Regenerative finance (ReFi)

ReFi starts from the idea that financial systems should reward activities that restore natural and social capital, not only those that extract value. In practice it covers tokenized carbon credits and biodiversity credits, DAOs that fund reforestation or clean energy, on-chain tracking of conservation work through satellite or sensor data, and community currencies or universal basic income experiments built on blockchains.

The movement peaked in visibility in 2021 and 2022, when projects bridged millions of carbon credits on-chain and blockchains such as Celo and Polygon positioned themselves as climate-friendly. It also connects with public goods funding, as many ReFi projects rely on grants and quadratic funding rounds rather than revenue.

ReFi has struggled with integrity. Bridging cheap, old carbon credits on-chain raised doubts about whether they represented real emission cuts, and some token models rewarded speculation more than impact. Measuring outcomes such as biodiversity is hard, so claims need independent verification rather than marketing.