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How to create a hypercert

Creating a hypercert is similar to creating an NFT on sites like OpenSea or Zora.

In this article, we’ll walk through the steps one by one and explain exactly what you need to do to create your first hypercert.

There are typically two ways of creating a hypercert:

  1. As a project affiliated with a specific funding network (e.g., Gitcoin Grants): In this case, you should receive a custom URL from the funding network that pre-populates most of your hypercert fields. You will still be able to change most of these, so you should review and adjust them as needed to better describe your hypercert. Guidance on how to do so (for Gitcoin Grants projects) is provided at the end of this doc.
  2. As a project not affiliated with a specific funding network: In this case, you will be creating a hypercert from scratch and filling in each field on your own. Read on below.

Who can create a hypercert?

Anyone doing work that is intended to have a positive impact can create a hypercert. Your hypercert can be as simple as "I did X on this date and want to claim all future impact from it".

It can also represent something more, such as a phase in an ongoing team project, an invention or discovery, a research publication, or an important software release.

Critically, if the work was done by more than one person, then each person should be listed as a contributor to the hypercert and approve the creation of the hypercert.

Note: In the future, the approval of each contributor will be verified on-chain.

What do I need to create a hypercert?

You will need to prepare all of the information required in the form builder (see Step-by-step instructions for creating a hypercert below). This includes important metadata, such as a description of the project and the dimensions of your impact claim, as well as a project artwork. You may also want to include an allowlist of wallets that are approved to claim one or more fractions of the hypercert.

In addition to the information regarding the hypercert itself, you’ll need a crypto wallet to mint your hypercert. “Minting” a hypercert is the process of writing an impact claim to the blockchain. This establishes its immutable record of authenticity and ownership.

Next, choose a blockchain on which to mint your hypercert. The hypercerts protocol is available on Ethereum, Goerli (testnet), and Optimism. Each of these blockchains has different gas fees associated with transactions on their networks. To reduce gas fees we recommend Optimism for most projects.

Finally, go ahead and create your hypercert.

How much does it cost to create a hypercert?

You will need enough Ethereum in your wallet to cover gas fees. In our simulations, the gas fee for minting a hypercert on Ethereum Mainnet ranged from 2,707,282 to 7,515,075 gwei (0.0027 to 0.0075 ETH). Minting costs are significantly cheaper on Optimism (i.e., below 0.0005 ETH or less than $1).

The protocol currently does not offer gas-free or "lazy" minting.