Crypto Council For Innovation
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Leadership
    • Membership
    • Careers
    • CCI News
    • Contact
    • Events
    • Press Releases
  • Analysis
    • All Analysis
    • Crypto in Action
    • News Analysis
    • Explainer
  • POSA
  • Comment Letters
  • Policy Briefs
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Financial Literacy
  • Policy
  • EU Elections
  • Crypto in Action
  • Explainer
    • Defi
    • NFTs
    • DAOs
    • Layer 1s
    • Layer 2s
    • Government
    • Infrastructure
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Leadership
    • Membership
    • Careers
    • CCI News
    • Contact
    • Events
    • Press Releases
  • Analysis
    • All Analysis
    • Crypto in Action
    • News Analysis
    • Explainer
  • POSA
  • Comment Letters
  • Policy Briefs
  • Reports
No Result
View All Result
Crypto Council For Innovation
No Result
View All Result

Home » 6 Ways Crypto and Blockchain are Helping the Environment

6 Ways Crypto and Blockchain are Helping the Environment

byLiz Mills
September 2, 2024
in Crypto in Action
Pilots worldwide reveal how crypto and blockchain are offering specific solutions to key environmental challenges.

Summary

  • Crypto environmental initiatives are offering specific solutions to some of the most recurrent environmental challenges. 
  • Crypto and blockchain are acting as an enabler to both top-down approaches, like carbon capture monitoring, and bottom-up schemes, many of which are community driven.
  • For more information about the following stories, as well as use cases, visit the Impact Base.

Crypto and clean water

Climate change-related challenges are huge, complex and often interconnected. In many instances, they require a holistic approach involving many different stakeholders, from those on the ground to policy-makers, the private sector and philanthropists. The best solutions are frequently bespoke, taking into account local conditions and needs, and innovation is often key.

Reflecting this dynamic, Mercy Corps Ventures partnered with Atlantis DAO for a water pilot project in rural India. In the south-western Indian city of Chikmagalur, access to clean water is a growing challenge, despite the region’s reputation as a lush, coffee growing area.

The partnership sought to develop a decentralized peer-to-peer water network to improve access to clean water resources, while also offering those involved an opportunity to earn income through incentive schemes. Out of this emerged the Citizen App, which helps users coordinate such initiatives as buying water filtration and testing devices, offering access to information about water conservation, and selling clean water via the app, which used codified testing processes.

Although the pilot was relatively small, involving 3,859 smartphone users, the app’s users overwhelmingly agreed that clean water access had improved, along with community processes related to water management.

Crypto supports farmers 

In a similarly targeted, but quite different scheme, DIVA Donate has sought to support small-holder farming  communities in northern Kenya. Here, this type of farming provides income for more than 95% of rural families and accounts for approximately 90% of youth employment. Extreme weather events are, however, affecting this way of life, with an increasing lack of rainfall creating challenges for these communities.

The pilot used smart contracts to deliver early cash transfers to small-holder farming communities. This meant they could immediately benefit from these funds rather than suffering from the problems of the dry season before receiving support.

Smart contracts reduced transaction costs by 75% and transfer time by 90%. By the end of the pilot, more than half of those involved agreed that they’d been better able to meet unexpected expenses.

Crypto and blockchain improve inclusion

One marked factor often associated with environmental challenges is the lack of inclusion many of those who are most affected suffer. Cognizant of this, Open Earth is a non-profit research organization that develops open-source technologies for use cases that are environmentally conscious.

Barriers to inclusion come in many forms from funding barriers to navigating complex information, trouble accessing carbon markets, and even problems using fragmented data systems and trying to track area emissions.

Again, innovation is an integral aspect of Open Earth’s approach. Among its initiatives are AI-driven climate data tracking, climate accounting systems, developing ‘nature-based currencies’, which are digital currencies that derive value from ecosystem protection, marine ecosystem measurement, reporting and verification, and carbon pricing tools.

In a similar vein, non-profit, the Kulshan Carbon Trust, works to conserve and sequester carbon with local communities using natural solutions. With a grant from the Regen Network Foundation, the trust developed a biochar pilot that guided local knowledge in three of Washington state’s counties. This helped to reduce fuel usage, biochar construction and demolition waste, and was followed with the development of a biochar carbon credit through the Regen Network. Funds from the credit sales were distributed back through the Kulshan Carbon Trust to those who generated them.

