UW Blockchain Center Partners With ClimateChain to Track Rare Earth Elements

Creating an economic edge for American rare earth element producers is the goal of a new partnership between the University of Wyoming Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation (CBDI) and ClimateChain.

ClimateChain, the developer of the newest Layer Zero blockchain, will work with the CBDI to track and trace rare earth minerals in "Project NorthStar." This groundbreaking partnership aims to revolutionize the way rare earths are traced as well as how emission reduction is quantified, qualified and monetized for those involved in onshoring rare earth mineral production, says Amanda Martinez, founder of ClimateChain.

Martinez describes Project NorthStar as a novel approach to provide a significant advantage to those engaged in onshoring rare earth element production. She says that, by leveraging the power of the "most efficient" blockchain technology with zero knowledge proofs built into the architecture, ClimateChain enables the tracking and tracing of pollution reduction in a highly efficient, private and innovative manner.

The CBDI will help develop the tools to implement a more efficient supply chain by tracking rare earth elements from their production in Wyoming and other states, shipping to China for processing and their return to the U.S. for use in a variety of manufacturing areas. About 75 percent of processed rare earth elements are imported by the U.S. from China, as there are no processing plants in the U.S.

"We have known Amanda and her team for years and couldn't be more excited to partner with them on this project," says Steve Lupien, CBDI director. "With their cutting-edge capabilities and proprietary artificial intelligence, ClimateChain stands out as the most efficient blockchain in the world for tackling pollution reduction. The platform's unique approach allows for granular tracking and enables the capture and communication of all emissions savings, even for projects that previously found it cost-prohibitive and complex."

As an "agnostic" architecture, ClimateChain can work with a variety of blockchain structures used by clients, Martinez says.

"With our architecture, users don't have to expose their proprietary business practices to the world," she says. "We provide the proof that an event happened, and users provide the permission to only those that need to see the details."

Rare earth element production is essential to U.S. manufacturing and national security as China tightens its exports. The same approach can be used for uranium mined in Wyoming that has to be processed in Russia, Martinez says.

"They are used in everything from your phone to your vehicle, to weapons systems. It would behoove us to onshore these supply chains as soon as possible by creating a healthy investment environment that incentivizes revenue sharing with mining operations by capitalizing on the growing market for emission credits," Martinez says.

Emission credits, also known as carbon credits or carbon offsets, are a market-based approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Governments or regulatory bodies set a cap on total emissions allowed for certain industries. Companies receive or buy emission allowances, which they can trade with one another as needed.

The UW-ClimateChain partnership is set to transform the way emissions reduction is measured and verified, creating massive liquidity in the marketplace, Lupien says.

"This groundbreaking project, combined with the recent rare earth mineral finds in Wyoming, will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on the onshoring supply chains and the efforts toward achieving net-zero commitments by 2030," Lupien says. "We are creating a direct monetization method to incentivize the good behavior we want."

For more information, visit www.thenorthstarglobal.com. Send inquiries to [email protected] or [email protected].

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