1  # Aeternity Carbon Neutral Hyperchains
 2  
 3  ## Overview
 4  
 5  This repository contains the tools for implementing the a Carbon-Neutral HyperChain and Carbon Offset NFT, as approved by an Æternity Foundation grant.
 6  
 7  For detailed information about specific components, please refer to the `README.md` files within the respective sub-directories:
 8  
 9  - `hc-contract/README.md` - Details about the Hyperchain smart contract.
10  - `aeplugin_carbon/README.md` - Information about the Aeternity plugin for carbon accounting.
11  - `agent/README.md` - (Deprecated) Previous external agent model, kept for reference and tooling for now.
12  
13  ## Architecture
14  
15  The core of the Aeternity Carbon Neutral Hyperchains is the smart contract (`hc-contract`) which defines the rules and state for carbon accounting.
16  
17  The `aeplugin_carbon` project is an Aeternity node plugin that integrates directly with the blockchain.
18  It is responsible for interacting with the smart contract to implement the carbon accounting logic.
19  The plugin manages the carbon agent state within the smart contract and ensures the contract is deployed.
20  
21  The `agent` component is an older model for interacting with the system and is now deprecated in favor of the direct plugin integration.