Karma3 Labs, a renowned blockchain project, is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised $4.5M in seed funding. This funding aims to support Karma3 Labs’ ongoing project, OpenRank.

The funding round, led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures, saw notable participations from prominent investors including Spartan, SevenX, HashKey, Flybridge, Delta Fund, Draper Dragon, and Compa Capital, alongside angel investors from Xooglers Fund and industry veterans from Coinbase, ConsenSys, IPFS, among others.

Karma3 Labs to Launch OpenRank

According to the announcement, the funding aims to bolster the development of OpenRank, an innovative decentralized reputation protocol. 

This protocol seeks to establish an open ranking and recommendation layer within web3 ecosystems, fostering a realm where users can engage in on-chain activities without the looming spectre of spam or fraud.

Notably, OpenRank’s innovative approach enables developers and web3 companies to integrate a decentralized reputation mechanism seamlessly into their platforms. 

By harnessing community-driven rating systems akin to those employed by renowned platforms like Uber, Airbnb, eBay, and Reddit, OpenRank aims to decentralize trust and reputation, thus dismantling the hegemony of centralized gatekeepers.

One of the key features of OpenRank lies in its ability to enable verifiable computation on reputation graphs through graph algorithms like EigenTrust, thereby ensuring the integrity and scalability of reputation computations.

Furthermore, OpenRank leverages zero-knowledge proving systems, allowing developers to utilize on-chain data without incurring exorbitant costs or compromising on verifiability.

Sahil Dewan, founder and CEO of Karma3 Labs, commented on the motive behind the project, saying,

“A decentralized internet characterized by fairness and transparency hinges on the existence of a robust reputation system…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.”

Moreover, the significance of OpenRank extends beyond its utility within specific applications, as it lays the groundwork for a broader range of innovative use cases that transcend cryptographic or game-theoretic mechanisms of trust. The protocol’s resilience to Sybil contexts and its permissionless nature empower developers to unleash their creativity, unshackled by the constraints of centralized control.