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Bitcoin Businesses

WeWork's Adam Neumann Is Back (reuters.com) 48

Posted by BeauHD from the crypto-carbon-credits dept.
Adam Neumann made his post-WeWork debut when Flowcarbon, a blockchain-based carbon credits company, announced that it has raised $70 million in its first round of funding. Neumann is both a founder and an investor in the startup. Reuters reports: The company aims to tap into the growing market for carbon credits companies buy to offset their greenhouse gas emissions as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy in the fight against climate change. Despite increasing demand, the market has drawn criticism for being fractured, opaque, hard to access and with question marks over the quality of some credits. To help fix this, Flowcarbon lets project developers sell their carbon credits through tokens, digital assets stored and traded using blockchain technology, allowing them to access cheaper funding and scale their projects more quickly.

"Our mission is to provide the financing necessary to scale projects that reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere, in particular nature-based projects," said Chief Executive Dana Gibber. Nature-based projects could include those focused on reforestation, conservation or nature restoration. By "tokenizing," developers can access cheaper financing earlier in the life of their project by selling forward their credits, she said. Buyers, meanwhile, will have greater transparency over their holdings and a broader range of them can join in, including individuals, smaller companies and those in the crypto market.

The firm raised $32 million in the funding round led by Silicon Valley financiers Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz through their a16z crypto venture capital firm. Other investors included General Catalyst and Samsung Next. The balance was raised through the sale of a token - the Goddess Nature Token - backed by a parcel of certified carbon credits from nature-based projects over the last five years. More such tokens are planned with other parcels of credits. Further reading: WeWork Co-Founder Adam Neumann's New Crypto Project Sounds Like a Scam Within a Scam (Recode)
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WeWork's Adam Neumann Is Back More

WeWork's Adam Neumann Is Back

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  • oooh, blockchain! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by algaeman ( 600564 ) on Thursday May 26, 2022 @05:42PM (#62569128)
    A blockchain will certainly keep this market from being fractured, opaque, hard to access and with question marks over the quality of some credits. Look at how well it has done this for cryptocurrency!

    • Re:oooh, blockchain! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 26, 2022 @05:45PM (#62569136)
      Adam Neumann

      Once a scammer, always a scammer.
    • Are there actually energy-efficient blockchain technologies? Or is that part of the plan, to consume more energy so you need to buy carbon credits?

      • Re:oooh, blockchain! (Score:5, Informative)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Thursday May 26, 2022 @06:25PM (#62569236)

        Sure. Git is a blockchain. Rather, it's a Merkle tree, which is a blockchain that doesn't neuter itself. Computing a hash is pretty cheap.

        The expensive thing is the proof of work algorithm, which computes a bajillion hashes for no purpose other than to show you did so.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )
        There are crypto currencies that are proof of stake instead of proof of work. It's not inherently part of block chain or crypto that it has to be computationally expensive. Nor even that it has to be distributed.

        It's just the case that most of the systems are that way and use horrific amounts of power. Governments should ban, or otherwise seriously disadvantage (e.g. transaction tax) proof of work crypto schemes to discourage its use.

  • Say I have a machine that can absorb and sequester carbon. How do I use this system to sell the operation of that machine? How do I prove what I'm doing and how do I get paid? Who is providing cash for carbon sequestering?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      I expect it's like an NFT. You get your device inspected by whatever government issues the carbon credits, and sign a contract with them that you'll be a good and do what you say. Then you sign another contract with Adam that you'll sell your credits according to the terms and conditions of Adam's Totally Not a Scam Carbon Trading Platform. A bunch of coal plants sign the same contracts, and now you can move numbers around as contractually agreed, but also get to put blockchain in the name.

  • Trying to send a blockchain to do a database's work.

  • Back on the grift. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Revek ( 133289 ) on Thursday May 26, 2022 @06:10PM (#62569200)
    If he ever left.

  • Blockchain-based carbon credits snakeoil company (Score:5, Insightful)

    by takionya ( 7833802 ) on Thursday May 26, 2022 @06:33PM (#62569262)
    Are we witnessing a formed of cultural apoptosis. Burning fuel to generate electricity to mine bitcoin. Please stop posting articles about electronic snakeoil on this respectable tech forum.