Blockchain helps measure impact

One of the most sizeable challenges related to environmental work is measuring its impact. Assessing progress on everything from net zero targets to mitigation strategies requires some form of measurement and benchmarking.

Blockchain is an ideal tool to help address this issue, as carbon verification app, VIA, highlights. VIA uses consortium blockchain to help electric vehicle (EV) fleet owners track the fuel sources that are used to charge their fleet batteries. It uses zero-knowledge proofs to verify fuel mixes while protecting the owners’ privacy.

Reflecting its success, in 2023, the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC) nominated VIA for outstanding achievement in “Advancing Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics” for the federal government.

Plastic pollution is a major challenge globally. The UN has estimated that just 9% of plastic is recycled, with much of it ending up in landfill, incinerated or as litter. Green tech company, Plastiks, is using blockchain to provide a verifiable, transparent system to support verify the recovery and recycling of plastic that recovery organizations have removed.

Once verified, the recycled plastic is minted as plastic credit NFTs, and are tradeable through the Plastiks marketplace.

As of April 2024, Plastiks had recovered 2,321,184 kg of plastic, the equivalent of 74 million 1.5-liter plastic bottles.

Outlook

What is striking is the degree of innovation and creativity that define these schemes. There is a lot of scope to use crypto and blockchain to address local, regional and global environmental challenges. But awareness-raising of what’s possible using these technologies is key to understanding their potential and developing projects more widely.

Tags: cryptoCrypto in ActionenvironmentheroImpact Basesuper
Tweet

Related Posts

Image of street scene in Ho Chi Minh City to illustrate an article about crypto development in Vietnam.
Crypto in Action

Vietnam’s Crypto Legislation Opens Door to New Business Opportunities

June 11, 2025
Photo of public buildings in Almaty to illustrate story about crypto's development in Kazakhstan.
Crypto in Action

Kazakhstan Cautiously Develops Crypto Sector to Help Support Finance

June 3, 2025
Load More
Next Post
Comment Letter: Proposed Rule FINCEN

Comment Letter: Proposed Rule FINCEN

By Categories

  • CCI News
  • Comment Letters
  • Congressional Testimony
  • Crypto in Action
  • Data
  • Explainers
  • Letter
  • News Analysis
  • Oped
  • Pinned Event
  • Policy Briefs
  • Press Releases
  • Previous Events
  • Recent Coverage
  • Report
  • Uncategorized
  • Upcoming Events
  • About
  • Contact

© 2025 Crypto Council For Innovation.

No Result
View All Result
Subscribe
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Leadership
    • Membership
    • Careers
    • CCI News
    • Contact
    • Events
    • Press Release
    • Recent Coverage
  • Analysis
    • All Analysis
    • Crypto in Action
    • Explainer
      • All Explainers
      • DeFi
      • NFT
      • DAO
      • Layer 1s
      • Layer 2s
      • Government
      • Infrastructure
    • News Analysis
  • Recent Coverage
  • Comment Letters
  • Policy Briefs
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Financial Literacy
  • Policy
  • EU Elections
  • In Action
  • Explainer
    • All Explainers
    • DeFi
    • NFT
    • DAO
    • Layer 1s
    • Layer 2s
    • Government
    • Infrastructure

© 2025 Crypto Council For Innovation.

Saskia Seidel

Policy Fellow

Saskia Seidel is the Policy Fellow at CCI, conducting legal and policy analysis on crypto regulations and legislative developments across key jurisdictions. She examines bills and regulatory proposals as well as case decisions, providing insights into the evolving landscape of digital assets policy.

Saskia holds a Master of Laws in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown University Law Center. Originally from Germany, she earned a Bachelor's degree in Law and Economics and passed the First German State Exam in Law to qualify in the legal system.

Before joining CCI, Saskia worked at various law firms specializing in corporate and international tax law, where she developed a strong understanding of how businesses navigate legal and regulatory challenges in a cross-border context and advising on complex legal matters.

