WAX, a carbon-neutral, delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) blockchain that hosts more than 30,000 dapps and 12 million user accounts, today celebrates Earth Day by pledging to plant tree saplings for every NFT redeemed, or ‘composted’ from its tradable carbon impact collection.
The collection aims to raise awareness among NFT buyers about the energy-consuming aspect of blockchain technologies. Throughout the collection, a tree evolves, and a dollar amount is assigned to them.
The initiative builds on WAX’s aims of reducing its carbon footprint until it achieves carbon negative status, having already achieved carbon neutrality. The campaign also gives users a chance to offset their own carbon footprints by purchasing an NFT, which is redeemable for both a tree sapling and the planting of the tree sapling. Each tree planted will sequester around 1 tonne of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere by the time the tree reaches the age of forty, according to co2meter.com.
Tree saplings will be planted for every NFT ‘composted’ from WAX’s vIRL Carbon Offset Collection, which sees users burn their NFTs and take them out of circulation. One dollar worth of NFT value equates to one tree sapling, with some NFTs representing numerous saplings depending on their sale price. The trees will be planted by the National Forest Foundation following a successful launch of the same campaign during 2021’s Earth Month, which saw 3,650 tree saplings planted.
The Carbon Offset NFT collection will be designed by Swiss comic book author, illustrator, and artist, Krel (Kevin Crelerot), who also designed the tokens sold during the same initiative in 2021. Krel’s NFT designs reflect the artist’s work in creating images and stories based on magic realism, featuring offbeat and surreal fantastical elements. The Carbon Offset collection looks to raise awareness among NFT buyers about the energy consumption of blockchain technologies. Throughout the collection, a tree evolves, and a prize is assigned to them. Each purchase is translated into carbon compensation.
The NFTs are based on WAX’s proprietary vIRL (virtual in real life) technology — a type of NFT created by WAX in 2019 to represent both physical goods and services in the real world. WAX’s carbon offset NFTs will be redeemable for both a real-world product (the tree sapling) and a real-world service (the planting of the sapling).
The WAX blockchain is certified carbon neutral producing only 110 Tons of carbon a year, which is the equivalent of about 5 individual Americans, and is currently offsetting over 210 tons of carbon a year. The blockchain is estimated to consume less than 0.00001% of the energy consumed by competitors such as Ethereum.
WAX co-founder, William Quigley, said: “Blockchain technology needs to be sustainable if it’s going to have any real impact in the long term, and that’s why we’re embarking on these efforts to plant more trees, remove more CO2 from the atmosphere, and make the planet a greener place. Our goals at WAX are aligned with those of the greater environmental movement, and we’re delighted to be making an impact on Earth Day.”
About WAX – The King of NFTs
The Worldwide Asset eXchange™ (WAX), aka the King of NFTs, is the world’s #1 blockchain, as measured by number of users and transactions, according to Dappradar.com. WAX’s mission is to bring NFTs to the mass market in the safest, most secure, environmentally friendly, and easy-to-use marketplace in the world. WAX is also the leading entertainment NFT network — in 2018, WAX introduced vIRLs®, giving consumer product companies the ability to directly link NFTs to physical consumer products. Co-founded in 2017 by William E. Quigley and Jonathan Yantis, WAX has facilitated the trade of more than 100 million digital collectables including Mattel, Hasbro, Major League Baseball (via Topps MLB collectables), Funko Digital POP!, Capcom’s “Street Fighter,” World Series of Poker and world-renowned entertainers Deadmau5 and Weezer. WAX is also the leading play-to-earn games and entertainment NFT network in the metaverse and is home to many of the leading blockchain games including Alien Worlds, Splinterlands, Farmers World and Farming Tales. For more information, please visit https://wax.io and follow along on Twitter and Discord.
About vIRLs®
WAX vIRL® NFTs are different from the standard NFTs you’ll find on other blockchains. Every vIRL® NFT is minted on the energy efficient and carbon neutral WAX Blockchain that puts the environment first. They feature a host of additional functionality including app/video game integrations, marketing tools and V-commerce capabilities — linking a vIRL® NFT to a real-world item, so you can transfer ownership without needing to physically ship anything until a collector is ready to claim it as their own.