Palo Alto, California, March 1, 2024, Chainwire
Using OpenRank, Web3 developers and companies can create consumer applications where people can discover, use, fund, read, or buy something on-chain without fear of being spammed or scammed.
Karma3 Laboratories raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures to build OpenRank, a decentralized reputation protocol. Using OpenRank, Web3 developers and protocols can power consumer applications, communities, and marketplaces with an open ranking and recommendation layer that provides users with security and peace of mind when making on-chain decisions, without having to trust centralized access controllers. Some of OpenRank's early use cases include leveraging a community rating system for app marketplaces like Metamask Snaps; Ranking and recommendation API for Lens and Farcaster; On-chain discovery feed for consumer apps and wallets; and reputation-based voting and governance.
Introducing trust and reputation mechanisms is essential for Web3, just as it is for Web2, where there are countless use cases for decentralized peer-to-peer utilities. For example, Uber decentralized taxi services due to driver ratings; Decentralized AirBnB hotels due to host ratings; eBay decentralized the mall due to seller ratings; Reddit decentralized community forums closed due to users' karma badges; Google has enabled the practical use of the decentralized web through PageRank. However, none of these services could be fully decentralized because only one entity held the reputation scores. To avoid centralized access control, decentralized reputation mechanisms are necessary. Such reputation systems should be open source, permissionless, flexible across different contexts, and Sybil-resistant.
OpenRank solves this problem in web3, creating a decentralized reputation mechanism that lays the foundation for a future where peer-to-peer interactions and collective community intelligence power a decentralized trust network, making gatekeepers obsolete centralized. The protocol aims for a scenario in which Twitter's Community Notes-like system was possible, but not owned by a single company, openly and inexpensively available to any developer, who could define their own algorithm of choice.
“A decentralized Internet characterized by fairness and transparency depends on the existence of a robust reputation system,” said Sahil Dewan, founder and CEO of Karma3 Labs. “We believe on-chain social and consumer experiences will require a decentralized reputation protocol and we are excited to onboard builders and developers for OpenRank.”
OpenRank allows any developer to calculate ratings, rankings or recommendations for their applications or communities without authorization on reputation graphs. These charts can be built using on-chain or peer-to-peer social graph data. Using graphical algorithms, such as EigenTrust, OpenRank will enable verifiable calculation on these reputation graphs.
OpenRank leverages zero-knowledge proof systems to perform graphical algorithm calculations. Developers can use any on-chain data suitable for their application context without having to worry about the cost or verifiability of computing on the data. Consumer apps and marketplaces will be able to seamlessly integrate native, context-specific rankings and recommendations. Additionally, developers can also leverage the rankings and reputation of other ecosystems and communities to bootstrap their own reputation system. OpenRank believes that a reputation computing layer in Web3 would enable a wider range of useful applications, including those that are robust to cryptographic or game-theoretic trust mechanisms. To achieve this, the team needs a system that is resilient to Sybil contexts, provides scalable computing, and can be used without permission by any developer.
“OpenRank represents a critical advancement in Web3 social and blockchain interactions. We have seen the impact of PageRank on Web2 and there is a huge opportunity to build a similar reputation on channel,” said Mike Giampapa, general partner of Galaxy's venture team. “We are excited about the future of Karma3 Labs and what they have built with OpenRank, and are proud to lead the company’s seed round.”
The fundraising 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, as well as Andrew Hong from Dune Analytics and Liang Wu from Harvard Crypto Lab also invested in the seed round. This increase allows OpenRank to expand adoption to early use cases and help launch protocol v1 to developers, ushering in a new era of verifiable, permissionless reputation calculation.
“Karma3 Labs and the OpenRank Protocol for Reputation and Trust will enable radical innovation in choice, personalization and security for the rapidly evolving Internet. We're excited to see OpenRank already implemented to enable open markets, reduce spam, and choose your own algorithms. This only scratches the surface of what is 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
Open ranking is a decentralized reputation protocol founded by Karma3 Labs. OpenRank introduces decentralized reputation mechanisms that lay the foundation for a future where peer interactions and collective community intelligence power a decentralized trust network, making centralized gatekeepers obsolete. With OpenRank, we can build a more reputable world.
Contact
Karma3 Laboratories
(email protected)