Impact Certificates (Hypercerts) are onchain tokens representing completed impactful work. They flip the funding model: instead of paying for promises, they let contributors create verifiable claims about what they've already done. Hypercerts, developed by Protocol Labs and the Hypercerts Foundation, provide a standardized, open-source format including who did what, for whom, when, and what impact was created.
How It Works
Impact Certificates create a market for verified public goods contributions.
- Work is completed — a contributor or project delivers impact to the ecosystem
- A Hypercert is minted — an onchain token is created documenting the work: who, what, for whom, when, and impact claims
- Evaluation and verification — trusted evaluators, marketplaces, or community input validate the impact claims
- Funding flows retroactively — retroactive funding rounds, impact investors, or communities purchase or fund verified Hypercerts
- Trade and curation — Hypercerts can be fractionalized, traded, and curated, creating a secondary market for impact
Advantages
- Enables funding after impact is created, reducing speculative risk
- Creates transparent, onchain records of contribution attribution
- Aligns funding with verified outcomes rather than promises
- Allows trade, speculation, and curation of impactful work
Limitations
- Unsuitable for upfront funding needs — only works retroactively
- Challenging when impact is difficult to define, measure, or verify
- Ineffective in low-trust environments without established evaluation norms
- Can be excessively complex for simple, one-off grants
Best Used When
- DAOs or foundations run retroactive funding programs
- Contributors need recognition and compensation beyond initial payments
- Public goods funders prioritize attribution, transparency, and verified impact
- Builders are experimenting with impact marketplaces and retroactive economics
Examples and Use Cases
RetroPGF Integration
Contributors mint Hypercerts for community work — documentation, mentorship, tool building — which are later funded through retroactive public goods rounds.
Impact Investment
Impact funds purchase certificates from multiple open-source contributors, creating a portfolio of verified public goods work.
Cross-Ecosystem Attribution
Public goods coalitions track work across ecosystems using Hypercerts as a shared attribution standard, building reputation ledgers that span communities.
