Hypercerts: Tracking Impact Claims
As Gitcoin steadily builds out its grants platform, a related initiative has taken shape known as Hypercerts. While Gitcoin manages the grants, Hypercerts are designed to record the work that’s been done.
A Hypercert is an NFT (specifically an ERC-1155 token). It functions as a record of work accomplished. Donors who have funded a Gitcoin project can claim a Hypercert created by the team. This token is in effect a Proof of Donation.
The Hypercerts Foundation, which is supported in part by Protocol Labs, has a long term agenda with laudable and lofty goals. They’re chipping away at one of the fundamental conundrums of (public) funding: how can a donor confirm that their gift is being put to good use and having an impact?
Hypercerts are a framework for documenting:
a scope of work and its corresponding scope of impact
a set of time frames for both the work and its impact
a set of contributors – the organization or people behind the work
a set of rights you get by owning a Hypercert
Note that a Hypercert is only a claim. It doesn’t function as a verification of the legitimacy or quality of the work. However it does operate within the Web3 mantra of “decentralized, secure, and transparent”.
We created a Hypercert for our Gitcoin Beta grant. The NFT has an associated image generated by the framework. This is what ours looks like:
Donors who claim a Hypercert will receive an NFT in their wallet which displays with the image. The token is thus visually comprehensible for a human being and readable by machines. For instance, owning a Hypercert will contribute to your score in Gitcoin Passport.
These are early days and the above describes only a small part of the intended application and roadmap for Hypercerts. But it’s a step, leading towards a protocol to track and fund impact.
This flow diagram illustrates the potential ecosystem:
Source: Hypercerts: A new primitive for public goods funding
Fully detailed information is at: https://hypercerts.org/docs/.