Whitepaper

CryptoTrees is a blockchain-based tree planting project that engages the community through the use of technology. The project has been verified by Algorand Inc. and AlgoExplorer and will partake in any additional verification initiatives.

We are hoping this project brings much needed awareness to climate change and the positive impact trees have on the environment. We’re also strong believers in blockchain technology and would like to change public opinion about the whole space being harmful to the environment.

CryptoTrees is based in Sydney, Australia. Our team has experienced the devastating damage climate change is having on our environment. Bushfires / wildfires are becoming more violent due to increasing temperatures causing harm to the wider ecosystem. We have experienced this first hand and are determined to make a significant impact locally and globally.

We will achieve this by:

• Partnering with charitable organisations around the world who plant trees, save forest land, and promote awareness;
• Creating community initiatives through the CryptoTrees project where proceeds go directly to charities;
• Using blockchain technology to track and manage tree plantings and forest saving activities;
• Incentivising people to get outside and explore trees and nature;
• Provide options for people to offset their carbon footprint.

Transparency

We understand the importance of transparency when it comes to charitable donations. Proof of every donation will be accessible to anyone wishing to view them. Depending on the charity, this will come in the form of receipts, tax invoices, or other formal documentation.

As the Algorand blockchain is accessible to anyone, you will be able to follow the sale of charitable tokens to ensure it aligns with the donation (you may need to factor in the time of token sale and local currency conversion rates for this).

If any discrepancies are discovered, we ask the community to flag this to allow us to rectify or clarify the transaction.

All chosen charities will be fully vetted beforehand. These charities will be announced to the community so we can assess any concerns before committing to them. If the general consensus is to avoid certain charities, we will do so.

To reduce fees and administration time and costs, donations will be made at regular intervals. We will regularly reassess and communicate any changes to the community.

Blockchain

Algorand has been chosen as the most appropriate blockchain for this project to run on. On top of being a very user-friendly blockchain to use, it is also carbon negative which aligns with our objectives and core beliefs.

Algorand also provides an excellent platform for the use of NFTs and smart contracts to help achieve our goals.

In the unlikely event that switching blockchains is necessary, all token holders will receive tokens on the new blockchain based on their existing holdings.

Partnerships

We are actively looking for partners for our project. The crypto space has a tendency to announce partnerships for the sake of creating hype, and we have decided that we would prefer all partnerships to serve a function.

When assessing the viability for creating a partnership, we will carefully consider the benefit to both parties as this helps foster longevity of these partnerships.

The CryptoTrees project has 3 core verticals. This encompasses every way people can get involved with the project.

Details for each vertical can be found throughout this whitepaper.

1 – Staking and earning

This is where users who contribute to the project through holding TREES tokens or adding to various liquidity pools are rewarded.

2 – Education and awareness

This will be driven by our global tree map where we encourage users to venture into nature and learn about how amazing trees are. They are rewarded for this using a bounty system.

Charities will also be involved where they can spread their message to the userbase, educating them about various nature topics.

3 – Carbon footprint offset

Users can offset their carbon footprint through our NFT program. A set number of trees are donated based on which tier is purchased, and the users are then eligible for various premium perks (e.g. exclusive draws and giveaways). Further to this, we are exploring the possibility of directly offering carbon credits through a similar system.

Previous versions of the whitepaper explored the use of daily draws to distribute tokens. Due to the changing nature of the ecosystem, these draws have been replaced by staking.

Staking ensures tokens are distributed to those who contribute the most to the health of the project. Instead of relying on luck, all eligible wallets can stake their tokens and earn a fair proportion.

Distribution

Token staking will distribute a base rate of 6,000,000 TREES tokens per day meaning full distribution will take more than 10 years to complete. Promotional activities or additional incentives may mean this number will increase temporarily.

This distribution speed will ensure that the market isn’t flooded with too many TREES tokens simultaneously and we are able to provide staking for many years.

In the future we will explore the possibility of token burning if it’s ideal to do so.

Dynamic APRs

In order to maintain our distribution amounts, the rates set for each staking pool will dynamically change as frequently as daily. As the popularity of these pools increase or decrease, the number of tokens being given away will fluctuate. Our dynamic APRs will ensure distribution is managed appropriately.

Events, games, quizzes, and community initiatives are just some of the ways people will be able to earn TREES tokens. These will be announced on an ad hoc basis with details provided across our website and social media platforms.

