Article by Kalex1138 Edited by Frank America

MakerDAO is working to turn their native Dai stablecoin into greener money. Through integrations with POAP and One Tree Planted, MakerDAO is moving Dai further into the realm of environmental sustainability.

MakerDAO isn’t pulling any punches on their path toward environmental sustainability.

MakerDAO celebrates World Environmental Day by presenting Nature, a POAP collection that symbolizes the role of Maker Vaults and Dai within the web3 ecosystem.

Claim your POAP and contribute to the conservation of Nature.

🌲 https://t.co/LXsOtV9Mf1 pic.twitter.com/6NZqI8B17P

— Maker (@MakerDAO) June 5, 2022

For every new Vault opened, MakerDAO will contribute funds to One Tree Planted’s ongoing global reforestation efforts, creating a world where digital participation and ecosystem care live side-by-side.

Blockchains get a lot of flack for being detrimental to the environment. There are plenty of good arguments for why this isn’t the case, so it's time we inverted the public perception of blockchain technology as being bad for the environment. Why can’t blockchain activity be associated with making our planet healthier, our forests greener, and our lungs stronger? Especially when these contributions come with eye-catching 3D POAPs for new Maker Vault users. Both new and current Maker Vault creators will have the opportunity to earn these 3D POAPs. Let’s learn how below.

Perhaps money does grow on trees…

Before we discuss Maker Vaults, we need to discuss Dai.

Dai is MakerDAO’s native stablecoin. It’s a bastion of decentralized finance.

Dai’s ability to maintain price parity with the U.S. dollar is enabled by collateral that is locked into smart contracts. Through over-collateralizing, each token in the Dai total supply is backed by an excess of the value that is locked in Maker Vaults.

At time of writing, there is roughly $10.5 billion USD locked in the Dai ecosystem with a collateralization ratio of 158.01%.

Maker Vaults enable this process.

Maker Vaults are leveraging tools that allow users to deposit their respective digital assets into the Maker Protocol. In doing so, Maker Vault owners can unlock a variety of uses for their assets such as access to credit, the ability to leverage their exposure to the collateral deposited, or even applying Dai’s inherent stability to loans.

You could say that Maker Vault users are rewarded for putting the ‘stable’ into the Dai stablecoin.

If you’re interested in opening a Maker Vault for yourself, you can check out MakerDAO’s guide on how to launch a vault, help secure the Dai ecosystem, and generate Dai with a vault of your own.

MakerDAO collateralized cryptoassets in USD per day (Credit: @hagaetc & Dune Analytics)

MakerDAO wants to put Dai on a path toward becoming environmentally sustainable – hence these new integrations with POAP and One Tree Planted.

For those unaware, One Tree Planted is a non-profit organization focused on global reforestation efforts:

“We want to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Together we can restore forests, create habitat[s] for biodiversity, and make a positive social impact around the world…”

“We plant one tree with every dollar donated.”

Since its inception in 2014, One Tree Planted has planted more than 40 million trees, across nearly four dozen countries, around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2qf5BTDq2w

Every time someone opens a new vault, One Tree Planted will automatically receive an order from MakerDAO to plant trees in a real forest. Maker Vault users won’t just receive POAPs for collateralizing Dai and helping the MakerDAO ecosystem become more sustainable and decentralized, they’ll be contributing to a greener world.

One Tree Planted is growing year on year. In 2021 alone they planted 23 million trees!

Dai is already on the path towards being green money. Integration with One Tree Planted will allow Dai to become even cleaner, and inch ever closer to being truly green money. By offsetting Dai’s already limited energy usage, Maker Vault users will be participating in that environmentally-sustainable process.

MakerDAO will be commemorating these integrations by releasing a POAP collection entitled Nature. The collection is comprised of four different POAPS, each featuring a different tree and each representing a different milestone in a Maker Vault user’s journey.

We’re not the only ones excited by the possibilities.

Before we can delve into the Nature collection we need to learn about POAPs.

POAPs, or Proof of Attendance Protocols, are digital collectibles that represent any number of virtual or real world experiences and events. These collectibles are created, disseminated, and collected as free NFTs, non-fungible tokens, on the Gnosis Chain (formerly xDAI), an EVM-compatible sister chain to Ethereum.

POAPs traditionally appear as colorful artwork, made with love and care by event creators. Think of them as NFT badges.

A POAP collection

Gnosis Chain, and POAPs in turn, are no strangers to environmentally-sustainable initiatives. Gnosis Chain has worked to offset its own carbon emissions, making them a perfect partner for Maker’s Nature collection. As of January 2022, the Gnosis Chain team has offset more than 10 times their chain’s emissions.

Always the right choice.

Let’s dive into each POAP in the Nature collection below!

In the same way that Maker Vaults facilitate and grow the Dai ecosystem, so too will these vaults now contribute to the creation of new ecosystems…

“Every living ecosystem begins with a single particle of life. With dedication and effort, a small seed can develop into a forest and flourish over time.”

Let’s explore what kind of POAPs await those who plant these seeds by opening a new Maker Vault.

“American Arborvitae, the Tree of Life”

Designed by world-renowned Canadian-Dutch artist, Ryan Koopmans, each POAP represents a different aspect of Maker Vault’s new integration with One Tree Planted. The first in the Nature collection, ‘American Arborvitae’, known as the Tree of Life due to its leaves’ historical use as a remedy for scurvy, is symbolic of the creation of new Maker Vaults.

By creating a new vault, users are participating in the future of economic freedom, stability, and globalization. In a similar vein to how arborvitae healed scurvy-stricken sailors in days past, MakerDAO notes that:

“…​​Dai, itself, is part of the recovering process that the different finance worlds need, decentralized and centralized both. Putting the best of both in a solution for those who need it most, and then healing with financial inclusion.”

