Karma3 Labs has raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab to build OpenRank, a decentralized reputation protocol.

adminMarch 1, 2024

Palo Alto, CA, March 1, 2024, Chainwire

OpenRank allows developers and web3 companies to build consumer apps that allow people to discover, spend, fund, read, or buy something on-chain without worrying about spam or fraud.

Karma3 Labs has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures to build OpenRank, a decentralized reputation protocol. OpenRank allows developers and the web3 protocol to leverage consumer apps, communities, and marketplaces through a public ranking and recommendation layer that provides users with security and peace of mind when making decisions on-chain without trusting a centralized gatekeeper. You can strengthen it. Some of OpenRank’s early use cases include leveraging community rating systems for app marketplaces like Metamask Snaps. Ranking and Recommendations API for Lens and Farcaster; On-chain discovery feed reputation-based voting and governance for consumer apps and wallets.

As was the case for web2, which had numerous use cases in decentralized P2P utilities, introducing trust and reputation mechanisms is also very important for web3. For example, Uber has decentralized its taxi service due to driver ratings. AirBnB distributed hotels due to host ratings; eBay has decentralized its shopping mall due to seller ratings. Due to user karma badges, Reddit operates a decentralized gated community forum. Thanks to PageRank, Google made the decentralized web possible. However, none of these services could be fully decentralized because a single entity owned the reputation score. A decentralized reputation mechanism is needed to avoid centralized gatekeeping. These reputation systems must be open source, permissionless, flexible to a variety of situations, and Sybil-resistant.

OpenRank solves this problem in web3, creating a decentralized reputation mechanism that paves the way for a future where peer-to-peer interaction and collective community intelligence power a decentralized web of trust and make centralized gatekeepers obsolete. The protocol aims for a scenario where a system like Twitter’s Community Notes is possible, but not owned by a single company, and is openly and cheaply accessible to all developers who can define the algorithms of their choice.

“A decentralized internet characterized by fairness and transparency depends on the existence of a strong reputation system,” said Sahil Dewan, founder and CEO of Karma3 Labs. “We believe that decentralized reputation protocols are needed for on-chain social and consumer experiences, and we are excited to join the builders and developers for OpenRank.”

OpenRank allows any developer to freely calculate ratings, rankings, or recommendations for an app or community on a reputation graph. These graphs can be constructed using on-chain or peer-to-peer social graph data. OpenRank uses graph algorithms such as EigenTrust to enable verifiable computations on these reputation graphs.

OpenRank utilizes a zero-knowledge proof system to execute graph algorithmic computations. Developers can use on-chain data in the context of their applications without having to worry about the cost or verifiability of data computing. Consumer applications and marketplaces can seamlessly integrate native, contextual rankings and recommendations. Developers can also leverage rankings and reputations from other ecosystems and communities to bootstrap their own reputation system. OpenRank believes that web3’s reputation computing layer will allow for a wider range of useful applications, including applications that resist cryptography or game-theoretic trust mechanisms. To achieve this, the team needs a system that provides resilient, scalable computing for Sybil contexts and can be used by any developer without permission.

“OpenRank represents a pivotal advancement in web3 social and on-chain interaction. We’ve seen the impact PageRank has had on web2, and there’s a huge opportunity to fundamentally build a similar reputation on-chain,” said Mike Giampapa, General Partner on the Galaxy venture team. “We are very 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 of Coinbase, ConsenSys, IPFS, Andrew Hong of Dune Analytics, and Liang Wu of Harvard Crypto Lab also invested in the seed round. This raise allows OpenRank to expand adoption across early use cases and launch protocol v1 for developers, ushering in a new era of permissionless verifiable reputation computation.

“Karma3 Labs and the OpenRank protocol for reputation and trust will enable fundamental innovations in choice, personalization and safety on the rapidly evolving Internet. It’s great to see OpenRank already being implemented to enable an open marketplace, reduced spam, and choice of your own algorithm. This just scratches the surface of what is possible, and we look forward to working with the Karma3 Labs team to make these possibilities a reality,” said Joe Gerber, Executive Director of IDEO CoLab.

Introduction to Open Rank

OpenRank is a decentralized reputation protocol founded by Karma3 Labs. OpenRank introduces a decentralized reputation mechanism that lays the foundation for a future where peer-to-peer interaction and collective community intelligence will power a decentralized web of trust, making centralized gatekeepers obsolete. OpenRank allows us to create a more reputable world.