What Is Onchain Reputation?

In one sentence

Onchain reputation is the cumulative record of a project's public work, preserved through time and visible to anyone.

Short answer

Onchain reputation is built when a project's execution history — funding, milestones, updates, and outcomes — is recorded publicly in a way that cannot be quietly altered or erased.

Why reputation needs a substrate

Reputation is not a score. It is memory.

In most funding systems:

• Reputation is inferred from narratives
• History is fragmented across PDFs and links
• Past work disappears between funding rounds

This makes trust expensive and fragile.

Project profiles as the unit of reputation

Onchain reputation is not attached to wallets or tokens alone. It is attached to project profiles.

A project profile becomes the canonical place where:

• Work is documented
• Updates accumulate
• Evidence is attached
• History remains visible

Reputation emerges from repeated, observable behavior.

Why "onchain" matters

Storing project profiles as onchain attestations ensures:

• Updates are append-only
• Past claims remain visible
• Credibility compounds over time
• Trust does not rely on the platform alone

Projects do not need blockchain knowledge to benefit from this.

Common misunderstandings

• Reputation ≠ token balance
• Reputation ≠ one successful grant
• Reputation ≠ endorsements without evidence

Reputation is earned through sustained execution.

How Karma fits

Karma enables onchain reputation by providing free, public project profiles where work is documented, verified, and preserved over time.