Challenges Faced & How We Overcame Them

1. Handling Real-Time Certificate Verification with LLMs
   Issue: Integrating an LLM-based certificate verification mechanism was tricky because government-issued carbon credit certificates often had inconsistent formats, varying data structures, and lacked standardized APIs for verification.

Solution:

We trained our LLM to recognize and process different certificate formats by fine-tuning it with sample datasets from various regulatory bodies.
Implemented pre-processing steps to extract structured data before passing it to the LLM for verification.
Used confidence scoring to flag potentially invalid certificates for manual review, ensuring high accuracy and preventing fraud.
2. Ensuring Smooth On-Chain Transactions
Issue: Interacting with smart contracts for minting, transferring, and burning carbon credit tokens required gas optimizations and ensuring atomic transactions to prevent loss of funds or data inconsistencies.

Solution:

Implemented batch processing where possible to minimize gas fees.
Used try-catch error handling in Solidity to ensure failed transactions wouldn’t cause state inconsistencies.
Added off-chain simulations before executing transactions, preventing costly errors.
3. Preventing Double Counting of Carbon Credits
Issue: One of the biggest challenges in carbon markets is double counting, where the same carbon credit is sold multiple times fraudulently.

Solution:

Every token minted is tied to a unique certificate hash, stored on-chain to prevent duplication.
Implemented zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to verify ownership and validity without exposing sensitive data.
Decentralized verification nodes were introduced to cross-check data integrity across multiple sources.