Verification Protocol
The Diamond Standard
Our proprietary methodology for issuing, verifying, and retiring Verified Water Credits. Designed for radical transparency and independent auditability.
The Diamond Standard
The MarillionEx Diamond Standard is a proprietary verification protocol for water-saving credits. It ensures that every Verified Water Credit (VWC) represents a genuine, additional, and measurable water saving that would not have occurred without the intervention.
Credit Unit
One Verified Water Credit (VWC) represents one cubic metre (1 m³) of independently verified water savings. Credits are issued annually per vintage year and must be retired within a 24-month window from issuance.
Triple Additionality
Every project must pass all three additionality tests before credits can be issued. This is reassessed every 2 years.
Technological Test
The water-saving technology deployed must demonstrably improve upon baseline water access or efficiency. The savings must be measurable, replicable, and attributable to the installed infrastructure.
Regulatory Test
The project must exceed any existing regulatory requirements for water provision or efficiency. If the intervention is already mandated by law, it does not qualify for credit issuance.
Common Practice Test
The project type must not already be standard practice in the project geography. If similar infrastructure is routinely deployed without incentive, the project fails this test.
Monitoring & Verification
Projects undergo continuous monitoring through three independent channels:
Satellite & Remote Sensing
Satellite imagery is used to verify land use, infrastructure presence, and environmental conditions at project sites.
IoT Sensors
Flow meters and water quality sensors provide real-time data on water extraction, delivery, and savings volumes.
Physical Site Verification
Independent third-party verifiers conduct on-site inspections at least annually to confirm operational status and community impact.
Buffer Pool
A 15% buffer pool is reserved from each vintage issuance. This buffer protects against over-issuance in case of monitoring discrepancies, project underperformance, or force majeure events. Buffer credits are never sold.
Vintage & Retirement Rules
Credits are issued as annual vintages. A 2026 vintage represents water savings verified during calendar year 2026. Credits must be retired within 24 months of issuance — unretired credits expire permanently. Footprint year matching requires that buyers retire vintage-year credits against the corresponding footprint year, with a 12-month grace window to account for verification lag.
Retirement Statement
Every retirement uses a standardised statement to prevent over-claiming. The statement includes: the retiring organisation's name (unless anonymised), the quantity retired, the footprint year, the project source, and the vintage year. A signed PDF certificate is generated, its SHA-256 hash is computed, and the hash is anchored to the Arbitrum One blockchain for tamper-evidence.