Please describe your proposed solution.

Background Information:

Earthtrust Today:

Earthtrust is building a radically transparent verification network

Trillions of ADA are needed to fight climate change. However, "more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis shows" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe

How do we make sure the funding gets to real projects? How do we create more transparency and trust for money transfer? How do we know what the money was used for and what impact actually happened? This is why we start Earthtrust.

We are building Earthtrust platform v1.0. It is an online model that will allow an organization or a company to define a claim and transparently share data and documentation to prove it.

You can find more information at: https://www.earthtrust.life/ We are working hard on the backend system and expected to launch by the end of September 2023.

Here is an intro for how it is going to look like:

We are partnering with bold Pond Foundation member companies and partners who believe in the Earthtrust vision and are ready to build this new, radically transparent verification model to create trust and scale impact.

• Partners: https://www.pond.foundation/partners
• Members: https://www.pond.foundation/membership

All the partners and customers we spoke with agreed to use the Earthtrust verification solution once launched.

How Earthtrust started?

Earthtrust is a Pond Foundation initiative led by Scott Poynton. Scott has dedicated his life to inspiring regenerative planetary action with a particular focus on agricultural supply chains and forest conservation. In recent years, he's focused on climate change related initiatives through Pond Foundation.

Earthtrust was born to build technology solutions to support Pond Foundation's work and to scale climate initiatives impact. At the end of 2021 a team of product, development and business expertise joined Scott to work on Earthtrust.

As part of the journey we evaluated how to use blockchain technology and was awarded and completed several Project Catalyst proposals:

• NGO Transparency (Fund 8, Nation building dApps)
• Closing report
• Closing Video
• 21st Century Agri Supply chains (Fund 8, Nation building Dapps)
• Closing report
• Closing video
• Buy Food & Make an Impact (Fund 9, Dapps products and integrations)
• Closing report
• Closing video

There is extensive work done, collaborating with developers, corporates and NGOs and testing how blockchain can be part of the solution. Scott was invited to share his experience at the main stage at the Cardano summit in Lausanne in 2022.

The focus on this proposal, The solution:

Publishing claims on Earthtust and providing self documentation is a first important step.

The next level is developing a network of experts that can verify, question and provide comments around the claims and share their view as to whether the claim is verified. This will lead to more transparency, trust in the project, learning, sharing ideas and seeing how to improve money flows and impact on the ground.

Our intention is to build a model for a DAO of experts that can collaborate on a certain area of interest. We start with the use case of Earthtrust to bring together a group of experts that can verify companies' climate related claims.

The work we are doing can be a base for a DAO of any group of experts coming together around a common subject (health, research, Finance, open source technology). Key elements to consider in such a DAO will include:

• Expert profile (filed, experience, location)
• Expert availability (willingness to take part, time available, commitment overtime, participation, ready to travel…)
• How to define and structure interactions between daw members
• What will be the governance model
• How decisions are being made
• How do we verify who contributed
• What will be the rewards model
• Tokenisation structure
• Legal structure

This proposal will research the answer to those questions and more questions that will come through the work. We will also check what available tools & solutions already exist in the ecosystem to support the DAO structure and what gaps we still see.

Overall we aim to create a framework for Expert DAOs for the service of the community.

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

The challenge objective:

"How can we make Cardano the go-to choice for building DAOs? What tools can we provide to enable effective DAO's Creation & Operation"

This proposal will build a framework for any group of experts looking to collaborate under a DAO structure. It will help to position Cardano as a go to chain for expert groups to give it some advantage in this area.

Working on a specific use case will help to showcase the model and attract more expert groups.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The main measurement will be able to define a framework for DAOs of a group of experts. We will measure it by being able to answer the key question above and test it on a specific model for Earthrust.

Some of the matrics that will be measured will include:

• Number of Cardano available tools for an Expert DAO
• Number of tools that will be analysed
• Identify gaps for tools that are missing for such a DAO

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

You can see from the reports provided for projects done so far the level of information provided to the community. "The 21 century agri supply chain report" was set as an example for a closing report by the Catalyst team as presented in one of the town halls.

• 21st Century Agri Supply chains (Fund 8, Nation building Dapps)
• Closing report
• Closing video

As the Earthtrust product aims for transparency, once we launch the platform, the aim is to have Earthtrust also as one the companies in the platform and sharing full details of use of funds and activities, including this research.

Pond Foundation and Scott Poynton are very active in Social networks and especially LinkedIn, where the information will be shared as well. Here is an example of a recent post that mentions Earthtrust model to start creating awareness for the solution: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7080482150776500224/

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

The team has been working for several years and already showed high performance in previous proposals. Climate change, agriculture supply chains, carbon markets are all huge problems but also with great potential. Our team includes combined expertise of: "boots on the ground" working with related projects, experience UI & technology teams and business development expertise for social impact. Above all, the mission to bring transparency and traceability of environmental projects is what brought us together.

Scott Poynton has been active in environmental and supply chains for decades. He has a strong network of colleagues and climate experts as part of his close netwrok.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

The main goal for the project is to build a framework for a DAO of experts and bring together all available tools on Cardano or identified gaps for needed tools.

Success will be to provide a guide book for the community on how to create an expert group DAO and through that to attract expert groups to develop their DAOs on Cardano.