These initiatives will accompany the regular distribution methods, and the conditions surrounding them will be at the full discretion of the CryptoTrees team.

These initiatives will be funded from the distribution allocation outlined in the tokenomics section of this whitepaper.

*This section is a work in progress and the details are subject to change

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The CryptoTrees global map concept is an idea that revolves around people physically visiting trees around the world. The map is accessible to anyone, and provides GPS coordinates to locations of trees (or interesting tree features) that have been submitted by users.

Visiting these locations will earn users bounties. Bounties will be based on how long a user manages to hold onto a location. The specifics of the bounty system are currently being developed but a high level concept is outlined throughout this page.

Important note: This outlines the concept at a high level. Many details will be refined as the project progresses due to unexpected limitations, improvements, and community input.

Individual tree locations

OXYGEN token (O2)

Each location will emit OXYGEN. This will be the ‘bounty’ token that users can claim. The bounty system will revolve around this token.

OXYGEN will be minted with freeze and clawback enabled. This allows us to prevent abuse, fraud, and illegal activity. There will be strict terms and conditions in play (mainly to prevent environmental damage while participating) and only those who breach these rules will be affected.

This token will be minted using the CryptoTrees founder address to avoid any confusion from similar projects or potential scammers.

OXYGEN staking concept

Holding onto OXYGEN could allow the user to earn TREES tokens via staking. The more you participate in the map, the more OXYGEN and TREES you can earn.

Each tree location has a set number of O2 tokens which run out after 1 year. These locations can only be held by one user at a time. The longer you hold a location, the more O2 you will receive. If another user comes along and claims the location, they are also entitled to any unclaimed O2.

For example (based on 1 O2 emitted per day): user 1 claims O2 after 10 days and receives 10 O2 tokens. 5 days later, user 2 claims the location. Since user 1 hasn’t claimed their O2 in 5 days, there are 5 unclaimed O2 tokens which user 2 now receives. This creates constant engagement with the map or you risk someone claiming your outstanding bounty tokens.

O2 tokens are claimable at any time (and need to be claimed in order to stake). A great example of this currently working is Octorand who releases OCTO for each NFT owned. Once the owner has changed hands, the new owner starts to earn the OCTO (plus any unclaimed OCTO at the time of purchase). This could work in a similar way.

Location tiers with TREES token utility

Each location will be assigned a tier. The tier is assigned based on how unique the photo and location is (decided by the team initially, but governance is an option in the future for all TREES token holders). An example tier breakdown is below:

50% of locations = tier 1

20% of locations = tier 2

15% of locations = tier 3

10% of locations = tier 4

5% of locations = tier 5

Not all users can claim bounties for all tiers. A one-off membership fee is paid per wallet (this also helps avoid users abusing the initiative).

An example cost breakdown could be as follows:

Tier 1 cost = 50,000 TREES

Tier 2 cost = 200,000 TREES

Tier 3 cost = 1,000,000 TREES

Tier 4 cost = 5,000,000 TREES

Tier 5 cost = 20,000,000 TREES

Users can upgrade at any time by paying the difference between each tier.

Higher tiers emit more O2 tokens, so in order to claim at these locations, you must be part of the relevant tier.

Genesis trees

The user who submits a fresh tree/location (genesis trees) will receive an initial number of O2 tokens based on which tier it gets added to. This will be equal to 5% of the total O2 assigned to a location.

Locations need to be approved by the team (or future governance – see below), so it incentivises people to submit better photos and locations. They will also aim for higher tiers to receive more initial O2 tokens.

Governance idea: locations can be approved and tiers assigned using a governance structure. Users who hold TREES tokens can vote on whether a location should be accepted and which tier it should be placed into.

Sponsored locations

Businesses

Businesses can pay to have their location pinned to the map. Their submission must still be of a tree/nature, but can be close to their business location.

These sponsored locations would be able to advertise their business on the map directly (once a pin is clicked), and set their own bounties. These bounties will be added as TREES tokens (not O2 tokens) by the business directly.

Businesses are incentivised to add a higher bounty to attract more people to their location.

This bounty is separate to the payment to be listed. This listing payment will be paid in ALGORAND.

In the case of a business not being crypto-savvy, other payment methods can be arranged (including local currency payments where we buy and distribute all TREES tokens to bounty claimers using their money). Methods such as MoonPay can also be explored.

Revenue driven through this method will be used as development funds (further developing this or other initiatives, bills, contractors etc.)

