On March 1st, 2024 in Palo Alto, California, Chainwire announced the launch of OpenRank. This decentralized reputation protocol allows developers and web3 companies to create consumer apps that provide users with security and peace of mind when making decisions on the blockchain, without having to trust centralized gatekeepers. The protocol has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures.
OpenRank is a game-changing solution for web3, where trust and reputation mechanisms are critical. Just as in web2, where decentralized peer-to-peer services like Uber, Airbnb, eBay, and Google have been successful because of their reputation systems, web3 also needs a decentralized reputation mechanism. OpenRank solves this problem by providing an open-source, permissionless, and Sybil-resistant reputation system that can be used by any developer.
The protocol has already been integrated into various use cases, including App Marketplaces, ranking and recommendation APIs, discovery feeds, and reputation-based voting and governance. It allows developers to compute on Reputation Graphs for ratings, ranking, and recommendations using on-chain or peer-to-peer social graph data. OpenRank also leverages zero-knowledge proving systems for running graph algorithm computations, providing scalable and cost-effective solutions for developers.
The seed funding round was led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures, with participation from other investors such as Spartan, SevenX, HashKey, Flybridge, Delta Fund, Draper Dragon, and Compa Capital. Notable angel investors from Xooglers Fund, Coinbase, ConsenSys, IPFS, and others also joined the round. This funding enables OpenRank to expand adoption and launch protocol v1 for developers.
According to Mike Giampapa, General Partner of Galaxy’s venture team, OpenRank is a pivotal advance in web3 social and on-chain interactions, similar to the impact PageRank had in web2. The seed round 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 team behind OpenRank is excited to work with investors and build a more reputable world. They believe that the protocol will enable radical innovation in choice, personalization, and safety for the rapidly evolving internet. Joe Gerber, Managing Director of IDEO CoLab, also shares this sentiment, stating that OpenRank is already being implemented to enable open marketplaces, spam reduction, and choose your own algorithms, with much more potential to come.
About OpenRank
OpenRank is a decentralized reputation protocol founded by Karma3 Labs. It aims to create 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.
For more information, please contact Karma3 Labs at [email protected]
