Accelerates Blockchain and Smart Contract Development Capabilities
TORONTO, Dec. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Carbon Corp., (“First Carbon” or the “Company”), a next generation technology platform focused on democratizing tokenized access to carbon credits and ESG solutions, has accelerated its blockchain and smart contract development capabilities, as well as bolstered its executive team via the addition of key personnel. The Company has also enhanced its product management and business development competencies resulting in expedited commercialization timelines for its minting platform MintCarbon.io (“MintCarbon”).
First Carbon is pleased to introduce Mo Yang as CEO, Derek McKenzie as Head of Business Development, Adrian and Perry Haldenby as internal Blockchain Data Development Advisors, Muriel Schvartzman as Platform Design Lead and Eddie Law as Lead Developer.
First Carbon leverages leading technical capabilities to engage with global carbon credit producers, brokers, purchasers and streaming services. The Company’s ESG tokenization platform MintCarbon.io (“MintCarbon”) provides an onramp to the blockchain for carbon credit holders and aims to generate revenue through multiple streams including but not limited to upfront minting and recurring royalties.
Demand for voluntary carbon credits is forecast to increase significantly, driven by surging corporate net zero commitments globally. The Institute of International Finance believes there is "huge upside potential" for voluntary carbon credits, predicting the market could be worth as much as $100B/year by 2050.
Increased pressure on corporations to implement Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) policies has resulted in rapidly growing demand for carbon offset markets. Due to these developments, the total value of global carbon markets grew five times since 2017, hitting a record $261 billion in 2020 (compliance & voluntary markets combined.) (Refinitiv, Carbon Research Report, August 2021)
MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW
Mo Yang (CPA CA) is a performance-oriented leader who has extensive experience in the areas of currency trading, regulatory reporting, blockchain/crypto business accounting, management reporting, technology implementation, capital raising and VC investment.
Mo’s expertise has allowed him to advise companies such as Polymath and related companies in a CFO capacity on tax structuring, financial reporting and operations management. Mo’s experience includes building and growing tech companies with complex holdings, M&A, capital raising and complex cryptocurrency accounting and treasury management.
Mo is a graduate of the Master program of accounting at Concordia University in Quebec, speaks fluent English, French and Mandarin and is a Certified Professional Account.
Derek McKenzie founded Charlotte Street Associates (“CSA”) in 2016. CSA supports immediately recognizable banks, insurers, asset managers and start-ups with product innovation. Previously, Derek worked at Sun Life’s International Investment Centre consulting with global business units on product innovation, asset allocation (CAD6B) and manager selection. The team’s global relationships exceeded CAD100B and encompassed more than 100 global asset managers. Derek is a CFA Charterholder.
Adrian Haldenby is the Head of Data Science at Blimp Homes where he leads the creation of novel experiences for consumers and real estate agents that combine crypto and AI powered models built using home, listing, geography and usage data. Adrian led the Data Science team at GALE Partners, a creative media consultancy and Adage’s Data Agency of the Year, where he owned the consumer data product offering for Alchemy, GALE’s CDP. Adrian was recognized for his work by Business Insider, named a Top 40 Rising Star Revolutionizing Advertising, in 2020.
Perry Haldenby, Blockchain Tech Advisor, is the Chief Technology Officer at Blimp Homes. Perry is responsible for overseeing the development and dissemination of Blimp’s technology for external customers, real estate agents, vendors, and other clients to democratize the home searching process and redistribute value back to users.
Prior to joining Blimp, Perry was the CTO of Bunz, a social bartering platform that launched the #PayPeopleNotPlatforms initiative dedicated to rewarding users for their participation on the site. Alongside his CTO experiences, Perry has over a decade of expertise working in tech with companies like CGI and TD and co-founded a Y Combinator backed hardware+software startup, Amulyte, that focused on empowering seniors.
Muriel Schvartzman is currently Director of Product Design at Ampli powered by RBC Ventures. Muriel helps enable Canadians to earn cash back on their everyday purchases while building loyalty and driving acquisition for brands. Muriel is also a consultant helping startups ship digital products with a focus on human-centered design. She has over 8 years of experience working with diverse brands such as Borrowell, Walmart, Zebra Technologies, Allstate, BMO, David's Bridal, Mackenzie Investments, Hain Celestial, Path Factory, Brizi, and Halp.