Krisina Antonio

Office Manager / Administrative Assistant

Krisina Antonio is the Executive Assistant to the CEO and DC Office Manager at CCI. Prior to joining CCI, Krisina has led executive offices in education and finance. She also worked within the pro-sports sales and marketing space for teams within the NFL, MLS, and Minor League Baseball

Emily Ekshian

Communications Specialist

Emily Ekshian is the Communications Lead at CCI, working closely with the communications team on branding, marketing and publicity efforts. She holds a Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, with concentrations in Finance, Technology, and Human Rights.

She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy and Media Studies, with a Minor in Human Rights, from the University of California, Berkeley. Emily is passionate about the intersection of blockchain, digital assets, and global policy, focusing on how emerging technologies can support climate resilience, financial inclusion, and freedom of expression.

Through her work, she explores the transformative potential of Web3 in addressing global challenges and advancing positive social impact.

Renee Barton

Director, Impact Research

Renée leads Impact Research at CCI, documenting real world Web3 use cases to create shared understandings of how Web3 technologies are shaping the future for people and communities. She has ten years of experience examining the policy, economic, and community development implications of technology deployments.

She previously led primary ethnographic research at the Crypto Research and Design Lab (CRADL), where her research helped policymakers and business leaders understand why people are turning to crypto through evidenced-based insights.

Prior to her work at CRADL, Renée advised public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic clients at the intersection of technology, economic development and community-building.

Giles Swan

European Public Police Advisor

Giles has been a regulator, policymaker, the policy lead of a major digital asset service provider and the global policy director of a leading investment fund trade association. Giles advises trade associations, investment funds and asset managers, and web3 and crypto firms, on public policy, licensing, regulation and advocacy. During his time as a policymaker,

Giles was a national expert on the Investment Management Standing Committee of the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA), a national representative on the Standing Committee on Investment Management of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and a member of the European Union’s Council of Ministers Financial Services Working Party.

Giles holds a BA in Banking and Finance, first class, from London Guildhall University, an MSc in Finance and Investment from CASS Business School and professional certificates in teaching and learning, and blockchain strategy.

Peter Herzog

Associate Director, State Government Affairs

Peter Herzog is a dedicated government affairs professional, specializing in issues impacting emerging financial technologies. As the Associate Director of State and Local Government Affairs at the Crypto Council for Innovation, Peter oversees initiatives to advance responsible regulation for the digital asset industry across state and local governments.

He has developed a pragmatic approach to building relationships with key decision makers and navigating nuanced policy issues. Before joining CCI, Peter served on the government relations team at the digital mortgage startup Better.com, where he led the organization’s state government relations strategy. He began his career at the Health and Medicine Counsel, a boutique healthcare lobbying firm on Capitol Hill,

where he was one of the youngest registered lobbyists in Washington, DC. His former clients include patient advocacy organizations, trade societies, and pharmaceutical companies. Peter holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and International Politics from George Mason University.

Ryan Eagan

Associate Director, Federal Affairs

With nearly 10 years of experience working for Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Ryan advised the Leader on a wide array of banking policies and housing priorities. He worked with members in the House and Senate and the relevant Committees to advance legislative priorities.

This includes federal responses to COVID such as the American Rescue Plan,statutory changes to securities law, ESG rulemaking, cryptocurrency policy, and certain appropriations topics.

He graduated Williams College with a BA in both Political Science and History.

Rashan Colbert

Director, U.S. Policy

Rashan A. Colbert is the US Policy Director for the Crypto Council for Innovation. A seasoned policy leader with extensive experience in government, politics, and the crypto industry, he has served as a senior legislative advisor in the U.S. Senate, led policy efforts for a cutting-edge DeFi protocol, and has amassed a high-powered network across the public and private sectors. As Head of Policy at dYdX Trading, Rashan took the firm’s advocacy strategy and effort from zero to one.

His work involved educating policymakers, advising company leadership on policy risks, and ensuring DeFi’s importance to the future of the United States was well understood in Washington. Before transitioning to the private sector, he spent seven years in Senator Cory Booker’s office, where he led on technology, telecommunications, and commerce issues, with work focused on AI, big tech, social media regulation, and digital assets.

As Booker’s lead staffer on crypto policy for the Senate Agriculture Committee, he developed a deep understanding of fi nancial regulation and the legislative vehicles that will be used to shape it.

