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Getting Started

Creating, transfering, selling, and buying a hypercert is similar to interacting with an NFT on platforms like OpenSea or Looksrare.

In this guide we will provide you all information to get started. If anything is missing or if you are stuck in the process, please jump on our discord server and enter the help forum there.

Who Can Use Hypercerts?​

Hypercerts create a funding network by connecting three key groups:

  • Projects to account for their work and sell their impact.
  • Evaluators to share credible, public evaluations that build trust and accountability.
  • Funders to fund projects and outcomes that resonate with their mission and values.

Additionally:

  • Funding program operator often facilitate the interaction of these three groups. They can use blueprints to make it easy for projects to use hypercerts.

How Can I Use Hypercerts for My Project?​

As a project, you can leverage hypercerts to sell the impact you’ve created. The basic steps are:

  1. Mint a hypercert
    Create a hypercert that represents your work and its impact. You can mint hypercerts for your project's work over a specific time period, such as a year or a quarter. Ideally, this work should be tied to clearly identifiable outcomes. You can also define subprojects with distinct, measurable outcomes to provide greater clarity and specificity.

  2. List it for sale
    Make your hypercert available for purchase. You define how much of the hypercert you want to sell and at what price.

  3. Share it
    Promote your hypercert to attract supporters and funders. Share it widely, for example, on social media, or forward the link to your hypercert to specific funders.

If you want to sell multiple hypercerts as a project or a funding program operator, consider creating a collection to showcase them. Sharing the collection, rather than individual hypercerts, helps streamline communication and enhances visibility and engagement with your supporters and funders.

How Can I Use Hypercerts as a Funder?​

  1. Explore Hypercerts
    Browse available hypercerts to discover projects you want to support. Use evaluations to identify verified hypercerts. If you choose unverified hypercerts, ensure you trust that the creators represent the actual project.

  2. Buy Hypercerts
    Purchase hypercerts directly to fund the projects you believe in and want to support.

  3. Share Your Support
    Your funding acts as a powerful signal of trust, encouraging other funders to back the project as well. By sharing your support, you amplify the project's visibility and gain more leverage from your funding decision.

What Do I Need to Use Hypercerts?​

To interact with Hypercerts, you’ll need a crypto wallet. If you’re new to the Web3 space, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the tools first. Don’t worry—we’re here to help! You can reach us in the discord help forum.

You’ll also need a small amount of gas on the network you choose to interact with. The Hypercerts protocol is available on Optimism, Celo, Base, Arbitrum, and Sepolia (testnet). For example, minting a Hypercert typically costs less than $0.10 USD.

Summary: What Can I Do With Hypercerts?​

  • Minting hypercerts: Create a hypercert to represent your impact as a project
  • Selling hypercerts: Sell your impact to funders
  • Buying hypercerts: Buy the impact of a project
  • Creating collections: Create a collection of hypercerts and display their ownership in a hyperboard to publicly recognize the financial and non-financial contributors
  • Sending blueprints: Send a blueprint of a hypercert to a project to make it easy for them to mint their hypercert
  • Verifying hypercerts: Verify that the data of a hypercert is correct and the creator is who they claim (this function is currently performed by a selected list of evaluators)

We'll look at each of these functions in detail on the next pages.