Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM): Decentralized market for voluntary carbon credit trading.
Tero Carbon's Role: Certifier and Registrar for Brazilian environmental assets.
Environmental Assets: Tero Carbon certifies VCUs and VCSUs. This API integration exclusively concerns VCUs.
VCU (Verified Carbon Unit): Represents 1 tCO₂e avoided/reduced/removed, verified by Tero Carbon. The tradable unit in this integration.
VCSU (Verified Carbon Stock Unit): Represents 1 tCO₂e stored. Not for offsetting, not handled by this API.
Tokenization (Tero Carbon): Tero Carbon's primary registration of VCUs as unique tokens (ERC-1155 standard) on the Polygon public blockchain, with operational certificates (like Transfers, Retirements) often represented by NFTs (ERC-721A standard). Metadata is stored on IPFS.
Tokenization (Marketplace): Mandatory Process. When VCUs are transferred into Marketplace custody, Tero Carbon marks its original token as "externalized". The Marketplace must then create its own internal representation (tokenization) of these VCUs on its platform to enable trading between its users.
Detokenization (Marketplace): The process where the Marketplace burns or destroys its internal token representation of a VCU before notifying Tero Carbon to return the VCU to the Tero Carbon native ecosystem.
Retokenization (Tero Carbon): Triggered by a Detokenization notification from the Marketplace. Tero Carbon reactivates or re-issues its native VCU token (using the Rebuild Tero smart contract logic) into the designated Tero Carbon user account. This happens only with whole tCO₂e units.
Custody Model: VCUs must be transferred to the Marketplace's designated Tero Carbon account before they can be listed or managed via the API. Tero Carbon performs its "destokenization" step upon this transfer.
reportTransaction Endpoint: The core API method used by the Marketplace to notify Tero Carbon about significant events that have occurred within the Marketplace's platform concerning Tero Carbon VCUs under its custody (Tokenization, internal Transfer, internal Retirement, Detokenization).
Chain of Custody: The verifiable history of a VCU. This integration model maintains traceability by ensuring VCUs only leave the Marketplace's internal system by being formally re-tokenized back into the Tero Carbon registry via the Detokenization/Retokenization process. Direct export is prohibited.
Polygon: Public blockchain used by Tero Carbon for VCU tokenization.
IPFS: Decentralized storage for VCU metadata.
OpenSea: Platform where Tero Carbon publishes operational NFTs for public transparency. Links (unitsLinkOpenSea) point here.
CAD Trust: Global metadata platform where Tero Carbon reports registry data. API provides endpoints for querying this public data (getProjectList, getIssuanceList).
Asset Integrity: Tero Carbon's policies preventing double counting, misuse, etc.
Units (tCO2e vs kgCO2e): Tero Carbon's primary registry and re-tokenization operates in whole tonnes (tCO2e). Marketplaces may tokenize and transact internally in kilograms (kgCO2e, 1 tCO2e = 1000 kgCO2e) but must handle fractional logic. Notifications (reportTransaction) should specify the unit used. Detokenization back to Tero only processes whole tonnes.