Patrick Kirby

Policy Counsel

Patrick is joining CCI as Policy Counsel, and brings considerable experience engaging with policymakers on emerging technology and financial services issues. Before joining CCI, he worked as an attorney in the US Policy & Government Relations group at the law firms Dentons and Squire Patton Boggs.

In those roles, he advised domestic and international clients on a variety of legal, policy, and regulatory issues related to technology, financial services, and digital assets. He assisted clients in developing and executing government relations strategies to further their legislative and regulatory interests before Congress and the Executive Branch.

In prior roles, he served as a legal intern at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Yele Bademosi

Africa Advisor

Yele Bademosi is the co-creator of Onboard, a community-first onchain neobank designed for creators and builders. Onboard's goal is to expand the onchain economy, making it accessible to anyone, anywhere, and empowering people to live radically better lives.

Throughout his career, Yele has invested in close to 100 startups globally, primarily in the financial services and onchain sectors. His purpose extends beyond geographical borders, aiming to leverage innovation, capital, and policy to create sustainable economic opportunities worldwide.

Sean Lee

Senior APAC Advisor

Sean is an advisor and entrepreneur in Web3 and FinTech, and has been frequently quoted in Reuters, Forbes, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, among others. Sean was previously the CEO of the Algorand Foundation, an MIT incubated Layer-1 blockchain protocol that reached top-10 by network valuation during his tenure.

He is currently leading the efforts at VSFG, a global financial services platform and the first licensed virtual asset manager in Hong Kong, to develop the regulated HKD stablecoin for programmable payment and cross border use cases across Asia and beyond. Before entering into crypto and blockchain, Sean spent 10 years and held global leadership positions in cloud computing and open source software development companies.

Sean also advises crypto startups and engages in mentorship and advocacy programs including the MIT Entrepreneurship & FinTech Innovation Node, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School, and the Hong Kong FinTech Association.

Matt Homer

Senior Advisor

Matthew Homer is the Founder & General Partner of The Venture Dept. Previously, he was an investor at Nyca Partners, a $1B+ AUM fintech VC firm, where he remains involved as an Operating Partner in an advisory capacity.

Before venture investing, he was Executive Deputy Superintendent at the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), where he oversaw the licensing and supervision of major digital asset firms, including some of the largest exchanges, custodians, and stablecoin issuers in the U.S.

Earlier in his career, he worked as a federal regulator at the FDIC, focusing on policy development and new technologies. Matt has also held operating roles in fintech startups, starting at Quovo and continuing at Plaid after its acquisition.

Laura Navaratnam

UK Policy Lead

Laura is a digital assets policy expert, and serves as the UK Policy Lead for CCI. Laura is a fintech policy expert, specializing in digital assets. Laura has worked in financial services policy for over 15 years. She worked at the UK Financial Conduct Authority for 7 years where she ultimately served as the Head of the FCA’s Innovate function,

which included all aspects of cryptoasset policy and fintech (sandbox, firm support, international engagement and strategy). She is also a Director at bespoke fintech consultancy Gattaca Horizons, supporting a broad range of US and UK based fintech clients and leveraging her experience to provide policy, regulatory and strategy advice.

She is also a Non-Executive Director for Zero Hash UK, a leading crypto-as-a-service provider.

Cameron Jones

Director, Strategic Initiatives

Cameron has over 30 years of experience in technology, philanthropy, and civil society sectors. She worked in the nonprofit and private sectors in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

She developed and scaled strategic social good programs for leading tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, and VMware, leading the development of program delivery and marketing strategies.

At CCI she leads strategic initiatives, manages new partnerships and current members.

Amanda Russo

Director, Communications

She led C-suite media relations and content for IHS Markit research divisions across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. As a strategic communications advisor to CEOs, heads of state, and policymakers, Amanda worked on the World Economic Forum’s Public Engagement leadership team as Head of Media Content. Amanda started her career as a terrorism and intelligence analyst.

Yaya J. Fanusie

Director, Policy, AML & Cyber Risk

He spent seven years as an economic and counterterrorism analyst in the CIA, briefing federal law enforcement, military personnel, White House-level policy makers and the President. After government service, he joined the think tank world and as Director of Analysis at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance led research on sanctions evasion and terrorist financing threats.

