Press release.November 2, 2022.5 minutes

Agreena goes ‘first-ever’ on blockchain: tokenized carbon crediting attached to real currency

Carbon farming scaleup Agreena announces its latest endeavor to enable a regenerative revolution in agriculture. The company is launching the world’s first product that can tokenize carbon certificates and move euros on blockchain in collaboration with the European payments institution Ztlment.

COPENHAGEN (3 November 2022) – While many tech junkies get into blockchain as a solution looking for a problem, farmer’s fintech Agreena has taken a different approach.

Today the company announced that it is enhancing its core product offering – soil carbon certificates – with tokenization on blockchain for automated money movement. Using on chain e-money, Agreena and Ztlment are taking a first-ever position in the market, bullying out unregulated stablecoins or volatile cryptocurrency. Agreena says its Web3 solution has been developed to meet farmers’ needs for instantaneous payments while retaining the credibility and security of a regulated payment system.

“We see our new ability to use blockchain for issuing payments as a key to unlock the market for farmers to transition from conventional agriculture to carbon farming,” says Simon Haldrup, CEO of Agreena. “With agriculture responsible for approximately one-third of the global carbon footprint, the switch to regenerative farming practices creates one of the greatest opportunities for climate action in the world – we are here to enable that.”

Regenerative agriculture not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions – but actually turns soils into carbon sinks, naturally removing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it. But the most significant hurdle for thin-margin farmers to take up climate-friendly practices are the upfront costs associated with the transition. With virtually no incentives aside from the private sector to subsidize the change, Haldrup co-founded Agreena in 2019 to support farmers’ entrance into the green economy by connecting them to the voluntary carbon market.

To deliver seamless and instant payments for farmers, Agreena partnered with the first regulated European payments institute built on blockchain, Ztlment. The two Danish fintech players have just successfully tokenized carbon credits on the world’s most powerful and sustainable blockchain, Algorand, and have connected the payment for those tokens to real euros with smart contract software.

“We set out to do away the complexity of blockchain and open banking regulation,” says Mads Stolberg-Larsen, co-founder and CEO of Ztlment, who offer automated payment solutions that can move euros instantly and automatically on blockchain in full regulatory compliance. “With Agreena, we have built one of the first examples where real-life assets on blockchain can be traded for real-life money.”

The money gets on- and off chain via Ztlment’s e-money partner, Monerium. Under existing open banking regulation e-money is just as much money as bank deposits and cash are. All three things are simply called “funds.”

“Farmers don’t need to know a thing about tokens or on-chain payments to see the reward we are bringing,” says Haldrup, “But nonetheless, this is a hallmark moment, not only for carbon farming but also for the blockchain community and people driving real-world use cases of Web3.”

About Agreena

Agreena is scaling regenerative agriculture through finance and technology. Founders Simon Haldrup, Ida Boesen, and Julie Koch Fahler developed one of the world’s first internationally accredited soil carbon payment programmes, AgreenaCarbon, in 2021. The AgTech platform quantifies farmers’ greenhouse gas emission baselines aligned to the latest United Nations IPCC guidelines, and monitors and reports GHG reductions and carbon removals. The company then mints third-party verified soil carbon certificates for farmers which can be sold on the voluntary carbon market. Since launching, Agreena has spanned its offering to farmers in 13 countries throughout Europe and recently acquired world-leading regenerative agriculture remote sensing company Hummingbird Technologies. Read more at agreena.com.

About ZTLment

ZTLment is a European payments institution offering smart contract software that is fully compliant with Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2). With a snippet of code, digital marketplaces and cloud based B2B platforms can offer business workflows, which instantly and automatically move money and value between buyers, sellers and financiers. The company is founded by Mads Stolberg-Larsen, Jason Spasovski and Harry Kearney and is headquartered in Copenhagen. It is registered as a payments institution with the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FTID 22043). Read more at ztlment.com

About Algorand

Algorand is transforming economic models and economies of all kinds. Founded by Turing Award–winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand’s high–performing Layer-1 blockchain is unparalleled for bringing fast, frictionless, and inclusive technologies to everyone. Algorand is reshaping every industry–from TradFi and DeFi to new creator economies and beyond. With an extraordinary commitment to interoperability and consistent delivery, the company’s sustainable technology powers more participation, transparency, and efficiency for all. As the technology of choice for 2000+ global organizations, the Algorand ecosystem is transforming the next generation of financial products, protocols and exchange of value.
Read more at algorand.com

About Monerium

Monerium is a financial technology company with the mission of making digital currency accessible, secure, and simple to transact online. Monerium is the first and only company authorized to issue regulated e-money on blockchains. Using e-money issued by Monerium, individuals and businesses can store and send programmable digital currency online without going through traditional financial institutions and payment providers.