Concept
The MCO2 token was created by MOSS to fund five voluntary carbon market projects in the Amazon, registered under Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard. These projects include
- Fortaleza Ituxi REDD Project — Brazil, 998,210 carbon offsets (32% of the total)
- Agrocortex REDD Project — Brazil, 728,444 carbon offsets (24% of the total)
- Florestal Santa Maria Project — Brazil, 611,641 carbon offsets (20% of the total)
- Amazon Rio REDD+ IFM — Brazil, 140,000 carbon offsets (5% of the total)
- Madre de Dias Amazon REDD+ — Peru, 579,936 carbon offsets (19% of the total)
Collectively, these projects issued a total of over 3 million carbon offsets, representing verified efforts in forest conservation.
Blockchain Technologies
MCO2 tokens were issued as ERC-20 tokens through a one-way bridge system, backed by carbon credits from the above-mentioned projects. The ownership of the tokenized carbon credits remains unclear. Upon the retirement of these tokens, they are burned, and corrections are made in Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard registry. Although dashboards like Dune.com and Klima.DAO were once available to verify the carbon credits backing the tokens in real-time, these features are no longer accessible. Information from blockchain scanners is still available via Ethereum, Polygon, and Celo. As of the time of writing, there are 2,851,014 MCO2 tokens in circulation across these blockchains, with a 24-hour volume of $634 and a price of $0.44 (down 97.41% from its all-time high in January 2022). Tokenization ceased in May 2022 after Verra prohibited further tokenization.
Team, Investments, Marketing, and Community
Luis Felipe Adaime is the founder and CEO of Moss.Earth
Moss.Earth has raised a total of $13.4M in funding over 3 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 31, 2022 from a Series A round.
MOSS marketed the MCO2 token as the first opportunity for purchasing tokenized carbon credits from the most recognized carbon standard without requiring a registry account or transaction fees. The focus was on REDD+ projects tied to forest conservation, at a time when carbon credits were priced around $15, and there were no major scandals in the carbon market (publication of The Guardian and New Yorker) Interest was high, however, MCO2 was presented as a tool for offsetting carbon footprints rather than as an investment vehicle, as outlined in the whitepaper.
Currently, MOSS shows minimal activity across their social media platforms, including Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). The website is unavailable
Current Investment Attractiveness
MCO2 was not marketed as an investment product. Since its launch, it has lost significant value, and current trading volumes are very low.
Areas for Improvement
MOSS successfully tokenized around 3 million carbon units, with 10% retired. This gave individuals and companies the opportunity to purchase carbon tokens and offset their carbon footprints without needing a Verified Carbon Standard registry account. However, demand for these tokenized carbon credits was low. Large companies preferred working with brokers who provided consultancy services, and tokenization mechanisms may have caused confusion among larger buyers. Verra’s ban on tokenization further reduced demand.
The one-way bridge model is now less relevant, as buyers prefer options to select specific carbon credits for redemption or receive the underlying carbon credit itself. Moreover, carbon tokenization should be a standard-approved mechanism to gain buyer confidence.
