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Using
OpenRank, developers and web3 companies can build consumer apps where people
can discover, use, fund, read, or buy something on-chain without worrying about
getting spammed or scammed.
Karma3 Labs has
raised $4.5M in seed funding led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures to build
OpenRank, a decentralized reputation protocol. Using OpenRank, developers and
web3 protocols can power consumer apps, communities and marketplaces with an
open ranking and recommendation layer that provides users with security and
peace of mind when making decisions onchain, without having to trust
centralized gatekeepers. Some of the early use cases of OpenRank include
leveraging a community rating system for App Marketplaces like Metamask Snaps;
Ranking and Recommendation APIs for Lens and Farcaster; On-Chain discovery
feeds for consumer apps and wallets; and reputation-based voting and
governance.
Introducing
trust and reputation mechanisms is critical to web3, just as it has been for
web2, where there have been countless use cases in decentralized peer-to-peer
utility. For example, Uber decentralized taxi services because of driver
ratings; AirBnB decentralized hotels because of host ratings; eBay
decentralized the shopping mall because of seller ratings; Reddit decentralized
gated community forums because of user karma badges; Google allowed for the
practical use of the decentralized web because of PageRank. However, none of
these services were able to be fully decentralized because a single entity
owned the reputation scores. To prevent centralized gatekeeping, there is a
need for decentralized reputation mechanisms. Such reputation systems need to
be open-source, permissionless, flexible to different contexts, and
Sybil-resistant.
OpenRank
solves for this in web3, creating a decentralized reputation mechanism that
sets the foundation for a future where peer-to-peer interactions and collective
community intelligence power a decentralized web of trust, rendering
centralized gatekeepers obsolete. The protocol aims for a scenario where
Twitter’s Community Notes like system was possible, but not owned by a single
company, openly and cheaply accessible to any developer, who could define their
own algorithm of choice.
“A
decentralized internet characterized by fairness and transparency hinges on the
existence of a robust reputation system,” said Sahil Dewan, founder and
CEO of Karma3 Labs. “We believe that on-chain social and consumer
experiences will need a decentralized reputation protocol and we’re excited to
onboard builders and developers for OpenRank.”
OpenRank
enables any developer to permissionlessly compute on Reputation Graphs for
ratings, ranking or recommendation for their apps or communities. These graphs
can be constructed using on-chain or any peer-to-peer social graph data. Using
graph algorithms, like EigenTrust, the OpenRank will enable verifiable compute
on these reputation graphs.
OpenRank
leverages zero-knowledge proving systems for running graph algorithm
computations. Developers can use any on-chain data that suits their application
context without having to worry about the cost or verifiability of computing on
the data. Consumer applications and marketplaces will be able to integrate
context-specific, native rankings and recommendations seamlessly. Moreoever,
developers can also leverage rankings and reputation from other ecosystems and
communities to bootstrap their own reputation system. OpenRank believes that a
reputation compute layer in web3 would allow a broader range of useful
applications, including those that resist cryptographic or game-theoretic
mechanisms of trust. To achieve this, the team needs a system that is resilient
to Sybil contexts, provides scalable compute and can be permissionlessly used
by any developer.
“OpenRank
represents a pivotal advance in web3 social and on-chain interactions. We’ve
seen the impact PageRank has had in web2 and there is a massive opportunity to
build a similar reputation primitive on-chain,” said Mike Giampapa, General
Partner of Galaxy’s venture team. “We’re excited for the future of Karma3 Labs
and what they’ve built with OpenRank, and are proud to lead the company’s seed
round.”
The
fundraise was led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures, with participation from
Spartan, SevenX, HashKey, Flybridge, Delta Fund, Draper Dragon, and Compa
Capital. Angel investors from Xooglers Fund and veterans from Coinbase,
ConsenSys, IPFS, along with Andrew Hong from Dune Analytics and Liang Wu from
the Harvard Crypto Lab also invested in the seed round. The raise enables
OpenRank to broaden adoption across early use cases and help launch protocol v1
for developers, ushering in a new era of permission-less and verifiable
reputation computation.
“Karma3
Labs and the OpenRank protocol for reputation and trust will enable radical
innovation around choice, personalization and safety for a rapidly evolving
internet. We are excited to see OpenRank already being implemented to enable
open marketplaces, spam reduction and choose your own algorithms. This only
scratches the surface of what’s possible and we look forward to working with
the Karma3 Labs team to bring these possibilities to life,” said Joe Gerber,
Managing Director of IDEO CoLab.
About
OpenRank
OpenRank (http://www.openrank.com/) is a decentralized reputation
protocol founded by Karma3 Labs. OpenRank introduces decentralized reputation
mechanisms that set the foundation for a future where peer-to-peer interactions
and collective community intelligence power a decentralized web of trust,
rendering centralized gatekeepers obsolete. With OpenRank, we can build a more
reputable world.