This POAP will be earned by anyone who opened a Maker Vault and generated Dai prior to the start of the Nature campaign.

“The oldest living organism on Earth”

The next POAP in the collection is Pando. Pando is the name of a clonal colony of aspen trees, meaning that each tree is derived from a single, ancestral aspen tree. Though its actual age is debated (estimates put it between 14,000 and 80,000 years old), it is highly possible that Pando is the oldest living organism on planet Earth.

“Just like that single quaking aspen 14,000 years ago was the starting core of life that originated Pando, your Dai issued more than 1 year ago has spread as a particle of life that delivered stability, profits, capital flows and economic life […] your Vault conditions have allowed this to happen. All this time it was alive thanks to you, and for you and the care that you delivered to your Vault, the Dai issued will continue to give life to the environment where it runs.”

The Pando POAP represents Maker Vaults after their first year of existence; like Pando, care for the ecosystem is integral to the Maker Vault’s ongoing health and growth.

Anyone who has a Maker Vault that is older than one year old will earn the Pando POAP.

“The Chestnut Tree and its Resources to Life”

Our penultimate POAP in the Nature collection, “The Chestnut Tree” represents the protection that DeFi Saver provides to Maker Vaults. Enabling you to track and protect your positions from liquidation, DeFi Saver is akin to the Chestnut tree which provides food, life, shelter, and residence to generations of animals in its own ecosystems.

“…the chestnut tree can be designated as the safeguard of your Maker Vault. […] Just like the squirrel that saves chestnuts for the winter and avoids its own death, the “liquidation” is an event that can always be avoided when managing a Maker Vault.”

If you created a Maker Vault prior to the launch of this campaign, and generated Dai prior to the campaign with DeFi Saver, you too will earn the Chestnut Tree POAP.

“Planting a new life is contributing to an ecosystem”

Like planting a seed in the ground for a tree to grow, launching a Maker Vault is a creation experience that will have ripple effects through the MakerDAO and Dai ecoystems. That’s the idea behind the final POAP in the Nature collection.

“Dai is the seed turned into life that offers benefits in the ecosystem where it lives: a better, stable, and decentralized currency for the people that need it and a generator of profits, capital flow and financial freedom in the DeFi world.”

Plant a seed of economic freedom by opening a Maker Vault. In turn, MakerDAO will contribute funds towards planting seeds through One Tree Planted.

Don’t take our word for it. Check out each POAP, in all their rotating, 3D glory, on the Nature collection’s official website. Once there, you can claim these POAPs, if eligible, and delve more deeply into the artistic inspiration behind each one.

These digital collectibles may at first seem quaint but within that seemingly quaint ecosystem lies the ability to reshape our digital interactions.

Beyond simply acting as NFT badges, POAPs have a wide range of utility, including future utility that has yet to be devised. It seems like practically every day in Web3 comes with the discovery of a new, creative use for POAPs.

POAPs’ current use and appeal can take many forms. They can simultaneously act as sticker and trophy, as ticket stub and photograph, and as memorabilia and history. POAP collectors oftentimes proudly display their POAP collections.

So what are some of the different ways in which POAPs are being used?

POAPs are most frequently as the name suggests: proof of attendance. POAPs are often distributed during virtual meetings, in-real-life meetups, or even as a reward for those minting an NFT project.

POAP collectors sometimes curate a collection that can double as a Web3 resume. With a POAP resume, you can show others what you have accomplished in the space, what kind of work you’ve completed, and even what influential persons you’ve rubbed shoulders with.

In addition to traditional means of tracking attendance, POAPs also allow community creators and leaders to reward participating community members in ways unimaginable in the realm of Web2. In the case of BanklessHQ, POAPs that were distributed to premium subscribers of Bankless’ content were the first to receive the BANK token, the native cryptocurrency of BanklessDAO.

POAPs can easily be used to track subscribers as well as consumers of any number of different brands. For example, newsletter publishers in Web3 often add POAPs to each newsletter edition they put out, allowing them to track user interaction with their newsletters in ways unavailable to Web2 newsletter publishers.

Another example comes from Adidas which rewarded early followers of its Web3 goings-on with the ‘Confirmed’ POAP collection that allows collectors early access to exclusive merch such as first-run sneakers.

POAPs allow collectors to show off their identity in Web3. Sure they can work as a resume, but these collectibles deservedly, and by design, go far beyond that. POAPs are, and will continue to be, displays of an individual’s personal identity, made public through the blockchain for all to see.

POAPs can double as social signals, showcasing to others what you’re most passionate about and where you choose to spend most of your time, money, and energy. If you’ve read this far, a greener earth is likely important to you; the Nature collection of POAPs can help to showcase that aspect of your personality.

With all that in mind, wouldn’t you want to showcase your passion for, and contributions to, a greener earth? Plus, who knows what your POAPs will represent in the future.

The Nature collection is live right now! You can create a Maker Vault right now. You can start generating Dai right now, you can earn POAPs right now, and you can contribute to a greener future right now. Just head on over to MakerDAO’s learning portal to create your first Maker Vault.

Show me the lie.

With Maker Vault’s new integrations, you can grow your crypto and support our environment. Your investments will directly enhance our planet’s future. People may say money doesn't grow on trees, but now those trees are grown from decentralized, autonomous, and stable money.

kalex1138 is an ex-academic writing about all things blockchain.

BanklessDAO is an education and media engine dedicated to helping individuals achieve financial independence.

Disclaimer: this isn’t investment advice. This article has been written for informational and educational purposes only and it reflects my personal experience and current views, which are subject to change.

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More About This Topic:

• MakerDAO to Fund Sustainability Initiatives by Hiro Kennelly

• Gnosis Chain Energy Efficiency

• DAI Analytics courtesy of Dune Analytics