Interview with BYOCOIN: Transforming forests into economic architecture

BYOCOIN describes itself as a digital infrastructure that turns restored and preserved territories into traceable and tradable ecological assets. The idea came from recognizing that ecosystem services are still not valued in a tangible way and that blockchain can help measure, audit, and reward those who restore and protect land.

In this “Member Spotlight” interview, the team at BYOCOIN explains how their restoration and preservation tokens work, the challenges of operating in regions like the Amazon, and the technical and regulatory foundations behind their model.
Read on to learn more about their approach.

Image Credits: Unsplash

About BYOCOIN and Its Mission

Q. What is BYOCOIN and what inspired you to connect the world of cryptocurrencies with action for nature?

BYOCOIN is a digital infrastructure that transforms degraded areas and preserved territories into traceable and tradable ecological assets. Each token represents a real portion of preserved or restored land, connecting global capital to regenerated and protected forest hectares in Brazil.

The inspiration was born from the realization that nature needs a new financial language that integrates economy and ecology in an innovative and reliable way. The traditional economic system still does not tangibly value ecosystem services, and blockchain finally allows us to measure, audit, and reward those who restore and preserve the planet.

Q. What kind of change do you hope BYOCOIN will promote in the way people finance or value nature restoration?

We want to change the logic of environmental financing: to stop seeing restoration as a cost and start treating it as a productive, liquid asset.

BYOCOIN transforms the forest into economic infrastructure, each reforested hectare generates carbon credits, sustainable timber, biodiversity, and verifiable ESG reputation. This democratizes investment in nature and allows any person or institution to become a co-owner of the planet’s restoration and preservation.

Q. The BYOCOIN team created two tokens: Restoration Coin and Preservation Coin. What does each do and how do they support your environmental goals?

BYOCOIN proposes two coins, one for Restoration and another for Preservation, BYC-R and BYC-P respectively. According to the White Paper, BYC-P may be born “P”, that is, already issued in areas where structured forests exist, mainly in the Amazon. BYC-R was created to restore territories, beginning primarily with the Atlantic Forest. However, one BYC-R after 20 years may become two BYC-P. The logic is that after 20 years of restoration, a forest stabilizes its carbon stock because its sequestration balances its emissions, and being fully composed, its provision of ecosystem services becomes regular.

• BYOCOIN Restoration (BYC-R) is the token backed by 1,000 m² of restored land, where each hectare corresponds to 10 BYC-R. Each restored emission unit equals 1,000 m² of regenerated forest, backed by carbon credits, biomass, timber, water performance, and biodiversity protection — Atlantic Forest.

• BYOCOIN Preservation (BYC-P) is the token backed by 500 m² of preserved forest, where each hectare corresponds to 20 BYC-P. Each preserved unit corresponds to a territory being conserved and producing, besides ecosystem services, goods and services based on sustainable forest and non-timber management, extractivism, and tourism. Each coin equals 500 m² of preserved forest backed by carbon credits, biomass, and ecosystem services such as water protection, climate stability, and biodiversity preservation — Amazon and Atlantic Forest.

Together, they create a circular ecosystem where capital, science, and communities thrive in synergy.

Q. The Amazon is a complex region for restoration due to land ownership and regulatory challenges. How does BYOCOIN intend to operate in this context?

Many promises of restoration are being made for the Amazon; however, those who really know the region understand there are countless obstacles to large-scale restoration. Beyond land issues, there are problems such as lack of infrastructure, safety, and alignment with local communities. Moreover, the Amazon is not a single thing, it is a biome with over 30 different ecosystems following specific ecological logics, some literally on sand dunes viable only because of accelerated nutrient cycling mediated by termites. Basic elements of the restoration production chain are missing, such as seedling production in adequate quantity, quality, and diversity.

Therefore, our medium-term strategy for the Amazon is preservation. Over time, as restoration infrastructure improves, we will evaluate the potential of certain territories that offer legal security for investors.

We plan to do all this working with landowners, traditional communities, NGOs, and public agencies, always based on land-title compliance and adherence to the Forest Code. BYOCOIN acts as a traceability technology, ensuring that every carbon credit, hectare, and partner is legally registered and auditable.

