What Is Onchain Reputation in Open Funding?
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.