CARBON TOKEN PROJECT
A standing tree is worth more alive.
Carbon Token Project (CTP) is an open source platform for AI-native verification and tokenisation of standing forest carbon, built for the landowners the legacy market leaves behind.
THE PROBLEM
A felled tree has a price. A living one does not.
The accounting structures of the global economy attach a clear dollar figure to a felled tree. They attach nothing reliable to a living one for the people who actually own the land. The result is predictable: roughly 10 million hectares of forest cover lost each year, most of it through small-scale clearing in places where the cost of holding land is high and the cash value of a standing tree is effectively zero.
Existing carbon markets exist to fix this. But they only work for large projects. Smallholders, indigenous communities, family forest owners, and community forestry cooperatives are economically excluded, locked out by certification costs that run between USD 100,000 and USD 500,000 per project and timelines of two to three years before the first credit is issued.
THE APPROACH
A 2026 reboot of a 2021 idea, built in the open.
CTP is a three-layer system. An AI-native pipeline verifies forest carbon from satellite imagery and cryptographically attested ground-truth observations. An on-chain registry issues tokenised credits whose full evidence chain is publicly queryable. Arboreum, the protocol’s claim token, is fully reserved against verified standing carbon and redeemable for retired credits at a transparent peg.
The combination is designed to bring small and mid-size landowners into a market they are currently locked out of, without compromising the integrity standards that buyers now demand. The codebase, methodology specs, and protocol governance are all being developed as open source.
WHY NOW
Three conditions came together in 2026.
The technology matured
Foundation models can reason over satellite imagery and methodology documents. Phone-grade LiDAR puts forestry-grade measurement in everyone’s pocket. C2PA cryptographic attestation makes ground-truth observations tamper-evident.
The demand matured
Microsoft contracted 45 million tonnes of carbon removal in 2025. Stripe’s Frontier consortium has aggregated 1.8 million tonnes of advance commitments. The Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 mechanism issued its first credits in February 2026.
The standards matured
The ICVCM Core Carbon Principles are live. Verra’s VM0048 is approved. The SEC clarified in January 2026 that carbon credits stay on the commodity side of the line. The second wave has a clear path the first wave did not.
OPEN SOURCE
A protocol for forest carbon. Built in public.
CTP is being developed as an open source project. The codebase, the dMRV pipeline, the smart contracts, the methodology specifications, and the protocol governance design will all live in public repositories. If you care about climate, AI-native infrastructure, or making carbon markets work for the people whose forests are doing the work, you can contribute time, code, expertise, or tokens. Roles for paid co-founders, advisors, and partners remain open in parallel.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
The questions we get most often.
What is Carbon Token Project?
Carbon Token Project (CTP) is a 2026 reboot of an idea originally drafted in 2021. It uses AI-native verification and on-chain tokenisation to make standing forest carbon tradeable in a way that’s accessible to small and mid-size landowners. The whole protocol stack is being built as an open source project.
What does “open source” mean for this project?
All code (dMRV pipeline, smart contracts, verifier mobile app, public dashboard), all methodology specifications, and all protocol governance documents are published under a permissive open source licence on GitHub. Anyone can read the code, propose improvements, file issues, submit pull requests, or fork the work.
What is Arboreum?
Arboreum is CTP’s claim and governance token. Its total supply at any moment is bounded by the protocol’s verified carbon reserve. One Arboreum represents a defined claim on a defined quantity of CO2 equivalent stored in the reserve.
How is this different from KlimaDAO or Toucan Protocol?
The first wave of tokenised carbon bridged existing legacy credits onto the blockchain, including credits from projects later found to be low-integrity. CTP issues new credits through a controlled pipeline with embedded AI-native verification and continuous satellite monitoring.
How can I contribute?
Contribute code on GitHub. Open an issue. Review the methodology spec. Write documentation. If you have expertise in remote sensing, smart contracts, carbon methodology, regulatory practice, or community forestry, your help is welcome. Partners and capital providers can also reach out via the Get involved page.
Is this an offer to sell securities or tokens?
No. This site and the accompanying white paper are published for transparency, peer review, and the recruitment of collaborators. Nothing here is an offer to sell, nor a solicitation to buy, any security or financial instrument.
EVIDENCE BACKED BY THE LIVING WORLD
“The standing forest is the proof, the carbon is the unit, and the integrity is the discipline.”
Carbon Token Project Working Note · May 2026