Congratulations to our Community Funding Program Awardees!

Learn about the 40 incredible projects we look forward to co-creating solutions with as a part of our 2022 Community Funding Program cohort

Regen Network

Published in

Regen Network

7 min readJan 21, 2022

A message from our CEO, Gregory Landua

I am humbled and awed by the skill, knowledge, and potential of the initial Community Funding Program awardees. The scale of applications we received is a sign of the times we live in, in which individuals and groups are mobilizing to create climate positive outcomes born out of grassroots need and inspiration.

The Community Funding Program investments are the most exciting thing that the Regen Network community has achieved to date. Having the resources and capability to invest in a broader, more decentralized community, and support a polyculture of visions is essential to fulfilling the Regen Network credo of “out cooperating the competition.”

The RND Inc. team had the hard job of discerning which initiatives to fund at this phase of our ecosystem. We have chosen inspiring projects in a wide variety of fields that each have the potential to drive real change. Some projects are technical, building out the open source blockchain infrastructure for high integrity ecological assets. Some are scientific, creating methodologies for measuring ecological state and generating new types of ecocredits. Others, powerful community engagements that bring people together to have important conversations, plant gardens, or create media.

After all, Regen Network is both a community and a public infrastructure. Regen Network is a gathering place for creative community-driven regenerative finance solutions that flow financial capital into the living capital of the world’s soils, forests, healthy oceans estuaries, and the community of land stewards whose work repairs the biosphere’s health daily. Linking the techno-sphere with the biosphere in service to ecological regeneration, and re-aligning the economics of land use with long-term ecological health: these are imperatives that take a community to build.

We are honored to welcome these projects into the Regen Network family and look forward to co-creating solutions together!

Gardens by The Bay — Singapore Image credit: Victor / Unsplash

How were funding solicitations collected and evaluated?

An open-submission process for the Community Funding Program attracted applications until November 30th, 2021. Application were received from the Regen Network community of scientists, developers, land stewards, and web3 community members with the impetus to build upon decentralization and assist in the stewardship of our network. Throughout December, a cross-functional internal team assessed funding submissions against the priorities of the Regen Network project roadmap and the following collaboration categories:

Regen Ledger & Interfaces — Employing blockchain features, tools, and interfaces that make Regen Ledger legible to network participants and stakeholders
Cosmos SDK & Ecosystem — Co-development of Keystone, Bridge, DAO infrastructure, and COSM-WASM
Community & Public Good — organizing, education, and developing our collective capacity to participate in and govern the Regen Network — activating planetary regeneration together
Land Stewards, Project Developers, Methodology Design — Nurturing community development of natural capital assets

In total, we saw 88 applications totaling over $12 million USD and $2 million in REGEN token requests from community projects. Our team was humbled and elated at the breadth of interest in this first Community Funding Program.

The applications displayed an impressive array of work and talent, infused with energy and enthusiasm for the work of Regen Network. We hope that community funding for these groups and individuals will build new relationships and catalyze attention towards the Regen Network roadmap and vision throughout 2022.

🎉 Introducing the 2022 Community Funding Program Cohort 🎉

Awards at a Glance:

42 funding awards totaling $1,540,100
($878,100 in fiat and $662,000 regen tokens)

**Dragonfly** skyscraper, Image Credit: Vincent Callebaut

Awards by Program Category:

Regen Ledger & Interfaces ($210,000, 13.6%)

Land Steward Interfaces, CarbonFarmDAO, John Yu — land steward registration and carbon credit disbursement, compatible NFT registration, minting, fractionalization, distribution code, onboarding documentation
Data modules applications research and development, Cambium — development of off-chain interfaces to the data module for existing data collection tools
Forbole X wallet support, Forbole Limited — integrating REGEN into Forbole wallet
Regen Big Dipper, Forbole Limited — a block explorer for cosmos chains

Cosmos SDK & Ecosystem ($135,000, 8.77%)

Cosmos USD Stablecoin, Neighborly Capital Company — creating the legal blueprint to structure and deploy a values-aligned, regulatory compliant USD stablecoin for Cosmos
Starrybot, Amber Case — a bot (Starrybot) that provides a Cosmos-themed token gating and wallet checking system for DAOs
Application of DIDs and Verifiable Credential to Oracles and Registries using Cosmos-based DIDs, Open Earth Foundation — application and feasibility of Cosmos DIDs and its role in verifiable credentialing system

Community & Public Good ($325,500, 21.13%)

Events and Gatherings ($95,500, 6.2%)

ReFi Spring 2022 — an open source ReFi conference framework that makes it easy for local event organizers to schedule and facilitate a meaningful in-person event in their community; 8+ events planned for 2022
Regeneration Pollination — helping Regenerators establish new and valuable relationships through online networking events.
Crypto Commons Hub, Crypto Commons Association — establishing the hub as a temporary home to Digital Nomads/DAOs on retreat and a hybrid conference venue hosting crypto events oriented towards the common good.
Web3 Community Summit — in-person web3 and sustainability leadership event
Crypto Commons, the documentary, The Blockchain Socialist — telling the story of the #refi movement, pre, and post-production support

