Ep. 19 Financing Impact with Maex Ament of WithEarth.xyz

05/21/24 • 29 min

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

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.

Previous Episode

Ep. 18 Sovereign Nature Initiative: Funding Conservation & Biodiversity

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

Next Episode

Ep. 20 Community Currencies for Economic Regeneration with Scott Morris

In today’s episode we talk with Scott Morris, AKA the Token Jedi. Scott graduated from college with an interdisciplinary degree in political economics amidst the great financial crisis of 2008. What followed is a captivating story of Scott researching and implementing place-based initiatives, because as he puts it, “Place-based organizing in real communities, changing patterns, with real people, will create real outcomes and real value.

Scott is a seasoned veteran when it comes to community currency and I particularly loved this conversation because it is both philosophical and nuanced. We dig deep into what is actually within our means to protect the “main street economy.” To Scott, ReFi can steer us away from a shearing economy towards a sharing economy by making use of new capabilities that allow us to re-localize and re-circulatize our economies. These new capabilities allow for greater monetary pluralism and economic diversity, allowing for back-up systems and safety nets.

We discuss why Bitcoin is important to the world, but also how Scott sees the commodity aspect of Bitcoin being a tool of wealth preservation, whereas the folks who do not necessarily benefit from this are those people living on less than a dollar per day. Scott poses the question of what are certain instruments and strategies to bring people up from the bottom and helps us imagine what benefits a community could reap by using local currencies.

We get an update on what the ReFi DAO is up to, and discuss the ReFi DAO local node incubator: Alert! There is a local ReFi chapter coming your way! Go get involved locally!

Scott truly cares about making place-based systems for economic regeneration happen. I left this conversation inspired, I hope you enjoy it.
The Token Jedi's Twitter
ReFiDAO.com
ReFi DAO Local Communities

ReFi Generation - Ep. 19 Financing Impact with Maex Ament of WithEarth.xyz

Transcript

Speaker 100:00:06.009

In order to make change , I think we cannot be too radical , and it pains me to say that , because I'd love it to be different . But in order to make a difference and have an impact , we need the fucking governments to move and we need corporates to move .

Speaker 200:00:31.780

Welcome to Refi Generation , the podcast that talks to experts and leaders i