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FAQs

How do I create a hypercert?​

We've created a step-by-step guide in the documents, which you can find here.

Who gets to claim my hypercert?​

There are currently two types of users who are eligible to claim your hypercert.

  1. You as the creator of the hypercert are eligible to claim your hypercert. For projects with an allow list, you are eligible to claim 50% of the total tokens. For projects with no allow list, you will receive 100% of the tokens automatically and can do whatever you like with them.

  2. Anyone on the hypercert's allow list will be eligible to claim your hypercert. The allow list is stored and the time of minting and allocates fractions of the hypercert to specific wallet addresses. These wallet addresses are then allowed to claim these fractions through a separate contract interaction. Creators often use allow lists be used to allocate fractions to previous funders and contributors.

How do I claim a hypercert? Can I claim all of the ones I’m eligible for at once?​

After you connect your wallet, you will see a dashboard of hypercerts that you can claim. You can either claim them individually or in a batch transaction. Note that if you perform the batch transaction you will automatically claim all hypercerts you are allow-listed for. (You still pay a gas fee for each claim, however.) If you don't want to claim all at once, then you should claim them one-by-one.

What token standard do hypercerts utilize?​

The interface supports both ERC-1155s and 721s. Our current implementation makes use of ERC-1155 (a semi-fungible token).

What are the required fields to generate a hypercert?​

There are six required fields:

  1. Set of contributors: An ordered list of all contributors, who claim to do or have done the work described by this hypercert.
  2. Scope of work: A conjunction of potentially-negated work scope tags, where an empty string means “all”.
  3. Time of work: A date range, from the start to the end of the work being claimed by this hypercert.
  4. Scope of impact: A conjunction of potentially-negated impact scope tags, where an empty string means “all”.
  5. Time of impact: Date ranges from the start to the end of the impact.
  6. Rights of the owners: An unordered list of usage rights tags, which define the rights of the owners of this hypercert over the work being claimed by this hypercert.

Hypercerts also need a name and description.

What should I put for my hypercert's work scope?​

For most projects, it's probably best just to use a single tag that is a short form of your project's name. Given that your project may create numerous hypercerts over time, having a work scope that represents the name of your project will make your claims in the "impact hyperspace" more continuous.

If you choose to use more than one tag, remember that tags are logically conjunctive, e.g. Planting trees ∧ Germany means that the hypercert includes the planting of trees only in Germany, but not planting trees anywhere else or any other work in Germany that wasn't planting trees.

Are hypercerts the same as impact evaluations?​

No. A hypercert is a claim over a discrete piece of work and the impact that may result from that work. It has no opinion about the legitimacy or quality of the claim.

An impact evaluation is an opinionated assessment about the legitimacy or quality of a claim.

For example, a hypercert might represent "Planting trees in the Amazon in 2022". An impact evaluation might point to that hypercert and assert the percent of trees that survived, the amount of CO2 removed by the trees, or the income change among people living around the project.

Over time, the expectation is that hypercerts that attract multiple, high quality, credibly neutral impact evaluations will be more relevant than ones that do not.

What can I do with my hypercert?​

The rights dimension specific what an owner can do with their hypercert. Currently, the only right that owners have is "Public Display". Over time, we hope the protocol can support various rights including transfers, intellectual property, tax-deductibility, carbon offsets, ESG reporting, and more.

How is a hypercert different than a POAP or Impact NFT?​

Hypercerts have some things in common with certain POAPs or Impact NFTs, but also a number of crucial differences.

First, all POAPs and most Impact NFTs are implemented as non-fungible tokens (ERC-721s). Hypercerts are currently being implemented as semi-fungible tokens (ERC-1155s), meaning it is possible to own more than one unit or fraction of a given hypercert. This makes it easy and intuitive to display the share of hypercerts that a given owner has.

Second, hypercerts have specific metadata requirements and interpretation logic. These include a standard schema for how the six required hypercert dimensions are defined and captured (i.e., work scopes, impact scopes, timeframes, contributors, etc) as well as logic for how to interpret different inputs (e.g., how to include or exclude certain work scopes, create an indefinite time period, etc). POAPs have a completely different schema. Although there is no standard schema for Impact NFTs, an Impact NFT project could choose to adopt the hypercert standard and token interface and thereby achieve compatibility.

Third, the hypercerts token interface is intended to support several functions that are not possible out of the box with other token standards, chiefly, atomic split and merge capabilities. We also expect other protocols to work with hypercerts for the purposes of prospective and retrospective funding, contributor verification, and impact evaluation.

For certain use cases, POAPs may be better suited for projects as hypercerts are focused on the funding aspect of impactful work.

Where can I purchase a hypercert?​

Currently, it is only possible to purchase a hypercert from a creator or project. This can be facilitated directly by the project or via a third-party marketplace like OpenSea. Currently, hypercerts cannot be resold on secondary markets.

What chain(s) is hypercerts running on?​

The hypercerts smart contracts have been deployed on Optimism and Goerli Testnet. We plan to support various EVM chains in the near future.

How do I bridge to Optimism?​

There are various bridging services including the official Optimism Bridge. Note that bridging assets from Ethereum to Optimism will incur a gas fee.

How much gas will it cost to create or claim a hypercert?​

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). Claiming a hypercert should be below 0.0001 ETH or less than $0.10 on Optimism.

How do I create a hypercert from a multisig?​

If you are creating a hypercert on Optimism, then you will need an Optimism-based multisig. (Unfortunately, Safe wallets created on Ethereum won't work on Optimism.)

Have the smart contracts been audited?​

Yes. The auditor's security report is available here.

How is the allow list generated?​

For Gitcoin projects, an allow list is generated from a snapshot of all of the on-chain funding received by the project.

The queries used to generate the allow lists can be viewed here:

Once the snapshot is taken, the formula assigns one fraction (rounded down) for every $1 (using the exchange rate at the time of the transaction) that a donor contributed to the project. It also provides a small buffer (of 5%) so that a transaction worth $0.999 or $0.951 remains eligible for one fraction.

For example:

  • $5.60 donated --> 5 fractions
  • $5.20 donated --> 5 fractions
  • $0.96 donated --> 1 fraction
  • $0.52 donated --> 0 fractions

Why am I not on the allow list even though I contributed to the project?​

If you contributed less than $1 DAI to a project, then you will not be eligible to claim a hypercert fraction.

I supported a project. Why I don't I see the hypercert in my dashboard?​

In order to your hypercert to appear as "claimable", the project needs to mint the hypercert first. If the project has not minted its hypercert yet, then you will not be able to claim it. We suggest you check back in a few days to see if the project has created the hypercert and is now claimable.

If the project has created its hypercert, then please try the following solutions:

  1. Confirm the wallet address is correct (some users have multiple wallet addresses and forget which one they donated with)
  2. Check that your wallet is included in the Dune Dashboards for each Gitcoin Round
  1. Confirm you donated more than $1 DAI to the project.

If the project has created its hypercert, and you have confirmed items 1-3, then please send us a DM over Twitter or Telegram with your wallet address and we will get back to you promptly.

How do I retire a hypercert?​

We don't yet have a frontend for retiring hypercerts but you can do this by interacting directly with the smart contract on Etherscan.