Eddie Law is a Development Lead at Royal Bank of Canada (“RBC”). He is currently working on the development of a next-gen business payments platform. Eddie spends his day coding up event driven microservices, improving engineering practices + continuous delivery, and being the glue between tech business and design.
Eddie has spent over 6 years building and shipping scalable products as a Software Engineer, with a focus on crafting delightful customer centric experiences. Before RBC, he led the front-end web development efforts at the social bartering platform Bunz. On top of revamping the front end React code base and build pipeline, he played a significant role in the creation of the Bunz cryptocurrency and its integration into the system. Eddie also led the efforts to improve search and recommendation capabilities on the backend.
MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY
Mo Yang, CEO of First Carbon Corp remarks, “We are pleased with the progress of our platform development which is currently in beta testing. Our growing pipeline of business development leads is a testament to the carbon market’s need for a platform such as MintCarbon. We are on track to commence minting non-fungible tokens (“NFT’s”) and thus initiate revenue streams for Q1-2022.”
Derek McKenzie, Business Development, “Recurring revenue is built into the DNA of NFT’s and the incredible growth in carbon markets provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to combine the two fields into one seamless platform. MintCarbon.io will unlock access to a global pool of cryptocurrency investment while dramatically increasing liquidity in the historically opaque and fragmented voluntary carbon trading systems.”
For partnership and corporate related inquiries, please send an email to: corporate@firstcarboncorp.com
Visit MintCarbon.io and sign up to the newsletter to be alerted to platform updates and our upcoming launch.
Visit our corporate website FirstCarbonCorp.com to learn more about the Company.
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About First Carbon Corp.
First Carbon Corp is a next generation technology platform company focused on democratizing tokenized access to carbon credits and ESG solutions. Its flagship platform MintCarbon.io offers carbon offset holders an onramp to the blockchain by enabling the minting of carbon credits into decentralized NFTs on the low-emission Polygon network. MintCarbon NFT’s are powered by Ethereum and tradeable on global decentralized platforms based on the blockchain. The ERC1155-compliant tokens are to be backed by real, verified carbon credits, providing increased transparency, liquidity and security in carbon offset trading.
MintCarbon makes it easier for companies to take part in the global effort to reduce their impact on the environment. Benefits of the platform include: Permission-less global trading on decentralized trading platforms (such as OpenSea.io) operating 24/7/365; Secure and easy access for investors into an emerging asset class; Access to a growing pool of capital in the cryptocurrency markets; Programmable functionality through smart contracts and composable primitives that enable new types of capital formation and trading; and a reliable framework designed to increase the flow of capital into carbon reduction initiatives, helping underfunded environmental companies and projects.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Mo Yang"
Mo Yang, CEO
Tel: +1 604-800-5648
Email: corporate@firstcarboncorp.com
Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information
This news release contains “forward-looking statements.” Statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things: the Company's ability to digitize and allow for the trading of tokenized carbon credits by the global carbon offset market on its platform which is interoperable with the Ethereum blockchain while ensuring that minting activities will be both low emission and cost.
The material assumptions supporting these forward-looking statements include, among others, that: the Company could mitigate the risks associated with the blockchain and NFT industry; and the ability to compete with other businesses in the NFT market.
Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including: the risk that the Company's offerings are not accepted by the consumer, the risk that other competitors may offer similar digital offerings; the risk that there may be negative changes in general economic and business conditions; the risk that the Company may have negative operating cash flow and not enough capital to complete the development of any of its technologies; the risk that the Company may not be able to obtain additional financing as necessary; the risk that there may be increases in capital and operating costs; the risk that the NFT technology may be subject to fraud and other failures; the risk that there may be technological changes and developments in the blockchain that make the NFT solutions obsolete; risks relating to regulatory changes or actions which may impede the development or operation of the blockchain solutions; the risk that other competitors may release similar blockchain offerings; the potential future unviability of the NFT market in general; the volatile cost of the amount of computational effort required to execute specific operations on the blockchain, and other general risks involved in the blockchain solutions
Any of these risks may cause the Company’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Further, although the Company has attempted to identify factors that could cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results, levels of activity, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States and Canada. Although the Company believes that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. The Company does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company mentioned herein.
In addition, this news release includes third-party market data and statistics which management has not independently verified. The Company expressly disclaims any responsibility for the accuracy thereof.