Charities

Charities may want to use the map as a way to highlight the work they have done around the world. These locations will have a much smaller requirement than businesses. Some ideas in lieu of payment include:

• holding a set number of TREES tokens throughout the listing period
• adding the CryptoTrees brand to their list of partners
• marketing exposure (x number of social posts/articles about CryptoTrees and the map project)

The charity locations will not have bounties as visiting these locations is typically not something they will want to happen. Clicking these pins will show the work they have done in that area with actual photos/footage. Users will also be able to donate directly to that charity after clicking on the pin.

We will look to actively develop partnerships with charities where trees donated by CryptoTrees (or its users) can be pinned to the map.

Donations

Charitable donations must feature within this concept. A small percentage of each element will be dedicated to charity.

We have a dedicated charity wallet. All TREES, ALGO, and any other tokens added to this wallet are donated to charity. This wallet is connected to a Tinyman bot that sells micro amounts of TREES into ALGO every hour (see details of ‘Olive’ here). The aim would be to feed this wallet small percentages of each element of this project for regular donations to continue.

Here are some ideas of where to collect charity donations:

• A percentage of the advertising revenue is sent to the donation wallet
• A set number of TREES are sent to the donation wallet for each approved tree (maybe more based on the tier to incentivise higher quality submissions)
• A set number of TREES (larger number) are added to the donation wallet for each charity that gets involved (maybe we guarantee that those TREES will be donated to the charity that gets involved)
• A percentage of each tier payment is sent to the donation wallet

Visual Concepts

The below map concept shows the pins on the map around the world. Each pin is a location of a tree where a bounty can be claimed. Pins can change colour/style based on the location status (available, unavailable, sponsored, charity, tier etc.).

Once a pin is clicked, a lightbox appears (such as below). It shows the original photo, map where the photo was taken with coordinates, the current bounty, and a button to claim that bounty.

The empty space can be utilised with the following:

• claiming instructions
• advertising
• charity information / donation links
• breakdown of bounty earnings
• current ‘holder’ of this location (wallet address)

 

Inspiration – Octorand

https://octorand.com/prime/gen1/0

 

Inspiration – Geocaching

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.groundspeak.geocaching.intro

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geocaching/id329541503

 

*This section is a work in progress and the details are subject to change

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Once this initiative has launched, people will be able to purchase NFTs that will directly offset their carbon footprint.

These NFTs will be available in 3 tiers:

Tier 1 (bronze)

Impact: 200 trees donated offsetting 5 Mt CO2e

People offset per year: 1

Price: $68 USD (ALGO equivalent)

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Tier 2 (silver)

Impact: 1,000 trees donated offsetting 25 Mt CO2e

People offset per year: 5

Price: $330 USD (ALGO equivalent)

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Tier 3 (gold)

Impact: 20,000 trees donated offsetting 500 Mt CO2e

People offset per year: 100

Price: $6,400 USD (ALGO equivalent)

Note: pricing will fluctuate based on market conditions

Offset calculations are based on typical industry averages with CO2e being the basis. CO2e is the equivalent carbon footprint including gasses other than just CO2. This is typically a much better representation of a persons carbon footprint.

TREES buy-back

Approximately 20-25% of all carbon offset NFT sales will be sold and converted into TREES tokens as an ongoing buy-back, reducing the circulating supply.

This will contribute to the perks you will receive for being part of each tier.

Perks

Owning these NFTs will entitle users to various perks. While still being decided upon, some ideas include:

• access to random draws/giveaways for tokens or NFTs
• staking the carbon offset NFTs
• ability to name a tree that gets planted
• access to a private Discord channel (with a unique role)
• other community ideas

Perks wallet: CO2EGP5KMULQ4NSEWF3N4DHZTD54SABLF44ZHBHJMC3XNMDRVJWMDP53TE

Other notes

• donation amount will be added to the OLIVE wallet for the next donation round
• excess ALGO will be used to cover various fees/administration
• a portion of all excess will be used to fund perks (see above)
• while prices may fluctuate, we guarantee that each tier will do as stated (i.e. bronze will offset 1 person for a whole year). If there is a major price fluctuation, we will add extra ALGO to ensure the guarantee is met.

Note: as we are not a registered charity, we cannot provide receipts, certificates, or carbon credits. This is simply a fun initiative to drive people to offset their carbon footprint using crypto funds while granting extra perks for helping out mother nature.

