Polygon Network Commits to Becoming Carbon Neutral in 2022
The Intelligent Insurer #64: Polygon's carbon negative strategy creates opportunities for its ecosystem and the industry
Ethereum's layer 2 scaling network Polygon recently revealed its plans to become the first blockchain network to go carbon neutral. Energy consumption is still a significant issue in the digital asset industry and Polygon is poised to play its part in offsetting the industry's carbon footprint. With several innovative applications being launched, the network's latest move will impact these solutions and network participants.
In the latest Intelligent Insurer, we analyze Polygon's strategy for pursuing its carbon-negative ambition. We will also examine the positive impact this move will have on the innovative digital asset solutions in the Polygon ecosystem. However, we’ll first look at some exciting updates from our development team.
Insured Finance software development update
We are pleased to inform you that the creation of our INFI DAO is making massive progress, as we finalized the voting escalation protocol. This will allow all INFI holders, except for policyholders and investors to vote on a claim when claims assessors cannot reach a consensus. We are also working on developing another escalation protocol that can be executed in the event that INFI holders still cannot reach a consensus. The decision will then be moved over to the INFI board of advisors. We are focusing on several tasks that improve the efficiency of our next-gen insurance platform. Some of these tasks include:
Continuing the development of the backend voting process. This includes developing the rewards and payment mechanism that rewards INFI holders for voting on claims.
Finalizing the design and functionality for other features of smart contract failure coverage.
In the coming weeks, we will focus on developing a wallet for mainnet deployment. The mainnet of our next-gen digital asset insurance solution is very close to being officially launched. Until then, we will continue to improve features and make quick fixes to ensure the best experience for our clients.
Polygon Network to offset its Carbon footprint
Polygon recently revealed its plans to offset its carbon footprint and become climate positive. In what it calls the "Green Manifesto: A Smart Contract with Planet Earth", Polygon stresses the need for increased environmentally sustainable practices in the industry.
In the manifesto, Polygon noted that it intends to execute a multi-layered strategy that will be primarily focused on establishing a sustainable future for its ecosystem, the digital asset industry, and planet Earth at large. To push its long-term goal of becoming the first blockchain network to be climate positive, Polygon intends to monitor every action on its network. Hence, every token bridged, decentralized finance (DeFi) trade, or NFT generated on the Polygon ecosystem will be tracked and their environmental impacts mitigated.
The protocol noted that its first initiative will be in collaboration with KlimaDAO. In partnership with Offsetra, KlimaDAO has provided Polygon with a carbon footprint analysis to measure the network’s carbon intensity. The comprehensive analysis includes emissions from staking node hardware and emissions from the energy consumption of their operations. Emissions from contracts directly interacting with the Ethereum Mainnet are also monitored, especially checkpointing and bridging activities.
Polygon pointed out that emissions from checkpointing and bridging activities alone account for over 99% of its total emissions. From May 2020 to February 2022, Polygon recorded a whopping 90,645 tons of CO2 in total network emissions. Out of this figure, checkpointing and bridging emissions accumulated 16,283 and 73,781 tons respectively.
Using data provided by KlimaDAO's analysis, Polygon will calculate and offset its carbon impact in its entirety to become carbon negative. To accomplish this feat, Polygon plans to purchase enough high-quality and traceable BCT and MCO2 carbon credits via KlimaDAO’s on-chain carbon market, Klima Infinity. These carbon credits will offset the network's accumulated 90,654 tonnes of carbon. To further substantiate the data and ensure the validity of the initial analysis, Polygon has commissioned the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) to provide a secondary audit of its carbon footprint.
Polygon also pledged $20 million to support several climate-positive initiatives and improve the ecosystem's carbon status. It intends to fund projects that utilize the blockchain to create innovative solutions that combat climate change.
New developments improve next-gen digital solutions on Polygon
Touted as "Ethereum's Internet of Blockchains", the Polygon ecosystem provides developers with advanced tools to help them build and launch their own sovereign blockchains and decentralized applications (dApps). With its low gas fees and high transaction speed, Polygon is one of the most sought-after blockchains by developers.
Its features have led to giants of the industry such as Stripe to partner with it to transfer USDC to a select group of Twitter creators in a promising pilot project. What's more, its interoperability feature makes it possible for applications built on its ecosystem to seamlessly interact with each other and share data.
The network is home to a diverse range of dApps, with each providing innovative solutions to the current financial system and improving the digital assets industry. From DeFi projects to NFTs and play-to-earn games, the Polygon network offers investors access to a variety of digital asset projects. One of the most popular applications built on the Polygon network is Aave. This project is one of the biggest DeFi protocols in the industry, providing investors with a platform to borrow and lend their tokens to earn interest. The decentralized money market currently has over $11 billion in total value locked.
Insured Finance is a Polygon project solving critical industry issues. The next-gen insurance protocol offers investors complete protection of their digital assets. Despite the size of the digital asset market, just a tiny percentage of digital assets are insured and that has been a major cause for concern. Insured Finance helps investors secure their investments from hacks, rug pulls, and other risks associated with investing in the industry. The protocol utilizes Polygon to facilitate secure low-cost and high throughput transactions. Insured Finance users are not only guaranteed full-insurance coverage for all their digital assets but also instant payout and yield earning opportunities.
Polygon network's plan to go carbon neutral opens up a plethora of opportunities for these applications, considering that the entire industry is moving to become greener. Becoming the first carbon-negative blockchain will increase the adoption rates of both Polygon and the protocols built on it. The growth of the Polygon network is also proof of the strength of these applications built on its ecosystem. These innovative protocols are providing solutions that are driving the next wave of development for the DeFi and digital asset industry at large.
About Insured Finance
Insured Finance is a decentralized, peer-to-peer insurance marketplace. Users can request customized insurance on a wide variety of digital assets, thereby ensuring full protection. Those fulfilling requests can earn premiums and earn a competitive return on their capital. Claims are fully collateralized and settled instantly.