---
title: use ensurance beside the work you already do
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/use-ensurance-beside-the-work-you-already-do
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/use-ensurance-beside-the-work-you-already-do.md
subtitle: keep your project. the living system can still have an account
category: ensurance
---

# use ensurance beside the work you already do

*keep your project. the living system can still have an account*

You already have the work. A forest stand under a carbon contract. A crew reading soil and water. A land trust holding easements. A fund that buys land and keeps it. Another system that already moves money for nature. The question under the phrase you typed is whether you have to drop that work to stand next to this one.

The forest, the wetland, the herd, and the town that drinks from them already depend on each other, whether or not you add an account. [**Ensurance**](/?from=guide) funds that living condition. It is not the forest, and it is not a replacement for the job you already do.

Supplemental ensurance, in the narrow sense, is funding that sits beside work already underway. A recovery plan, a utility program, a community practice. The people doing that work keep the mandate and the method. What gets added is a way to fund the living condition their budget was not written to sell. The manual states it that way, and the watershed letters we send are that relationship.

This page is the wider case, and it is the one we mean when we say the door is open. The other party can be someone a stranger would call a competitor. A carbon developer. A monitoring firm. A nature investor. A land steward. A financial protocol with its own instruments. You can use the accounts, the currencies, and the routing beside the product you already sell. You do not have to go all in on us. You do not have to become us. If the account helps you do more of the work you already believe in, that is the point. If it does not, you can leave it alone.

:::johnson
**keep the work you already do. the place can still have an account.**

[what supplemental ensurance keeps in their hands →](/manual/supplemental-ensurance?from=guide)
:::

## what you keep

The work you already do stays yours. The method, the customer, the contract, the dataset, the easement, the fund's mandate. Ensurance does not buy those from you, and it does not ask you to shut them down as the price of an account.

| what you already have | what you keep | what an account adds |
|---|---|---|
| A carbon project on a named stand | The contract, the methodology, the buyer of the tonne | An account for the hillside the tonne sits on, so water, soil, and fire have somewhere to be paid |
| A monitoring stack | The sensors, the lab, the client report | A place the reading could be attached to. That intake is designed. It is not switched on |
| A land trust | The easements, the crew, the donors | A namespace for the parcels and the purposes you already steward, each with its own account |
| A nature fund | The portfolio and the investment committee | An address for a place you hold, or a place you depend on. Whoever holds that account's token is accountable for what it receives. The account does not replace your entity, and it does not move the tax |
| Another nature protocol | Your instruments, your users, your brand | Shared routing, so a place can be paid by more than one system |

Keep selling the credit if that is your business. An account on the hillside does not issue a credit, and it does not edit your registry listing. If your buyer already counts a co-benefit on the same stand, do not let them count a certificate as a second payment for the same tonne. Say that out loud. The longer distinction, that a credit is not the forest, has its own page.

Monitoring is the same shape. If your sensors already measure a place, they can stay your sensors. The reading and the funding are different jobs. The sensor series is the page for the reading. This series is the page for using the funding rails beside it.

## why a competitor is the interesting case

You do not have to become us.

The living system does not need you to switch. It needs to be paid for the condition it is in, by the people who already depend on it, with the operators who already know the ground. If your firm is one of those operators, your presence makes the payment more specific. If a second firm is too, the place has two ways to be reached. A protocol gets more useful as more of the people who already do the work can address money to the same hillside. That includes people who also compete with us for attention, grants, and capital.

A protocol engineer will ask the fair question. The account pattern and the routing contracts are public. Why pay for a namespace here when you can deploy an account yourself for the cost of gas?

Because the namespace is not the account. What you are buying, if you buy anything, is a name in this directory, a review if you use the free door, places that already have accounts other people can pay, a valuation practice we run on real parcels, and routing that already moves value to named addresses. All of that is small today. One operator, a handful of places, small volumes. If you only need a wallet, you do not need us. If you need the hillside to be findable by someone who is not your user, the directory is the reason.

There is a business word for cooperating where the interest is shared and competing where it is not. The word is coopetition. The next pages say what that looks like in practice: a group of your own, as many accounts as you have reasons, three ways to stand, and a door we can close in the app and cannot close on the chain. The strategy is older than our name for it. The forest is older than the strategy.

## what this is not

It is not a requirement that you exclusive-license your project. It is not a claim that your method failed. It is not insurance with the spelling changed. Insurance pays after a covered loss. Ensurance pays for the condition while the living system is still doing the work. The comparison has its own series, and it holds both. You can keep the policy, the credit, and the grant, and still fund the hill.

