jaycen.io

Proof-of-work blockchains like Ethereum carry a heavy burden-- they consume massive amounts of energy in order to guarantee the integrity of the network. Such data has recently attracted a lot of criticism for such networks, which in turn is prompting users to question whether participation in such an ecosystem is worth bearing the associated carbon footprint. However, despite the common narrative that using a blockchain creates irreversible damage to the environment, we can already use these networks to erase the entire footprint of a user’s transactions-- or even every smart contract operation executed by an application

I think about this conversation I had with Paul a lot. It kicked off what has now been over three years of imaginative, grueling, wonderful, painful, mind-blowing and confounding work — all of which took place alongside the minds of amazing co-founders, teammates, and advisors. But — and this is hard to admit sometimes — I was dead wrong.

For over a year now I have been hard at work designing a number of market smart contracts, infrastructure, and UI for Nori's carbon marketplace. From time to time I try to publicly record some of that progress. In previous posts, I introduced the idea of an atomic market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and fungible tokens. And whilst in those previous posts I have taken a lighter and more humorous approach to otherwise dense topics, this post is going to feel quite different, as the content is best delivered in a tutorial-like format.

Nearly a year ago a clowder of quirky cats began their invasion of the world of Ethereum. Banded together, these cats fervently set out on a mission to conquer the realms of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Hungry for their own moon lambos, these cats set a movement in motion by creating unique tokenized representations of themselves and then began generating revenue streams from their cat-trafficking hubs and kitten-birthing factories.

Nascent technologies are hard. But probably not in the way you’d think. If you’re thinking, “these newfangled technologies are way too difficult to build because they’re complex and therefore inherently harder to understand”, then I’m calling you out specifically

Smart Contracts — they’re the emerging technology almost everyone has heard of by now. Some might say they’re the answer to all the world’s woes. A fantastic shepherd to intersect the herds of business, law, finance, and software and take the world into a golden age of trustless autonomous computing, huzzah!