Carbon credits

Using a similar initiative, we are exploring the ability for CryptoTrees to offer carbon credits for purchase. These carbon credits would be certified and recognised in a formal manner.

‘Olive’ is a Tinyman script that allows for regular micro sales in order to streamline our donation process. It was built on Python using the Tinyman SDK and a logic we have added.

The problem

As previously stressed, making donations MUST NOT have any noticeable impact on the market/price of the TREES token. This is extremely tricky as many charity projects suffer from massive sell-offs in order to raise funds.

This has been done successfully to this point. Any charity-based TREES token sell-off has been very small and timed to have almost no impact on the market.

The problem is as the project goes through ups and downs, the impact changes. When the wider crypto market is positive, there are so many trades and so much volume that a donation sell-off is done easily enough. When we hit more bearish markets, it’s much harder to find an appropriate point.

The solution

‘Olive’ helps minimise the impact by selling micro amounts on a frequent basis. Amounts that wouldn’t be visible on a chart unless you moved to 1 minute candles and zoomed way in. Here’s some proof from a test run (see the yellow arrow at 12:55) this is zoomed into a 1 minute chart. This is around 5 trees worth of donations.

Olive works by selling a tiny amount of TREES each hour while there are funds available in the wallet.

Initially, the bot will sell 44,444 TREES per hour (around 1.5 ALGO) at 44 minutes past every hour (e.g. 1:44, 2.44 etc.) for easy identification.

These amounts are subject to change, but you can follow the transactions of the donation wallet to see what it’s currently doing.

Donation of other tokens

While we always recommend donating to charities directly, we’re happy to bridge that gap for you. Any token that hits our dedicated donation wallet will make its way into a donation.

An example of this would be where you have a few dollars worth of a token left in your wallet. Instead of ignoring it, you can send it to the donation wallet. We will convert it into ALGO and it will be part of the next donation.

We will need to opt-in to any of these assets, so people will need to let us know if there is an ASA request and we’ll ensure we can receive it.

This is the donation wallet: OLIVEDDKCYBCWZUMH5OYMTZ2GWUL6JRYBPNNIJTV7XO7745C5QGFPJHMTI

Tokenomics

Total TREES tokens: 50 billion (50,000,000,000) with zero decimal points

Liquidity (15%)

An initial liquidity pool was added to Tinyman as an ALGO/TREES pair. Liquidity provided was 10% of the overall token supply with approximately 1,000 ALGO matching it. Liquidity added to new DEXs will be taken from this allocation. Note that orderbook DEXs (i.e. Algodex) will have liquidity added on an ad hoc basis.

Distribution pool (55%)

All staking, games, events, quizzes, community initiatives etc. with token rewards come from this allocation. This has been increased as a way to ensure the majority of tokens are owned by the community and not the project itself.

Donation pool (10%)

Funds in this pool are used for charity donations using Olive. See here. This has been reduced significantly as our map initiative plus carbon offset NFTs will provide enough funding for donations. This also reduces any sell impact creating a healthier project ecosystem.

Project development (20%)

This pool contains funds for the development of this project. Development activities include, but are not limited to; marketing activities, staffing, project operations, partnerships, consulting, general expenses, and promoting the project. This amount has been determined based on the longevity of this project to ensure it can be funded long-term. To reduce any major sells, an automated vesting bot will be created. This will work similar to Olive where tiny amounts are sold off instead of large amounts. This ensures minimal price impact.

Wallet addresses

A current list of wallets associated with this project can be found below:

Founder wallet (initial liquidity, donation pool, & giveaway pool):

FC74MJE3LPG3WH2CLNJ6MQQTVT6B3D6X43XQ7YG57TPFOJ4ZHAXSYPNYQI

NFT management wallet (official NFTs are minted through this wallet):

UJ3AXFERKQ5KRFPSZ35MVPEPRU5RPASDLXSDFIB7SHW7PFU5MH3ABMJIIU

Dev wallet:

USXHXAUIRMUXEJCLE64YFQNKLAKRMWXOLQFAOZKWX2R6KNPL7VSSC3BGNM

Donation wallet (tokens are moved into this wallet prior to donation):

OLIVEDDKCYBCWZUMH5OYMTZ2GWUL6JRYBPNNIJTV7XO7745C5QGFPJHMTI

Perks wallet for carbon offset NFTs:

CO2EGP5KMULQ4NSEWF3N4DHZTD54SABLF44ZHBHJMC3XNMDRVJWMDP53TE

Occasionally, temporary wallets are set up to manage certain activities. This ensures we are not connecting the founder wallet to a 3rd party service (for example, staking platforms).