Image Credits: Unsplash

Technology, Trust, and Market Development

Q. Many people are still skeptical about the role of cryptocurrencies in environmental protection. How do you ensure that BYOCOIN generates real impact?

The impact is measurable and visible. The key to guarantees in the BYOCOIN System is our monitoring system integrated into Smart Contracts mediated by independent validation and connected to the Blockchain.

Each token is linked to real geographic coordinates, monitored by satellite, drones, and IoT sensors. Data on forest growth, water performance, biomass, biodiversity protection, and carbon sequestration are generated, validated, and stored on blockchain, making manipulation impossible.

Data validation by independent verifiers, the Oracles, adds another layer of system security, giving research institutions and NGOs with recognized environmental expertise the prerogative to validate data before they enter the blockchain. This means that when someone acquires a BYOCOIN, the investment is literally planting trees and restoring ecosystems monitored in real time, with technical measurement and impartial validation of environmental assets.

Q. What technical or design challenges did you face when creating tokens that represent genuine ecological value?

The greatest challenge was translating ecological complexity into reliable digital and financial metrics.

Nature is not binary, and carbon and biodiversity models require robust scientific data. We developed a solution architecture combining natural-asset monitoring technologies, machine learning, ecological modeling, and field verification, so that each token represents a verifiable and unique environmental value.

An important challenge was conceiving and creating transparent governance that also aligns with crypto culture, where independent validator communities approve or reject data from the monitoring system, and investors share benefits without intermediaries.

Beyond delivering the classic carbon credit, BYOCOIN adds highly innovative metrics essential for full contemporary environmental valuation according to UN-diffused scientific standards:

ACton: Living Carbon in forest form, using indices LIDAR, NVDI, and LAI.
20 tons per year for 15 years = 300 tons per hectare.
H2Oef: Effective Water
(1,380 mm/year in SP) = 26 thousand liters/year = 268 thousand liters of water in 10 years per hectare.
NoEX: Extinction Prevention Index
Species diversity: IUCN maps / Bioacoustics / iDNA Maps / Trap Cameras.
Annual measurements of ecosystem services:
• CCIF: Climate Change Impact Factor
• LPI: Life Protection Index
• NI: Neutralization Index (Carbon and Water)

Q. How do regulatory uncertainty and undefined land rights in the Amazon influence your work and partnerships?

These uncertainties led us to adopt a cautious, collaborative stance aligned with evolving Brazilian legal frameworks:
BYOCOIN is fully aligned with the Legal Framework of the Brazilian Carbon Market and the rules structuring the National Policy on Climate Change (Law 12.187/2009) and its regulation (Decree 11.075/2022), which create the Brazilian Emissions Trading System (SBCE) and the National Registry of Emissions and Offsets (RENOVA). These instruments provide the legal foundation for tokenized environmental credits and compensation, the basis of BYOCOIN’s digital structure.

Constitutional and Environmental Foundation
Article 225 of the 1988 Federal Constitution enshrines the right to an ecologically balanced environment and legitimizes economic climate-mitigation policies, providing the basis for carbon credits and Payments for Environmental Services (PSA). Law 14.119/2021, establishing the National PSA Policy, formally recognizes carbon sequestration and conservation as remunerable environmental services, allowing their conversion into digital currencies and private contracts, precisely BYOCOIN’s operational model.

Integration with the Forest and Territorial Framework
Law 12.651/2012 (Forest Code) and Law 9.985/2000 (SNUC) recognize the ecological and economic value of Legal Reserves, PPAs, and RPPNs, authorizing sustainable use and monetization of ecosystem services. BYOCOIN operates within this scope, with certified projects in legally eligible areas connected to restoration and emission neutralization.

Regulatory Innovation and Tokenization
Decree 10.144/2019 (National Innovation Policy) officially recognizes tokenization and blockchain use as public-interest technologies for climate innovation. BYOCOIN applies this principle, ensuring traceability, auditing, and digital transparency for each restored hectare and recorded ton of carbon.

Financial and ESG Convergence
The Central Bank (Resolutions CMN 4.943/2021 and BCB 139/2021) requires financial institutions to integrate climate risks and encourages adoption of green assets and carbon credits. Future integration with the Drex (Digital Real) will allow financial settlement of tokenized environmental assets, expanding BYOCOIN’s interoperability with Brazil’s banking system.