Those groups can be non tech groups so one success factor is that the framework will be understood also by non tech expert groups.

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Main activities:

Milestone 1, 4 weeks, initial setting

• Project initiation and project plan
• Use case definition - description of ideal group expert interaction, roles, activities around the Earthtrust use case
• Prepare a list of companies and community members to interview
• Put together a list of 10 climate experts that will be part of the feedback group

Milestone 2, week 5-8, research

• research available tools and solutions

Milestone 3, Week 9-12, build frameworks

• Onboarding
• Governance
• Contribution
• Tokomomics

Week 13-16, workshops

• 4 workshops with the expert groups, each time about a different topic
• Workshop with lawyers

Milestone 4, week 17-20, adjustments

• Based on info gathered
• feedback loop with companies/tool makers
• adjust the frameworks

Milestone 5, week 21-24, market feedback

• Present to Earthtrust initial expert group
• Present to 3 other expert groups and collect feedback
• Final report

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Main deliverables

Milestone 1, 4 weeks, initial setting

• Use case definition doc
• List of companies and community members to interview
• List of 10 climate experts that will be part of the feedback group

Milestone 2, week 5-8, research

• initial research doc

Milestone 3, Week 9-12, build frameworks

Framework docs for:

• Onboarding
• Governance
• Contribution
• Tokomomics

Week 13-16, workshops

• Summary of 4 workshops with expert group
• Summary of workshop with lawyer

Milestone 4, week 17-20, adjustments

• Frameworks update doc based on feedback

Milestone 5, week 21-24, market feedback

• Feedback doc from initial expert group
• Feedback doc from 3 other expert groups and collect feedback
• Expert DAO framework reprot
• Final report

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Milestone 1, 4 weeks, initial setting

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Tech lead: 5 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 1500
• Research support: 5 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 750

Total: ₳ 5250

Milestone 2, week 5-8, research

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 20 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 3000

Total: ₳ 9000

Milestone 3, Week 9-12, build frameworks

• Project lead: 20 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 6000
• Tech lead: 20 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 6000
• Research support: 20 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 3000

Total: ₳ 15000

Week 13-16, workshops

• Project lead: 15 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 4500
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 10 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 1500

Total: ₳ 9000

Milestone 4, week 17-20, adjustments

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 10 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 1500

Total: ₳ 7500

Milestone 5, week 21-24, market feedback

• Project lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Tech lead: 10 x ₳ 300 = ₳ 3000
• Research support: 10 x ₳ 150 = ₳ 1500

Total: ₳ 7500

Total budget: ₳53250

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Scott Poynton, Project Lead

Experience:

Scott is a real social and environmental leader for the last 30 years. He created an NGO named The Forest Trust (currently www.earthworm.org) which impacted the regenerative credentials of over $1 trillion of supply chains transactions every year. Millions of hectares of forest and the human rights of millions have been protected by Scott's work. He is now on his biggest mission to mitigate climate change.

#Scott is already involved with the Cardano community. He presented at the Catalyst sustainable goals event: Cardano & Climate Change:

(00:30:18 Corporation, Trust and Blockchain, Scott Poynton). He is also part of an important related fund 7 funded proposal, the Cardano Carbon Footprint: cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/385045

Links: https://www.scottpoynton.me/about-1

For more information please visit:

www.thepondfoundation

www.earthworm.org

Magnus Edvard Nielsen, Product lead

Experience:

Magnus is a product lead with 10+ years experience in building technology products, teams and companies in both B2B and B2C. He has a strong focus on lean methodologies; build, test and learn to stay close to customers, new market trends, increase product quality and speed of development. A Strong passion for web3, complex digital products, getting from “zero to one” and building a sustainable future for our planet.

In June 2019 travelled to Indonesia for research on Indonesian farmers within rice, coffee, coconut sugar.

From 2017-2021 Leading the innovation team, at one of the biggest PaaS companies within digital supply chains named Tradeshift. The innovation teams two focus areas was decentralised technology and environmental sustainability.

Links: www.linkedin.com/in/magnusedvard/

Yoram Ben Zvi, business models lead and connect to the Cardano ecosystem

Experience:

20+ years of business experience working with technology companies (strategy, partnerships, investors). In the last years, Yoram is focused on combining impact and business. 4 years ago he left his comfort zone and worked for 2 years for an NGO Earthworm.org focusing on sustainable business models across agriculture supply chains.Yoram is very active in Catalyst as a CA, successful proposer, and at Cardano4Climate. Yoram is part of the AIM team and is involved with the Catalyst SDG tool cardanocataly.st/proposer-tool-sdg/#/ (which is included in the proposal process) and the catalyst alignment to SDG research.

Yoram was working on a related project in Indonesia for one year with Earthworm.org together with Magnus and understand the opportunity and the importance of impacting the agri supply chains

Links: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoram-ben-zvi-446836/>

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAPUIlLFYio>

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

This framework is being developed within Pond Foundation as an answer to a real world huge problem. There is a lot of value in developing the solution already for clients and partners, as done in this case, so it could be tested on actual use cases.

Doing it with a reputable person like Scott Poynton will help to validate the solution and create interest by other expert organisations.

Expert groups could be a great candidates for DAOs and building a framework with a use case, could attract various experts groups to Cardano.