Transaction histories for these wallets can be seen at algoexplorer.io

Funding the Project

The primary method of project funding will come from the reserved project development funds. Where possible, payments will be made to vendors using TREES tokens directly to avoid the need for a sell-off. This follows the exact same process that most other projects use.

Where appropriate, we will request that larger payments not be sold off by the vendor immediately or with other conditions attached. We won’t always be able to enforce this, but will offer favourable terms to vendors who accept.

Prior to selling off any funds from the project development pool, we will use all funds received from alternate funding sources (see below).

Sell-offs will never be done in a manner that hurts the value of the project. If funds are needed, smaller, irregular sell-offs will happen through the use of bots (as mentioned above).

As part of our commitment to stay fully transparent, we ask that if anyone is unsure what a specific transaction is for, they please reach out for an explanation. Note that certain payments may need to remain anonymous if they are for sensitive purposes (partnerships, exchange listings, or other non-disclosure ruled payments), but we will provide as much information as possible.

The early stages of this project will see almost zero sell-off with funding provided personally by the CryptoTrees team (where appropriate). The project development funds are ultimately a limited supply, and selling off too early can damage the chances of success. A good example of this is selling off with a token value of $1 now, when a $5 token in the future would allow us to access 5 times more funds for the exact same number of tokens.

Some other methods of funding are mentioned below.

Artistic or novelty NFTs

We have started experimenting with NFTs across various platforms and styles. This experimentation has been solely using artistic NFTs while we learn the best ways to use the technology for other phases of this project.

Unless otherwise stated, all artistic NFTs are unique artworks created or sourced by the CryptoTrees team. Artwork will typically be minted once to ensure uniqueness. NFTs minted more than once will have this information clearly displayed in either the description, or on the platform hosting the sale. 

Proceeds from the sales of artistic NFTs created by the CryptoTrees team will go directly to paying project bills, operating costs, and marketing initiatives. This helps the longevity of the project by avoiding the need to sell TREES tokens from the project development fund. These NFTs may also have a percentage donated, but this will be made clear with each NFT announcement.

Artistic NFTs are collectables and won’t be eligible for NFT staking unless otherwise stated.

Liquidity fees

The initial liquidity provided by the CryptoTrees team will remain indefinitely (we reserve the right to split this liquidity between DEXs if required). The Tinyman pool rewards liquidity providers with a cut of the fees based on how much of the pool a wallet contributes.

These fees are automatically added to the existing liquidity pool in the form of the pool token value. The exact number is made clear on the Tinyman liquidity pair page under ‘Earnings since your last pool transaction’.

All fees earned through liquidity pools will be put towards project development (note that this was voted on by the community with 88.6% of votes in favour of it).

This funding avenue will only ever remove the earnings from the pool for project funding. For example, if the earnings have accumulated to $200, we will remove the equivalent of $200 from the pool. This amount is pure earnings from trading fees and does not reduce the amount of liquidity initially provided.

This allows us to receive funding without having to sell off any tokens. This has a much lesser impact than any token sell-off.

This will also apply to other exchanges where we are able to earn fees from liquidity. We will explore the fee structure of these alternate exchanges and ensure the exact amount generated from fees is clear. This ensures that removed liquidity is solely profit from fee generation.

Donation wallet

An important point to note about the project funding is the charitable donation side. The donation wallet (mentioned earlier) is where we send funds to be used for charitable donations. At the moment, all funds collected in this wallet are donated to charity. Some of these funds may be used for charitable purposes that the team conducts themselves. For example, if we physically plant 100 trees, the purchase of these 100 trees may come from the donation wallet.

This will be assessed on an ad hoc basis and will vary from project to project.

This whitepaper proposes many methods to plant trees and save forests around the world. In its simplest form, this project will raise funds to donate to existing, and reputable charities who are aligned with our goals.

As the project advances, the CryptoTrees team will be more directly involved in the process. The project physically planting trees and saving forests will have the best environmental impact as the use of blockchain technology allows for all details to be tracked and verified.

CryptoTrees will continue to innovate and add additional elements to the project. If there is something you would like to see the project explore, please reach out and let us know. We always welcome feedback and ideas.