Financial Governance Regulation
CVM (Resolutions 59/2021 and 175/2022) already recognizes environmental digital assets as eligible for ESG funds if backed, audited, and governed, criteria fully adopted by BYOCOIN. B3 is building an Environmental Assets Platform integrated with PL 412/2022 (Brazilian Emission Reduction Market), in which BYOCOIN fits as an issuer and trader of tokenized carbon and biodiversity assets.

International Adherence
BYOCOIN also complies with the Paris Agreement (Decrees 144/2016 and 9.073/2017) and Brazil’s NDC, recognizing market instruments (Art. 6) as global mitigation tools. Additionally, its protocols align with GFANZ, TCFD, and ISO 14064-2 standards.

Q. How do you see blockchain’s role in creating more transparent and fair conservation models in the future?

Blockchain can become nature’s new writing. It allows each tree, each hectare, and each credit to be recorded immutably, eliminating greenwashing. It enables unprecedented portability and transfer of carbon credits. It creates a dual-purpose instrument, investment and/or offset: you can trade your token later or retire its carbon credits to offset your emissions for certification, goals, marketing, or commerce.

More than technology, it creates ecological justice, allowing local communities, scientists, and investors to share value without information asymmetry, linking international capital directly to forest restoration and preservation in Brazil. Moreover, the model is scalable and replicable across ecosystems and countries, enabling global expansion in the future.

Adoption, Investment, and Collaboration

Q. You’ve noticed European investors engage more with crypto-based environmental projects than Brazilians. Why do you think that is?

In Europe, there is regulatory maturity and a more consolidated ESG culture, where sustainable investment is seen as a strategic obligation, not philanthropy. There, crypto culture is also better assimilated and recognized as an important financial tool in today’s context.

In Brazil, distrust toward crypto-assets and the absence of clear impact-verification tools remain. BYOCOIN was created precisely to fill these gaps: connecting Brazil’s scientific credibility and natural assets with the leverage of international green capital.

Q. What types of partnerships or support would help BYOCOIN grow at this stage?

Three main fronts:

• Seed capital or joint ventures with financial institutions wishing to position themselves in the new restoration economy.

• Technical partnerships with universities, research institutes, and Nature Tech startups.

• Institutional support from networks like the Nature Tech Collective for visibility and co-creation of ethical and technological standards.

Q. How do you expect to collaborate with other members of the Nature Tech Collective?

BYOCOIN wants to be an ecosystem connector, integrating technologies, data, and restoration and preservation strategies that strengthen territorial resilience. We can offer the NTC community blockchain validation for biodiversity, water, and carbon metrics, co-create pilot projects, and develop new decentralized green-finance models.

Vision and Reflections

Q. What is BYOCOIN’s long-term vision? What would success look like in five years? And how can the NTC help you get there?

Within five years, we aim to have 5,000 hectares restored and tokenized, with local communities receiving recurring income and investors accessing high-integrity carbon credits. Success will be when BYOCOIN becomes synonymous with digital ecological trust, a global standard for traceability and transparency. The Nature Tech Collective can help as a bridge of credibility and learning between science, capital, and technology.

Q. What have been the biggest lessons so far from working at the intersection of crypto, conservation, and community engagement?

We’ve learned that trust is the most valuable asset. Technology is powerful, but it only gains meaning when applied with respect for the social and ecological realities of each territory. To restore is not just to plant, it is to regenerate relationships, cultures, and economies. To preserve is not just to maintain forests, it is to create powerful economic logics that make this asset strategically profitable and valued by every link in the chain.

Q. What advice would you give to other innovators using emerging technologies for positive outcomes for nature?

Direction matters more than speed. Start small, but with purpose. Seek scientific validation, local partners, and radical transparency. And never forget: the true value is not in the token, but in the living tree it represents and the territories it restores and preserves.

If you would like to learn more about BYOCOIN’s work or follow their next steps, you can visit their website (launching soon) or reach out to the Jorge Luis Araújo Martins at jlamartins@gmail.com.