FAQ

General Questions

What is CUT?

Carbon Utility Token (CUT) is a utility token that allows you to reduce your carbon footprint transparently on-chain, in any amount, at any time. CUT is backed by certified carbon offsets generated from the removal and destruction of carbon by landfill gas and biomass projects. We work with independent power producers to continually source more offsets for the pool as tokens are retired from supply. Whenever minting takes place each token grows to represent an increased volume of carbon it can: hold, trade or retire from circulation forever.

What is a utility token?

According to the Token Container Model as described in the The Liechtenstein Blockchain-Act, any asset or right can basically be represented by a token. That is the case with CUT, where certified carbon offsets are represented by the CUT token. Some other examples include a software license right or an access right can be put into the token container. In most jurisdictions this would be classified as a utility token.

What makes CUT different from other carbon type coins?

CUT is a utility token which represents real, certified carbon offsets on the blockchain, whereas many <X> coin’s are security tokens or cryptocurrencies.
‍
Our smart contract acts as an ideal ledger for storing, distributing, tracking and retiring carbon offsets. It is in this unique contract function of retiring where we see the utility of CUT and close the cycle of impact.
‍
To offer real visibility into carbon offset retirement, rather than just burning away any records of the tokens being retired, we offer tracking of both the living supply as well as the total historical supply of CUT created. Regardless of whether CUT have been retired or remain in active supply, their history and provenance can be traced to the exact green energy project that produced the offsets, from inception to retirement.

Who, or what entity, is behind CUT?

Carbon Utility Token (CUT) was created and is managed by CUT Carbon Distributed Technologies AG a Limited company headquartered in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

Where can I buy CUT?

CUT is available on Centralized Exchanges like Bittrex and BitGlobal and decentralized exchanges like Sushiswap and Uniswap with more exchanges coming soon.

The Retire App

What’s a “retired” carbon offset?

When a CUT holder retires a token volume from the living supply it closes the loop of impact for all of the directly related carbon offsets being retired. Retired tokens are effectively taken off the market forever—never to be traded or sold again. When retired, a party cannot, for example, claim they have reduced emissions and then resell the offset. Additionally, this forces the CUT team to go out to the real world to source the next round of carbon offsets from producers to mint more CUT into the living supply.

How do I retire CUT, and how does it work?

The CUT team is currently developing a Retire dApp frontend, that will allow CUT holders to manually retire CUT, and allow flexibility regarding the timing of holding and retiring chosen volumes of carbon offsets.
‍
The dApp allows users to fund their MetaMask wallet with CUT and signal an intent to retire a quantity of CUT. Along with a data hub for enabling the hydration of the blockchain stored data to help explore the retired offsets, living supply, as well as help to inform users of energy usage of blockchain and real-world related activities to enable users to make more intelligent carbon retirement decisions that align with corporate or personal goals.
‍
Once CUT has been retired, users can see the connection to the actual CO2e reductions project they retired against. This information includes the type of activity that created the offset being retired, the location of the project, the type of certification used to verify the impact, and other information relating to the project and certification process.

What kind of certification do I receive for retiring CUT?

Upon retiring CUT with the Retire dApp, you will automatically receive a digital certificate showing the amount of carbon you’ve retired, the project your offsets were retired from, the type of offsets, certification protocol, project location and project verifier. You will always have documented proof of your retirement.

Carbon Markets

What is a carbon offset?

According to offsetguide.org, a carbon offset broadly refers to a reduction in GHG emissions – or an increase in carbon storage (e.g., through land restoration or the planting of trees) – that is used to compensate for emissions that occur elsewhere.

What are the different types of offsets?

There are two main categories of carbon offsets:
‍
1. Carbon Avoidance and Reduction Projects - Examples include renewable energy projects that generate renewable energy like wind, hydro and solar and methane capture projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere and use it as a source of energy.

2. Carbon Removal and Sequestration Projects - Examples include reforestation projects that plant trees to extract and store carbon from the atmosphere and direct carbon capture projects that extract carbon from the atmosphere and permanently store it in deep geological formations.

What is CO2e?

CO2e is a metric measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases on the basis of their global-warming potential (GWP), by converting amounts of other gases to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide with the same global warming potential.

How large is the carbon market?

The carbon market is made up of two separate markets - the compliance market and the voluntary market. The compliance market - also referred to as “cap and trade,” is for organizations mandated by a regulatory authority or government to reduce emissions. The European Union and the state of California are two examples of compliance markets. The voluntary market is for organizations who voluntarily offset their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets.
‍
As of 2021, the compliance market is a $261bn market whereas the voluntary market is about $1bn market. Many sources expect the voluntary market to grow exponentially over the next decade.

How does the voluntary carbon offset market work?

Voluntary carbon markets enable organizations and individuals to offset their emissions outside a regulatory regime. These entities can purchase offsets that were created either through the voluntary or compliance markets. Trading and demand in the voluntary market are created only by voluntary buyers (corporations, institutions, and individuals) whereas, in a compliance market, demand is created by a regulatory mandate.

What type of offsets back CUT?

Currently, CUT is backed by certified carbon offsets created by greenhouse gas avoidance/reduction projects like landfill gas (methane) capture and destruction, and biomass destruction. We are constantly maintaining a pipeline of new project candidates from all over the world that include avoidance/reduction and removal/sequestration projects.

Can I use CUT to meet my jurisdiction’s regulatory requirements?

This depends on the jurisdiction and industry, but generally speaking no.

Support

How can I get in touch with the CUT team?

You can send us a message on our contact page

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

The Retire App

Carbon Markets

Support

More Questions?