Gone is that time when blockchain was all about bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Using its ability of keeping things transparent to the fullest, blockchain has now started impacting in various other sectors in such a way that it ranges from enforcement of contracts to helping the government function more efficiently. Ever since bitcoin gained its popularity in the 2020s, it has become famous in the field of finance for money and for the saving in time it helps all financial firms with. What bitcoin removed is the bureaucratic red tape that made ledger systems real-time and reduced the fees charged by third- party for the transactions.

The introduction of blockchain and its features resulted in motivating multiple new projects to come up with an aim to use this new feature the most. These projects came up with a motive to eliminate multiple issues or to give the old existing technique a change with the help of blockchain. Out of multiple projects there are a few projects such as

• Ecotoken, an environmental credits to Solana that provides the easiest way to anyone who wants to have an environmental impact.

• SunriseStake, an initiative that support climate-positive staking on Solana

• WiHi, a decentralised platform that aims to solve the problem of weather forecasting and climate monitoring.

(source: Uplink)

In this non ending list of projects, there is a project that caught my eyes and made me realise the power of blockchain. The name of the project is Gainforest, a platform that focuses on fighting deforestation while letting private donors contribute either small or big confidently to projects that want to make a positive impact on nature.

Gainforest is the platform that uses the technology of Solana’s blockchain to bring transparency in climate preservation. According to this project, disturbing nature is not an impulsive act but a result of economic pressure. The aim of the project is to incentivise the changes using the blockchain technology. Climate policy such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is used when the AFOLU (Agricultural, forestry and other land uses) turns out to be the major contributor in climate change. In the time span of 2007 to 2016, 23% of human greenhouse gases are contributed by AFOLU. Activities such as garbage dumping, slashing, burning not only harms the climate but erode soil, spreading diseases in the wildlife nearing human population centres.

How Does Gainforest work?

• Incentivising each and every contributor who plants a sampling post verification through drone photos or lowest resolution pictures by NASA Satellites.

• Every contributor has a target set which is once hit and confirmed and gets their promised payouts automatically.

• Payouts happen in the form of Solana powered “NFTrees” in return for their investment on earth.

How is Grainforest expanding? 🌲🌲

• Corporate connects has helped the project to plant mangrove trees while improving the quality of data available on mangrove plants for the scientist to work on them.

• Educating the locals on step by step methods starting from how to plant sampling, taking photographs and tracking it using blockchain.

• Introduction of TreeApp, an AI based application that enables photographs which later is analysed by Grainforest’s AI to confirm the location, growth and species of the tree.

• The first project of Gainforest was executed in Paraguay which has turned out to be successful. As of date, Gainforest has kicked off its second pilot project in the Philippines.

• In the month of February, Gainforest has successfully planted 3000 trees, each enabled with its own photos and GPS Location.

New Initiatives by Gainforest 🌲.

• Partnering up with Masungi, a project aiming to protect threatened limestone formation and biodiversity, to convert a barren land to heaven of earth.

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• Educating the locals about the advantages of planting trees and how to use the technology to track their progress.

• Exploring the unexplored such as the Amazon Rainforest and discovering the hidden gems.

The project, Gainforest, is tackling an ever existing problem that is climate change. The techniques used by them are so far the best way I can say. Solana’s blockchain has not only enabled Gainforest but many such kind projects that are battling the most crucial issue of the date.