Valuable insights from the MERIT token early community

With opening the MERIT token sales in September, we received a stream of invaluable feedback from our early buyers. Turns out, we have a rapidly growing community that shares our values and roots for our nature-saving mission. 

We are thankful for the constructive feedback and overjoyed by the support for our work. It most certainly makes you smile when someone calls your team “badass”😎. Besides sharing encouraging wishes and suggestions for improvements, people also opened up about themselves: who they are, why they have bought MERIT in the first place, and what value they see in Single.Earth’s mission. 

Single.Earth is known all over Europe

Given our company’s origin, we gained a lot of local support as about 50% of our early buyers are from Estonia. The other half is spread across the whole European Economic Area*. From a total of 20 different countries, a considerable number of early MERIT token holders are from France and Germany (16%), Finland and Italy (12%), Sweden and the Netherlands (8%), Spain, Belgium, and Latvia (6%). The remaining countries represented include Portugal, Denmark, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Norway, Slovenia, Austria, Ireland, and Iceland. 

* Due to regulatory limitations as a licensed crypto service provider, token sales are currently limited only to EEA (European Economic Area) residents and companies.

Time is of the essence — people want to act today!

Some of our community members are closely linked to our core fields of sustainability, forestry, crypto, etc; while others have just been looking for a way to save the future for their children and grandchildren. Despite different backgrounds, they all share the same view — we can’t afford to lose another decade. 

Climate leaders worldwide state the importance of every stakeholder in mitigating climate change and in moving from promises to implementing actions. Our community sees MERIT tokens as their opportunity to take action today. Combining the economy and nature protection is seen as a very logical, needed, and easy way for an individual to be a part of the big picture. The first feasible step is already done as landowners have received their first payments and can continue to keep the ecosystems on their lands intact. 

"It can be a little part of protecting the Amazon, rebuilding forests in Africa, and shifting the negative trend of land losing carbon — it is all I wish, really. Being 64 years old, saving is not the issue, in some 20-30 years I will give up everything I have anyway, whether I like it or not. So I try to spend what I have in the most sensible way for the next and coming generations."‍

- Hans von Essen
Agronomist and senior advisor in sustainable development
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‍The nature-based value makes crypto trustworthy

Say “crypto” in a room full of people, and you’ll get many enthusiastic and many confused faces simultaneously. As MERIT is a crypto project – although not a conventional one – our team was eager to learn about how our community perceives us.

We were surprised by how many people said that MERIT is their first crypto asset. They were encouraged by the nature-based value, the mission to save nature, and the ease of the process.

The fact that MERIT is backed by something feasible — real nature — has made it easy for many people to take the first step into the world of virtual currencies. Additionally, being supported each step of the way and having all necessary processes together in the MERIT Marketplace was highlighted as a considerable perk.

People stressed that learning how MERIT does not grant permission to offset greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss elsewhere was a turning point for them. This fact is what sets Single.Earth and MERIT apart from anything related to the controversial carbon offsetting industry.

"When I get the opportunity, I like to participate in cofounding projects that resonate with me. When I stumbled upon Single.Earth, at first I thought that it was another “we can help you compensate for your carbon print” promoter. Having looked into it more thoroughly, I discovered that their purpose goes way beyond that. When cryptocurrencies usually don’t have a good reputation in my mind, then the way how Single.Earth is planning to develop their model is definitely in line with my values. I also appreciate that it’s available both for individuals and companies. "‍

- Mari-Liis Garcia
Experienced specialist in international business development, lifelong-learning enthusiast

‍Transparency is key to any good relationship

Our community shared their thoughts on critical and concerning issues, among them, maintaining transparency and unity in presenting facts and data on environmental issues. The way such information and resources are handled varies greatly across the world and is often kept in the hands of limited stakeholders, leaving the public speculating and guessing. 

Many emphasized how they value the transparency of our processes and communication. Transparency is a key value for our team and mission. That’s why we’re bringing nature to the Web3 space, using the Solana blockchain, sharing the research behind it all, opening up collaboration, etc. All these aspects were listed as dominant incentives behind the motivation to buy MERIT tokens. 

