage in the space in a positive way.
Will seeks to democratize the access to knowledge and bridge the multilingual communication gap and has their learning content in Spanish, Portuguese, French, & Swahili.
This episode gives a refreshing take on how web3 & blockchain technology is a bottom-up paradigm shift from what has historically been a top-down extractive model. Will believes this technology allows everyone to participate in something that is bigger than ourselves. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Will, I hope you do too.
Kingfishers Media LLC Website
Kingfishers Media LLC Twitter
Will T's Twitter

In today’s episode we talk with Alessandro Mazzi from Sovereign Nature Initiative. Ale was a joy to talk with and is a wealth of knowledge. He is getting his PHD researching the influence of law on the capacity of human and wildlife to coexist.
Sovereign Nature Initiative works in biodiversity conservation and is sitting in the middle between philanthropic giving & conservation projects. Sovereign Nature Initiative helps to raise funds and do impact reporting. By looking at nature positive solutions, aka conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems, they are creating other ways to value nature rather than the traditional extractive model.
Ale discusses the benefits of using blockchain as a transparent accounting mechanism, thus helping to prove an environmental claim actually happens, and reduces green washing because it ensures accountability.
Ale provides a fantastic look on how dMRV (digital or decentralized measure report & verification) allows for significantly reducing MRV costs - further democratizing the access to MRV tools and monetization mechanisms for regenerative land practices. By working with locals and the stewards themselves, emerging dMRV technology can further reduce the barrier to entry and allow smaller scale projects to participate.
I especially loved Ale’s perspective on biodiversity credits, and how certain species can “activate the carbon cycle” by providing important ecosystem services. We discuss an exciting European Union development for a treaty on biodiversity mandates for corporations.
Ale shares an inspiring project surrounding bison restoration in Romania, where children are leading the monitoring efforts of biodiversity. These youth then educate farmers about the importance of biodiversity. I was left inspired and enthused after talking to Ale, I hope you enjoy this episode.
Sovereign Nature Initiative Linktr.ee
Sovereign Nature Initiative Twitter
Sovereign Nature Initiative Website
WWF European Bison Restoration

In this episode we showcase the potential of regenerative finance with none other than Kevin Owaki, the trailblazing founder of Gitcoin and host of the Green Pill podcast. We dive into how blockchain can redefine our economic landscape and impact environmental and humanitarian efforts. Gitcoin's implementation of quadratic funding has directed over $55 million towards public goods!
As we navigate the intricacies of Web3, we confront the real-world challenges of melding traditional nonprofit strategies with the often misunderstood realm of blockchain. The episode explores how projects like Downtown Stimulus in Boulder, CO have successfully harnessed the power of blockchain for tangible impact, without getting bogged down by crypto currency complexities.
We delve into the future of impact and funding within social media and Kevin shares how decentralized social media platforms could revolutionize the way we value online ecosystems, shifting focus from ad revenue and influencers to genuine societal contributions.
I especially loved exploring the concept of mycelium finance, drawing parallels between web3 networks and the natural world's "wood-wide web." Join us and be part of a dialogue that's reimagining the nexus of technology, finance, and social good.
Links:
Kevin's Twitter
Green Pill Podcast
Gitcoin

In today’s episode we talk with Maex Ament of WithEarth.xyz & Centrifuge. Having vast experience leveraging technology to fundraise and create positive impact, Maex is a bridge between web3 and the climate space. Centrifuge tokenizes real world assets and puts them on the blockchain. Some examples are invoices, music royalties, mortgages, consumer debt, and all the way into carbon credits and carbon forwards. Maex gives a thorough and nuanced explanation of what tokenization of real world assets can allow for. One such example is democratizing the access to liquidity.

Maex shares his thoughts on how the immutability of smart contracts on the blockchain allows developers to build on a stack that is both philosophically and technologically “unstoppable.”

We discuss the real world asset summit in NYC this fall, as well as real world asset summits happening in Dubai and at ETH CC.

We finish the conversation with Maex giving some thoughtful feedback on how the ReFi space can evolve in order to “green pill” institutional players and governments. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Maex, I hope you do too.
WithEarth.xyz
Maex's Twitter
Centrifuge.io
Centrifuge's Twitter