In 2016 he began tracking the illicit use of crypto and wrote some of the first public analysis on a terrorist crypto crowdfunding campaign. He later published a major study on efforts by Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and China to build national blockchain infrastructure. Yaya is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and Visiting Fellow at Georgetown's Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy.

He is a frequent media commentator and has testified before Congress multiple times on illicit financing issues. He is considered a leading expert on China’s CBDC.

Annie Dizon

Chief Operating Officer

With more than 20 years of tech, operations, and marketing experience, Annie has held several senior executive positions at the global social impact nonprofit TechSoup; most recently serving as Vice President of Customer Experience. Prior to TechSoup, she led marketing communications programs for leading Fortune 500 companies in the financial and professional services sectors.

Ji Kim

President and Acting Chief Executive Officer

Ji Kim is the President and Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Crypto Council for Innovation - the premier global alliance for advancing the promise of this new technology through research, education and advocacy. Prior to this role, he served as the Chief Legal & Policy Officer for CCI. Before joining CCI, he was General Counsel and Head of Policy & Regulatory Affairs at Gemini, a global digital asset exchange and custodian.

In his role, Ji led the legal, policy, and regulatory affairs teams and also set and implemented Gemini’s global strategy for engaging with regulators, policymakers, and the government. Prior to that, he was a senior attorney at Kraken, another global digital asset exchange. In prior roles, he was an attorney at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and served as Federal Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert D. Drain of the Southern District of New York, U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Sheila Warren

Senior Global Policy Advisor

In 2023, Sheila was voted one of the most influential women in DC by the Washingtonian. Prior to the Crypto Council, she founded the World Economic Forum’s blockchain and digital assets team and was a member of the Executive Leadership Team. She oversaw tech policy strategy across 14 countries and regularly briefed ministers, CEOs of the Fortune 100 and Heads of State.

She spent significant time as a lawyer and executive in the nonprofit sector helping companies work with emerging technology to solve problems and increase efficiency. She was on the leadership team at TechSoup and built NGOsource, an online service that helps US foundations reduce costs on cross-border grants.

Sheila began her career as a Wall Street attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP after earning her J.D. at Harvard Law School. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in Economics. She is the co-host of Money Reimagined, a CoinDesk podcast.

Senator Cory Gardner

Senior Political Advisor

Senator Gardner honorably represented the state of Colorado from 2015 to 2021 after two terms in the United States House of Representatives. During his tenure, Cory was consistently recognized as one of the most bi-partisan members of the Senate, sponsoring and passing milestone legislation like the Great American Outdoors Act,

America COMPETES Act, the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act and the 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline. He served on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mark Foster

EU Policy Lead

Mark has over 20 years of experience advising public and private sector entities on EU policy and politics. He started his career in Brussels as a European Parliamentary Assistant from 2003 to 2007. He later developed expertise in EU financial services as a Senior Official in the UK Permanent Representation.

In 2011, he moved to Kreab, a global public affairs and consultancy firm, where he became Partner in the financial services practice. He has held elected roles in trade associations including vice-chair at the financial services committee of AmCham EU and he retains a role as vice-chair for the EU/UK task force at the British Chamber of Commerce to the EU.

Mark was VP of Government Relations at Barclays from 2019-2021 before establishing his own business – Strategic Advisory Management - at the start of 2022.

Alison Mangiero

Senior Director, Staking Coalition & Industry Affairs

Alison Mangiero is the Executive Director of Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA), a CCI project that advocates for clear and forward-thinking public policies that foster innovation in the rapidly growing, sustainable, multi-billion dollar staking industry.

Alison began working in the industry in 2018, when she founded the Tocqueville Group (“TQ”), an entity that created open-source software and other public goods for Tezos, one of the first proof-of-stake blockchains to launch. Before founding TQ, she spent a decade in public policy and academia, and has broad experience fundraising and growing membership associations.

A passionate advocate of the liberal arts, Alison also teaches courses on leadership at the College of the Holy Cross and is on the Executive Board of Advisors for the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies.An alum of the University of Richmond and Boston College, Alison lives in the New York City suburbs with her husband and two young daughters.