ReFi Reading List

"Based on open code and secure ledgers stored on consensus networks, ReFi offers a way to implement a more democratic and inclusive alternative to traditional financial systems."

"ReFi is changing the mindset of the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCMs) with different organizations seeing the potential of web3 to correct some of the issues with VCMs: double counting and the resale of retired carbon credits."

"By shifting the direction of capital away from extractive practices toward a regenerative flow, projects and companies that provide social, environmental, or communal benefits—and which might fail to achieve funding in traditional finance—can get off the ground and generate positive externalities for society much more quickly and easily."

"Traditional Finance is characterized by centralization and opacity, where a few entities or "controllers" dominate decision-making and understanding of financial systems. However, ReFi fosters transparency and decentralization, empowering individuals and promoting broad financial participation."

"Quadratic Funding (QF) is a crowd-funding mechanism that amplifies available resources by inviting community members to make donations (big or small) that act as votes on where to allocate funds."

"The VCM is in a critical stage of evolution and must resolve structural process and data integrity issues before it can fulfill its potential as a critical financing mechanism for stabilizing the global climate before 2050."

"Studies show us that, through efficient and more circular use of materials in just four key industrial materials (cement, steel, plastics, and aluminum), circular economy strategies can help reduce global GHG emissions by 40 percent by 2050. And if we also include circular approaches within the food system, we could achieve as much as 49 percent reductions in global GHG emissions overall."

"In a regenerative capitalist world, there isn’t a PowerPoint slide that can save the planet. It requires a lot more deep thinking – some of which is unlikely to be that palatable to businesses focused primarily on the bottom line."

"As the world races against time to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and keep alive the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C, oil and gas companies have begun to market their products as “clean” or “carbon neutral”. Companies such as Shell, TotalEnergies and Lundin Energy have begun branding some of their products as “carbon neutral” by bundling them with carbon offsets."

"UBI has a long history and has been defended from a variety of often overlapping, but occasionally conflicting, ideological perspectives. Like most proposals to expand the safety net, UBI has roots in social democratic, anarchist, and socialist thinking."