Digital Carbon Ecosystem Expands to More Entities and Individuals in China with the Launch of WeChat Mini Program — QingTanHui Life (Low Carbon Link)
Since the 1960s, environmental conservation has been widely discussed by the global society. Various domestic and international organisations has raised numerous concerns and society has seen a resurgence of interest regarding global environmental problems, including global warming, carbon emissions, pollution, and more. Yet with renewed awareness and interest towards environmental issues, the prevalence of methods for scientifically measuring individual participation and results lag far behind such awareness, which consequently hinders efforts by key stakeholders and policy makers to incentivise the public to conserve and protect the environment.
Hence, in October, 2018, VeChain joined hands with DNV GL, a global provider of assurance services and one of the world’s leading certification bodies, and proposed the concept of a Digital Carbon Ecosystem, which is the first blockchain-based program using economic incentives to encourage individual environmental protection in a scientific way. Since then, various global enterprises had heeded the call and joined this movement such as BYD, the largest Electric Vehicle Manufacturer in the world, Haier, the largest appliance manufacturer in the world, Norway in a Box, D.I.G. and Renji Hospital, have made continuous efforts to further their vision.
With the initial steps to form an extensive ecosystem being proposed and built, more and more partners have expressed interest in joining the ecosystem. However, this just marks the beginning towards the ultimate goal of bringing blockchain technology into ordinary people’s everyday life and change this world for the better. To facilitate and accelerate this purpose, VeChain is determined to build the Digital Carbon Ecosystem into a network connecting multiple VeChainThor Blockchain-powered use cases, industries, enterprises and products. In this network, carbon credits serve as a medium that integrates multiple stakeholders. In order to achieve mass adoption, VeChain will also work with legislators from environment conscious countries to facilitate building carbon reduction schemes and the adoption of carbon credits from enterprises and national governments.
On September 1, 2019, the WeChat Mini Program — QingTanHui Life was officially launched, making the digital carbon ecosystem ready to reach out to over one billion WeChat users in China.
The mini program offers BYD NEV (New Energy Vehicle) owners with a handy application to cash in on their environmental protection practices. BYD NEV owners were once only allowed to view their driving performance via vehicle-based applications before the introduction of QingTanHui Life.
With the QingTanHui Life Mini Program, by just scanning a QR code, the owners of the six models under the BYD Qin, Tang, and Song series are able to synchronize their vehicle’s carbon reduction equivalent data on their mobile phones and receive carbon credits accordingly.
Carbon Credits in the Digital Carbon Ecosystem is a crypto asset redeemable for goods and services from organizations supporting the carbon ecosystem, and the marketplace connecting such organizations will go live at a later time. All the data with regards to carbon reduction are stored on the VeChainThor Blockchain. DNV GL, as an independent trusted third party, certifies the whole process design and checkpoints, as well as data collected by vehicle computer and stored on VeChainThor Blockchain.
The NEV market witnessed an explosive growth over the past years, and the momentum is set to continue. According to JP Morgan’s report, by 2025, electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) will account for an estimated 30% of all vehicle sales. In 2018, China sold 1.256 million NEVs, up by 62% on the previous year. On top of that, China is weighing a target for 60% of all automobiles sold in the country to run on electric motors by 2035. Transnational giants like Tesla is also investing in the market, with its first Gigafactory in Shanghai scheduled to start production in November, adding another 35 to 40 thousand Tesla Model 3 vehicles to the market.
The use case with BYD can be easily replicated to many other NEV brands, with the potential in getting millions of end-users involved in protecting our planet earth. In addition to NEVs, the Digital Carbon Ecosystem will bring on more environmental protection companies. A few planned use cases in the immediate near future involve clothes recycling and smart home appliances.
In addition to Carbon Credits, QingTanHui Life also introduced Green Energy, a non-blockchain version of Carbon Credits, to lower the onboarding barrier and attract as many enterprises and individuals as possible at an early stage, users are allowed to earn Green Energy by participating in a variety of carbon reduction activities, such as walking and recycling. Green Energy can also be used in exchange for goods and services in the QingTanHui Life platform. This is a gamified way to on board users and eco-friendly organizations onto the platform, and in turn, boost the awareness of Digital Carbon Ecosystem. VeChain will continue to cooperate with various partners and explore new application scenarios to bolster the usage of Carbon Credits.
To kick start this process, QingTanHui Life will be used to host environmental conservation events. Environmental protection groups can use the platform to find sponsors and directly reach out to environmentally conscious individuals, which will increase adoption leading to a larger user base. Recently, the “Used School Uniform Donation” program was held on QingTanHui Life. The event was initiated by Zhitong990, a broadcasting program in Shanghai, Shanghai Civilization Office, part of the Publicity Department of CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee; Shanghai Municipal Postal Administration, the Shanghai branch of People’s Republic of China State Post Bureau, a government agency, and QingTanHui Life.
The launch of QingTanHui Life marks the first step towards the mass adoption of Digital Carbon Ecosystem and is truly the beginning of a great journey. VeChain and our partners will continue to relentlessly expand the ecosystem, for a better and greener future.