We promise to keep transparency one of our key goals and to stay an objective, reliable source of information — a status already ascribed to us by the trust of our community members.

"I first discovered crypto in 2010 while living in Thailand. People there were more aware of the blockchain revolution in comparison to France and that environment definitely played a big part in maintaining my interest and curiosity regarding any news and revolutions in the field.

Although I was convinced quite early of the bright future of blockchain, and I have never really trusted the system controlled by governments regarding money management, I was still careful. It took me more than 10 years to finally get committed to it fully as I bought my first cryptocurrency (BTC) in 2021. I like to think that it is never too early or too late, and I am now convinced that cryptocurrency is the future.  

My curiosity led me to different projects. On my journey, I was pleased to discover Single.Earth a few months ago. Their lightpaper and blog are very easy to read and understand. You will be amazed to find out how much the amazing team has already accomplished.  

I am really concerned about the future of our planet and the preservation of mother nature — this is why I stepped into the Single.Earth project as soon as I had the opportunity and acquired my first MERIT tokens on September 1st, 2022. 

Individuals, landowners, and businesses all have the chance to contribute and make a real impact — together, we can build a fully sustainable nature-based economy."

- Anthony Dugas
Former entrepreneur, climate change & blockchain enthusiast

Value for the planet and for people

“Obviously, as an investor, I would hope to make a buck out of the gain in value and further widespread use of MERIT as a currency,” stated many of the investment-driven token holders. However, surprisingly a vast majority of them highlighted the Earth-saving potential as well: “With each MERIT I use, I get the sense that I’m protecting the Earth and helping future generations is very powerful for someone who was already thinking about how my money can make a positive impact.”

"I'm curious about all kinds of crypto currencies and projects regarding blockchain. As Single.Earth has been rather active on (social) media, I had already heard about them months ago. However, I started looking into it more when a friend asked me whether it would be worthwhile to submit their forest to the platform for minting MERIT tokens and earning an income. After going through all the details, my reply was a solid yes, because there's nothing to lose. The business model is novel and I am eager to follow the journey and intrigued to see what they'll do next."

- Roman German
Founder of the Estonian Crypto Club

Green solutions are thriving 

There’s a lot going on in the world of CO₂. As one of our buyers said: “I was figuring out what the hell big companies are going to do with all of this CO₂ and then you guys popped up with a crypto solution.” We are happy to be noticed and to stand out. 

However, every now and then new companies emerge that seem to be sailing in the same waters as Single.Earth. Our community is also curious about how this affects us, if our business models are similar or differ entirely, if we are happy or worried about the competition, etc. Yes and no. Those are all good and intricate questions that require an entirely separate article in the near future. But one thing is certain — the more successful undertakings we have in the world, and if nature truly benefits from them, then we are all winners.

Key takeaways

It was truly amazing to read that our community sees great potential in Single.Earth to grow and to solve the problems of today’s economic models. 

To sum up, we can say that today, MERIT is: 

• a possibility for individuals to create (and drive!) societal and economic change — if enough people take action, companies, and governments need to follow;
• an incentive for landowners as an alternative that has never existed before;
• a transparent and trustworthy tool for achieving climate and biodiversity goals. 

We will continue to raise awareness on the topics of climate change, biodiversity loss, and do everything in our power to be a guiding force on our common road towards a green future. With the right tools integrated into our daily lives, humankind is capable of getting back within the planetary boundaries we have already crossed. Together, we can make MERIT an asset that will pave the way for uniting human consumption with how much nature can sustain.

PS.

Merijn F. asked something in her feedback that many have probably been wondering about:
“I love the name MERIT, and it made me smile that the founder is even named this. She didn’t change her name right😉?” 

Indeed, it is a bit of a coincidence that the token and one of our founders share the same name. You can listen to the backstory and Merit sharing her views on sustainability in the e-Estonia podcast “Art of Digitalisation”.

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