A lot of people have been asking us for an OFP Roadmap for 2022. That’s a bit unhelpful, if it’s not put in the larger context of where we are coming from, and where we are going (next five years)! So here is an honest attempt at where we are, what we hope to do in 2022, and what comes after.

OFP is an Immune System that Strengthens Over Time

Before I introduce what we are doing this year, I want to outline in super simple terms, the basic premises of OFP — in short, what we really want to achieve with OFP (because it’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees).

OFP is essentially an immune system for forest management and ecosystem preservation. We see the Open Forest Protocol as an economic system for managing incentives pertaining to the management, preservation, and monetization of forests. But creating an immune system from scratch is tricky, as there are a lot of moving pieces.

Here are the essential components we are starting with:

First → Projects Upload Data. First principle = Upload data to prove the existence of the forest. Right now, we are doing this with a field app, and random sample points — but in the future we hope to allow projects to add in additional data to their uploads as a means of making verification easier.

Second → Validators Stake on Data Outcomes. First Principle = Let the system naturally strengthen with inputs over time. Much like an immune system of the human body, validators regulate the protocol to keep the system running as it was designed to operate. That means, it will not attack the good bacteria (correct data uploads), and flag and eventually destroy the bad bacteria (false data uploads). Notably, it will take time for the immune system to strengthen and grow over time — expect fevers and headaches!

Third → Financiers support projects. First Principle = Invest in high impact/high value projects. Financing forest projects means that more forests can be preserved / planted / or not cut down — and more hectares (and carbon) go onto the protocol!

Fourth → Community Governs Protocol and Builds It Out. First Principle = Govern Pragmatically and Build friendships far and wide. All of the major systematic inputs of OFP will eventually be governed by the protocol itself — that means you! And this is how we hope the future of forest management is done. But until the protocol has matured, we need to do this process incrementally.

Together, these core pieces harmonize, to (1) Preserve forests, (2) Plant new forests, (3) Monitor and Verify Existing Forests, and (4) Iterate (1,2, and 3) over time to stay on the cutting edge! With this basis, we can now talk time frames — because that is what we are really interested in:

In 2022, We Are Focusing on Launching Projects, Protocol Validation and Rewards. The Basis of Carbon, Governance, Financing, Interoperability, and Wallet Management will be Laid.

As the sub-title suggests, our real focus this year is essentially on the nexus between (1) Collecting data in the field, (2) managing that data on a project dashboard, and (3) Sending that data to validators to be evaluated as correct or false (internally we call these three categories the eternal engine — because all other pieces of the protocol revolve around that flow).

Within each of these categories we could say the following:

Field Agent Management Area Plans and Updates:

• Increase flexibility of monitoring capabilities in the field
• Carbon Integration for Carbon Field Data.
• Additional Functionality for Mobile App.

Project Dashboard Plans and Updates:

• Enhanced UI/UX for Forest Project Managers
• Expanding Data Storage Options
• Allowing Multiple Sample Points To Be Included In A Single Upload
• Allowing Multiple Uploads to Be Bundled For a Single Data Upload to Validators.

Validation Plans and Updates:

• Validation History Coupling With Recent Data Uploads
• Validator Forum and Discussion Area
• UI/UX Overhaul of Validators

Last but not least, rewards for the Open Forest Protocol — for validators, collateral providers and the ecosystem fund, will be voted in by the community after the launch of both the main network and the token. The rubber hits the road when that happens — which is planned for somewhere in Q3 of 2022!

Medium Term Goals Are Set On a Five Year Time Frame:

Even moving at the speed of crypto, OFP will take time to build. By our estimates, we want to have all of our core infrastructure built out in the next two years, to be able to scale OFP rapidly in subsequent years.

Core infrastructure that we are planning now includes:

• The Open Forest Congress Custom Coded Sputnik V2 DAO. This DAO will govern the core protocol metrics of OFP including rates, yields, fees, and timers. Token and role based governance is planned.
• The Open Forest Starter — Our Financing Platform for Projects. Smart contract based (results based finance).
• Collateral and Potential Carbon Infrastructure (ideally live within a year from launch!).
• The OFP Wallet. For offsetting carbon, and managing protocol engagement (Validation, Collateralizing, Governance Votes, etc.)
• Croncat Integrations to Automate Key Processes. Hidden transaction fees (and in some cases free!)
• Interoperability with other EVM based Ecosystems. Building bridges and re-deploying existing infrastructure to other L1 ecosystems, in order to strengthen the protocol.

For each of these categories, we intend to iterate as we go — so for example, while the financing platform will be functional in the coming 18 months, it will nonetheless be constantly updated and improved in the coming years to accommodate feedback and market evolution. As will be the case with the DAO, the Wallet, and so forth. Launch and iterate as we go!

The Promise of OFP Lies in the Strength of Its Network.

We don’t expect to get everything right the first time. But we do expect to get the system up and running, in a way that it can strengthen over time. This is the long game that we are playing at OFP. As OFP strengthens, so does its immune system, its community, and its network effects. The promise of OFP lies in the future development of the core infrastructure, coupled with the onboarding of forest projects from around the world.

As we understand it, the two macro trends of (1) Crypto innovation and (2) Climate Deterioration are catalysts for OFP’s global emergence. If there is an on-chain future for nature-based carbon, and nature-based carbon is something that retains value, the OFP ecosystem will be at the very center of that nexus. So in short, we are preparing for a future for on-chain trees, on-chain carbon, and on-chain project financing today.

To Do This We Need Strong Sector Leads: We Are Hiring!

As OFP prepares for launch, we are actively looking to hire team leads for the other core pieces of infrastructure on the protocol! Preliminarily this means:

• A DAO product lead
• A DeFi product lead
• A product lead for OFP Starter
• A head of ecosystem development

Candidates for such positions should be first and foremost committed to the long-term development of OFP, and can expect generous token compensation packages. We are looking to hire the right people who are passionately interested in mastering a small niche of the protocol day in and out, for the coming years! If you are interested in joining the team please find more information here: https://team.openforestprotocol.org/ (note there are also many more roles beyond the one’s emphasized above).

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