# 5.1 Credit Attributes

A credit can only have a single owner at any give time, with its full ownership history being tracked and made publicly accessible.  Each credit is issued ex-post against a net verified mitigation outcome, ensuring that every net tonne of CO₂e mitigated is credited and accounted for only once, and that every credit is traceable back to this specific mitigation activity.

Every credit has a publicly accessible ownership history that details when it was first issued, to whom it was issued, any subsequent deliveries or transfers, and if and when it was retired, including information about who retired it and on whose behalf.

Upon issuance, a credit’s status is marked as active. When a credit is retired, its status changes to retired. Likewise, if a credit is canceled (for instance, to compensate for an erroneous over-issuance or a reversal as outlined in the reversals and buffer pools), its status becomes canceled.

Credit metadata include:

* Type of mitigation outcome;
* Unique serial number;
* Issuance date;
* Issuing project;
* Issuing project proponent;
* Ownership history, including the current owner (the owner who is retiring the credit) and all previous owners and transfer dates;
* Retirement date;
* Retirement beneficiary; and
* Credit status.


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