  • once bitten (Score:3)

    by oh-dark-thirty ( 1648133 ) on Thursday May 26, 2022 @07:09PM (#62569350)

    Who the hell is still "investing" in this kid's schemes?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luthair ( 847766 )
      That is what I don’t understand. Apparently at WeWork he did a lot of stuff to enrich himself at the expense of the shareholders. i.e. he bought the trademark personally, and sold it to the company for 5.9 million. He also iirc bought property and rented it to WeWork, not only an obvious conflict of interest but also prevented the company from building assets. https://www.theatlantic.com/ma... [theatlantic.com]

  • Crap - I knew it was too good to last...

  • Relevent: Weaver's Iron Law of Blockchain (Score:4)

    by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Thursday May 26, 2022 @08:28PM (#62569474) Journal

    Weaver's Iron Law of Blockchain:
    "When somebody says you can solve X with blockchain, they don't understand X, and you can ignore them."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SpzToid ( 869795 )
      What's wrong with a simple blockchain, for things like package delivery? Blockchains are not *inherently* resource intensive. Methinks people most often confuse 'blockchain' with crypto, which *should* die in a fire.

      I've listened to a presentation of a blockchain success using QR-codes in the third world, to ensure something like a government or NGO payment was sent and received accurately with a spectacular success rate, and this was several years ago. I am sorry I can't cite a better reference

      https: [currentaffairs.org]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by xalqor ( 6762950 )

        You're right that the energy waste is not in the block chain data structure, it's in the mining activity used as part of the consensus mechanism to decide who writes the next block.

        A related data structure called the hash tree is used in a variety of software like git and dm-verity, and it's very successful there.

        Maybe you can explain how the block chain could be used to solve real world problems in package delivery, or any of the other ideas like voting, smart contracts, or whatever?

        I once had a FedEx driv

  • Letâ(TM)s get Adam to manage Elon muskys finances.
  • weBurned it'll be a 90 min special to follow up on weCrashed. Rebekah will be mentioned, but not make an appearance. Some schmucks will again be left holding the bag. This time Neumann will only walk away with a couple million instead of a couple billion. Additionally, operating the blockchain will have generated the same amount of CO2 that it claims to have proof of being captured. Which in reality will be nothing, so virtue signalers, buying his tokens, will have in-fact doubled their footprint.
  • He managed to squander hundreds of hundreds millions of investor money on his lavish lifestyle, drink, drugs, before nearly running the company into the ground before being ousted. Oh and having a messiah complex. This should be warning that he shouldn't be trusted to organise a pissup in a brewery.

    Notwithstanding that, blockchain is by default bullshit. Perhaps there are legitimate uses for the technology but the default assumption for any product that uses it, is that it is an overly complex solution wh

    • This. Who the fuck puts money into a company founded by a guy who's just had a TV show made about what a con artist he is? Is it some kind of 4D chess move to generate new material for a second season?
  • He's back!

  • Serial Entrepreneur. (Score:3)

    by splutty ( 43475 ) on Friday May 27, 2022 @04:01AM (#62569878)

    When are we going to treat serial entrepreneurs that make off with people's money like the criminals they are?

    The protections included in incorporation and such are there in case something fails. They're not there for people to make sure something fails and they can extract the maximum amount of money from it..

  • Who the FUCK would actually give this guy money?

  • Pretty sure this guy is prepping for a potential run for president after the previous huckster in chief is no longer viable.

    • The main difference here is this guy actually HAS money.
    • He'd be perfect for the job: immoral, self-centered, and lacking in any clue about how the world really works. That's real electible material right there by American standards. Unfortunately, though, he wasn't born in the USA.
  • Given Mr. Neumann's...colorful...history it seems like anyone investing in him now is either unbelievably stupid or essentially signing up to be a conspirator in whatever sordid mess ends up developing.

    Where do we think that the current crop of investors falls on that spectrum?

  • He has grabbed terms from the hot topics for today (block chain) & tomorrow (carbon capture).

    Cut & pasted them into a business plan power point.

    Voila !!!

    A sales pitch for a venture capitalist.

    Carbon capture is globalist power & money grabbing confidence game.
    They will be pushing it hard and the company can ride the media wave.

    Blockchain is the "new" magic tech.

    This will make the company get money until it is time to actually IPO or perform.

    The globalists aren't going to let someone else make big

  • Or better yet, NEWMAN!

  • WTF? (Score:2)

    by haggie ( 957598 )

    Does anyone believe that Adam Neumann knows the first fucking thing about what "his" company does?

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