Blockchain for Better Choices: How The Carbon Games Teamed Up with NEAR to Gamify Sustainability

In 2022, The Carbon Games partnered with the NEAR Foundation to explore a powerful idea: use blockchain to reward people for making sustainable choices—whether those choices help the planet or foster meaningful human connections.

From carpooling to event scavenger hunts, we built a suite of tools that blend real-world mobility with blockchain-based incentives, making it easier—and more enjoyable—for users to choose the sustainable option.

🌱 Phase One: Rewarding Climate Action at NEARCON 2022

The journey began with a grant from the NEAR Foundation to build a mobile carpooling app that would reduce single-occupancy car travel to NEARCON 2022. Our solution allowed event attendees to:

• Find and offer rides with fellow participants
• Track emissions saved from shared travel
• Earn "CARBON" tokens for successful trips
• Create and connect NEAR wallets in-app
• Receive token rewards with full transparency and safety on-chain

This wasn't just about moving people more efficiently. It was about turning sustainable behavior into a game—with verifiable, blockchain-secured rewards.

We launched the beta version just in time for NEARCON and started onboarding real users into a system that tracked their actions, validated impact, and celebrated participation.

🏆 Phase Two: Seamless NFT Rewards Win the IRL Hackathon

At the IRL hackathon during NEARCON, we competed in the Web2 to Web3 and Sustainability tracks. Our pitch was simple: show how Web3 could augment—not complicate—a Web2 mobile app already in use.

We built:

• Wallet creation and login directly in the app
• NFT airdrops triggered by real-world actions
• On-chain rewards for verified carpool trips
• Sub-wallet architecture for smooth onboarding

With this setup, users could connect their NEAR wallet, carpool, and instantly receive an NFT—no friction, no crypto literacy required.

The experience surprised many developers at the event who were still prototyping. Our app was live, seamless, and used blockchain to make sustainability fun, social, and instantly rewarding. We won the IRL Web2–Web3 track.

🧭 Phase Three: Expanding to IRL Bounty Hunts at MetaBUILD 3

Later that year, we pushed the concept further by creating the IRL Bounty Hunt platform for MetaBUILD 3—a blockchain-enabled scavenger hunt system that merged on-chain incentives with real-world exploration.

The inspiration? After COVID-19, people needed a reason to reconnect offline—to rediscover cities, attend local events, and meet face-to-face. We built the platform to reward people not just for showing up, but for engaging intentionally with their surroundings.

How It Works:

• Organizers use a Web3 dashboard to create events, set bounties, and fund NFT or token rewards
• Participants check in at physical event locations via the mobile app
• At the end of the event, smart contracts automatically distribute NFTs or tokens to those who completed the bounty
• Sponsors and community members can contribute to the bounty pool permissionlessly, increasing reward value

We called it the Bounty Hunt, and it transformed the experience of attending events into something interactive, decentralized, and measurable—with rewards that live on-chain as proof of participation.

🔗 Why Blockchain Matters

At every stage of this journey—from carpooling to conference hopping—we used the NEAR blockchain not just as a backend ledger, but as a trust layer. Here's what it enabled:

• Incentive transparency: Users can see exactly what rewards are available and how to earn them
• Proof of participation: On-chain NFTs and tokens serve as public, verifiable records
• Frictionless gamification: Wallet integration and rewards feel like magic—seamless, instant, secure
• Composability: Rewards earned can plug into larger ecosystem experiences

Our goal has never been to build blockchain products for the sake of it. We've always focused on gamifying real-world sustainability behaviors—and blockchain gave us the mechanics to do that in a way that’s transparent, fair, and fun.

🚀 What’s Next

Thanks to NEAR’s support, we’ve proven that blockchain can power a new kind of engagement—one that doesn’t demand crypto expertise, but rewards people for showing up, acting intentionally, and doing better by the planet and each other.

If you're running a community, organizing an event, or exploring ways to make sustainability more tangible—we’d love to talk. 

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