Industry Innovation ($100,000, 6.5%)

Blockchain Infrastructure Carbon Offset Working Group — blockchain carbon market industry working group, weaving ecosystem partners including Toucan, Block for Climate, Gitcoin, Regen Network, KlimaDAO, SZNS, Gitcoin & Fungyproof.
GitCoin grants matching — Climate Change theme

Mountain Towers Image Credit: Vincent Callebaut Architectures

Community DAOs ($130,000, 8.44%)

DAO tooling, DAODAO, 4 unique contributors — user interfaces and contracts for DAO governance; DAO governance tooling
Closer DAO — an operating system for land stewardship communities.
TrustDAO — launching DAO for a knowledge community revolving around a Discord and physical space in Berlin, Germany with approximately 250 members, including lectures, working groups, discord events, residency program, and installations.

Land Stewards, Project Developers, Methodology Design ($639,600, 41.53%)

NFTs ($130,000, 8.44%)

Redeemable NFT, GotJoshua — working modules and documentation for selling regenerative wine using redeemable NFT contracts
100 million mangrove NFT, Regenerative Resources Corporation, Mexico, Ghana, Spain, Mozambique — fundraising for mangrove restoration projects; issuing ecological assets on Regen Ledger
(DuGong) Mother Multispecies Universe — digital identities for dugong herds through interspecies governance NFTs, which will allow local communities to be paid for observing and protecting dugong herds.

Regenerative DAOs ($80,000, 5.19%)

Land Commons DAO, Alexander Espinosa — public research and writing to connect the history and practice of DAO governance and regenerative Land Commons & stewardship
BasinDAO — an open source multi-stakeholder real assets on chain for transparency of layered property rights and market exposure.
EdenDAO — funding carbon removal projects in a web3 world #ohm

HKUST Guangzhou, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Image Credit: KPF

Ecological Assets and Land Restoration ($429,600, 27.89%)

BioChar Methodology, Kulshan Carbon Trust, Washington, USA — pilot implementing biochar systems and developing a carbon methodology for biochar
Methodology for Biodiversity Stewardship and Flagship Species Monitoring, (ERA) Ecosystem Regeneration Associates, Brazil — a female-driven impact developer looking to enhance their pioneering habitat conservation project in the Cerrado biome, so participating landholders can receive additional funding to protect threatened species such as the jaguar.
Regenerative Agriculture Methodologies, White Buffalo Land Trust, California, USA — implementing regenerative agriculture on 1000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch (JCR) and quantifying carbon sequestration and co-benefits such as soil health, water holding capacity, and biodiversity
Participatory Verification Methods for ecocredits, (GVK Society) Grameen c Kendram Society for Rural Development, India — supporting farmer-centric outcome verifications
Carbon farming methodologies, Golden Soil, Cambodia — methodologies and credit classes for tropical croplands, developing ecocredits beyond carbon
Ecocredit for Pollinator Enhancement in Working Landscapes, Integrative Economics — Market-based instruments for habitat protection and creation
Practice-based methodologies for sheep grazing in vineyard systems, Fibershed, California, USA — iterating on a practice-based sheep grazing methodology and pilot implementation
Ecocredits — Andean Choco Biosphere Reserve, CONDESAN: Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion, Ecuador — ecocredits based on stewardship of natural assets, including carbon, water, and biodiversity
CarbonPlus methodology for agroforestry, Courageous Land, Brazil — remote sensing agroforestry methodology
Marine-based ecosystem service credits, Open Earth Foundation, Costa Rica — a pilot project in Cocos Island Marine Sanctuary
Methodology for Marine & Coastal Blue Carbon Soil Stocks, Lukas Winklerprins — blue carbon methodology literature review and synthesis with an accompanying “Blue Carbon Conversation” event
Urban Regeneration, Paige Emery & Sarah Olimpia Scott, Los Angeles, California, USA — research frameworks to help communities implement regenerative practices into urban environments and leverage contemporary decentralized technologies.
Biodiversity credits, Blockchain Biodiversity FounDAtiOn (BBDAO.eth) — Creating biodiversity net gain standard for assets on Regen Ledger
StreuObst micro-farm model, Damian Fuller, Bavaria, Germany — implementing a 2ha micro-agroforestry model with a focus on monitoring and evaluation
Ecological asset classes, OpenTEAM — universal land steward and land identity schema — the foundation for decentralized identity and future contracts compatible with ag data wallet

Let’s build the #ReFi movement together!

Join our Community Funding program Discord #community-chat: https://discord.gg/r29wwAQc3Z