It is not a paycheck for adding your logo and walking away. If you operate an account, a purchase that names that account can land there, and a split pointed at it can land there. A certificate is bought to fund the place it names. A payout to every holder is designed and is not running. The page on the three ways to stand says who can receive what. Read it before you tell a partner they will be paid for doing nothing.

It is not free in every sense, and it is not a crowd. The application for a group is free, and a person reviews it. The other door, the one with no review, had a contract price of 10 ETH on 7 October 2026, and the create page shows whatever the contract says today. One operator, a handful of places, small volumes, and most of this field is still ahead of us. The pipes exist. They are not a market by themselves.

## what you can do this week

Five moves, and none of them require you to shut the firm.

1. Apply for a namespace, or read the live price on the other door. The next page is that choice.
2. Mint an account for one real reason: a place, a purpose, or your organization. Not five.
3. Receive at that account when someone pays it.
4. Point a split at addresses you actually mean, if you already have value to route. The proceeds page is the map.
5. Suggest a certificate on an account. We review it and create it. You do not mint the certificate yourself today. That door says coming soon.

## who it is for

It is for the operator who wants the place funded and wants to keep the firm. A land trust director who is tired of rebuilding the same budget every year. A project developer who knows the credit is one slice of the hillside. A monitoring lead whose data deserves an address and not a new company. A fund principal who will not hand the strategy to a vendor. A protocol builder who would rather compose with accounts that already exist than stand up a second set of pipes for the same river.

If you steward land you do not own, the land-stewards page is the longer description of that seat. If you already live onchain, the onchain-groups page is the seat. Neither page asks you to abandon the work that brought you here.

## frequently asked questions

### what is supplemental ensurance?

Funding that sits beside work already underway. The people doing the work keep the mandate and the method. What gets added is a way to pay for the living condition that work depends on and does not itself sell. When the other party is a carbon project, a monitoring firm, a fund, a land trust, or another protocol, the same relationship holds. They bolster their own work. They do not have to become us.

### can a carbon project use this without shutting down?

Yes. Keep the contract and the buyer of the tonne. An account on the hillside is for the water, the soil, and the fire the tonne does not sell. You choose whether to open that account. Nothing on this page takes the credit away.

### do competitors have to join to matter?

The forest matters whether or not any firm joins. A firm that stays out is not a recipient of what other people route. A firm that comes in can be. The page on the three ways to stand is the whole of that sentence, including what "be a recipient" does and does not mean today.

### what does it cost to start?

An application for a group is free, and we review it. We can say no. Creating a group with no review had a price of 10 ETH on 7 October 2026. The create page reads the live price from the contract. After you have a group, you set what others pay to mint an account inside it, and that number can be zero. Detail is the next page.

## next step

If you want to see the relationship in the short form, read the [supplemental ensurance](/manual/supplemental-ensurance?from=guide) manual. If you want to talk about a project you already run, [tell us](/contact?from=guide&topic=open-protocol) what the work is and what you want to keep. If you steward land you do not own, start from [land stewards](/solutions/land-stewards?from=guide&topic=open-protocol).

## the series

1. use ensurance beside the work you already do — this post
2. [run a group for what you already care about](/guide/run-a-group-for-what-you-already-care-about?from=guide) — one namespace, as many accounts as you have mandates
3. [three ways to stand next to the protocol](/guide/three-ways-to-stand-next-to-the-protocol?from=guide) — use it, be in it without running it, or stay out
4. [a place and a purpose can hold an account](/guide/a-place-and-a-purpose-can-hold-an-account?from=guide) — people are not the only ones with an account
5. [the protocol door stays open](/guide/the-protocol-door-stays-open?from=guide) — the app can say no. a contract on base stays on base

## sources

[Supplemental ensurance](/manual/supplemental-ensurance?from=guide) — the public definition. Their operators stay the operators.

[Ensurance and insurance](/guide/ensurance-vs-insurance?from=guide) — the comparison. They stack. This page does not retell it.

[A carbon credit is not a forest](/guide/a-carbon-credit-is-not-a-forest?from=guide) — keep the credit if it is your business. The hillside is a larger thing.

[What your sensors already measure](/guide/what-your-sensors-already-measure?from=guide) — the reading stays yours.

[What is ensurance](/guide/what-is-ensurance?from=guide) — the short mechanism page, if you want it after this one.