At 0xFrens, we're extremely excited to launch Kudos just in time for the holiday seasons. Before we dive into how it works, let me explain our product in the context of 2022 and web3.

In the past 2 years, we've seen an explosion of digital first, community owned entities powered by shared treasuries. According to Cointelegraph, there are over 4000 active DAOs, with treasuries totaling around $20 billion. web3 could become the single largest labour and capital market for everyone in the world. Anyone from anywhere in the world can come together, collaborate on an entity, and incentivize any number of people online to invest and participate. Web3 has the potential to disrupt human collaboration forever.

As with most human technology, however, web3 is a a double-edged sword. For every positive actor out there, there are a handful of bad actors - seeking to commit rug pulls, scams, and other nefarious acts for a quick buck. Without a way to separate the good from the bad, it will be impossible for anyone trust and interact with each other in the vast landscape of web3. This is why we need a functional reputation system: to support and reward positive behaviors in the ecosystem and fulfill the true potential of web3.

This is why we're excited to launch Kudos! Kudos is part story, part gift - a way for someone to express and show appreciation for an act of kindness. In the story portion, the Kudos sender describes why they're sending Kudos - what kind act of kindness did the recipient do that deserves it? In the gift portion, the sender specifies a small number of MATIC tokens to gift the recipient. Think of it like buying someone a coffee or sending them a thank you gift card. Kudos is about highlighting positive actions in the community and building reputation for everyone involved. It's the first step to developing a decentralized on-chain reputation system that will make web3 a safer and more trustworthy ecosystem.

For example, let’s suppose Alice is a NFT founder looking for a brand partnership in the web3 world. She gets connected to Bob in her DAO via 0xFrens and she shares her goals with Bob. Bob happens to know someone and introduces them to Alice; the introduction blossoms into an important partnership for Alice’s project. As a result, Alice chooses to recognize Bob’s act of service with a Kudos attached with 50 MATIC. In doing so, she’s not only rewarding Bob monetarily, but signaling to the entire ecosystem that Bob is a helpful person. The details in the Kudos allow others to not only evaluate Bob, but also understand what actions are helpful in the community.

For the past few months, 0xFrens has been fostering 1-to-1 relationships in various DAOs and communities on a weekly basis. We expect Kudos to put put these connections into overdrive: calls will no longer be awkward, aimless chats. Instead, participants will be encouraged to learn about how they can help each other, earn reputation, and make the community stronger.

It's been a tumultuous year for web3: trust in the ecosystem has severely been undermined. Many participants have quit - who can blame them? For those of us staying - those of us who hold out hope - let's take the problem by the scruff of the neck. Help each other, create reputation across the ecosystem, and make web3 a place where trust reigns supreme.