Littercoin was first conceptualised in 2015 after the openlittermap founder was introduced to the concept of tokenisation during the openlittermap citizen science & plastic pollution research (which started pre-iPhone in 2008).
By applying the proof-of-work principle to the production of real-world geographic information, the idea for Littercoin was born. Unlike most monetary paradigms, Littercoin intends to be different.
Littercoin is created exclusively by real-people who are creating real data about real litter that is polluting a real environment. Littercoin tokenises the production of geographic information, rewarding the concentration of human time and energy for participating in citizen science. To earn a littercoin, simply upload 100 photos of litter to openlittermap and you will be rewarded with 1 Littercoin.
Littercoin gets its value from a smart contract that holds crypto. If there are $100 worth of crypto in the contract and 10 littercoin in circulation, then each littercoin will be worth $10.
However, if you earn a Littercoin you cannot send it to the smart contract. To achieve this, we introduce a new concept to the crypto ecosystem: Merchant Tokens.
A valid merchant token is required to send Littercoin to the smart contract and get the crypto out. Therefore, Littercoin can only be spent with participating merchants. To tackle the global plastic problem at source, Merchant tokens will only be awarded to pre-approved green-listed zero-waste climate merchants who do not use plastic. If approved, merchants they will receive a special Merchant NFT which has a default expiration time of 12 months.
To enforce additional constraints we have recently upgraded Littercoin to adopt NFT format. By doing so we can ensure that each Littercoin has a limited number of 3 transactions.
- The mint. You claim your tokens when they are owed.
- The transfer. You can send your tokens to a valid merchant token holder.
- The burn. A valid merchant token holder can send littercoin to the smart contract.
If any other transaction is attempted, the smart contract will invalidate the littercoin.
This way, Littercoin becomes an exchangeless non-tradable climate currency.
In-line with its zero-waste values Littercoin does not have a logo, as there is too much visual litter stimulus out there already. It's just Littercoin. There is no ICO. No pre-mine. No exchanges. The only thing you can do with Littercoin is spend it with a merchant who is not part of the global plastic crisis.
The final challenge is getting crypto into the smart contract to give littercoin value.
By sending crypto to the Smart Contract, users are rewarded with OLMRewardTokens. For every $1 worth of crypto, users receive 1 OLMRewardToken. These do not have any purpose or value yet other than to give people a receipt and thanks for their support. Stay tuned to see what's next!