LongHash Ventures Launches LongHash Web, the world’s first SBT-Based Contribution Network, in partnership with Syndicate
Executive Summary
LongHashX, the accelerator arm of early-stage venture firm LongHash Ventures, is partnering with Syndicate to launch LongHash Web (LHW), an on-chain contribution network enabling mentorship and advise for early-stage builders of Web3 infrastructure and applications.
Powered by Syndicate’s Collectives and ERC-721M standard, LHW is beginning on-chain transformation journey by distributing Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) to mentors and advisors in the accelerator’s network, and embedding these tokens with rich metadata, including each mentor’s areas of expertise, the startups they’ve supported, the cohorts they’ve engaged in, and much more.
This on-chain reputation system will unlock new opportunities for Web3 ecosystems, including democratizing access to reputation-building and token-gated deal flow. We believe that this initiative represents an exciting shift toward community-driven venture models uniquely enabled by Web3 infrastructure.
LHW will be introduced as a pilot project as part of the LongHashX Cohort 10 (Axelar cohort) in January 2023. You can register your interest as a Mentor or Community Scout here. Upon applying, interested contributors will be curated based on their track record and expertise.
Background
The LongHashX Accelerator was founded in early 2018, as a Web3-native accelerator to help passionate builders jump start their Web3 startups. Back then, capital was scarce, the Web3 builder community was small, and various Web3 frontiers were highly experimental without concrete use cases. 5 years later, we’ve accelerated more than 70 projects and helped them raise more than US$150m in funding, including prominent projects such as Acala, Astar, Xanpool, Lit Protocol, Huddle01, and Lighthouse, to name a few.
Throughout the previous nine cohorts of LongHashX, early-stage startups have benefited greatly from the voluntary support provided by the accelerator’s panel of mentors. These mentors come from a diverse background and include Web3 founders, investors, and core contributors, and have provided significant mentorship on specific topics, such as tokenomics design, decentralized governance, and community building; have made referals and introductions; and have spent significant amounts of their time as thought partners for founders. This value-add has benefited founders and enabled early-stage Web3 projects to go from 0 to 1 in a short timeframe.
As one of the earliest Web3-native accelerators, we understand the power of decentralized networks and the true promise of Web3. Thus, we are taking the first step of that journey by launching LongHash Web (LHW), the world’s first Web3 on-chain Soulbound token (SBT) based contribution network. Using SBTs, we hope to recognize these mentors’ contributions on-chain and create an open platform to democratize reputation-building.
The concept of SBTs was first introduced by Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin along with E. Glen Weyl and Puja Ohlhaver. Earlier last year, Buterin explained the downsides of transferability and commercial viability features of NFTs.
Soulbound is a new kind of token standard that renders the token non-transferrable, which means a trust network can be formed around the identity of the recipient to establish provenance and reputation.
LongHash Web and How It Works
Through LHW, anyone in Web3 can apply to register as either a:
1. LongHashX Mentor, focused on mentoring and advising startups during the accelerator program, or
2. LongHashX Community Scout, focused on sourcing the most promising Web3 projects for the LongHashX Accelerator.
Leveraging Syndicate’s ERC-721M standard, the achievements of Mentors and Community Scouts will be recognized on-chain through two distinct types of SBTs: MERIT and EXEMPLARY.
- MERIT tokens will be awarded to contributors based on each of their individual contributions, which will be categorized in three unique contribution areas: Referral, Topic, and Time.
- EXEMPLARY tokens will only be awarded to contributors if their contributions are deemed exceptional and rare. These contributions will also be grouped into two unique contribution areas: Referral and Topic.
Web3-Native Way of Recognizing Contribution
LongHash Web will be one of the first community-driven venture models uniquely enabled by Web3 infrastructure. Now, anyone with the experience, knowledge, and network to support early-stage Web3 projects can sign up and be part of this decentralized ecosystem. With SBTs, these contributions can be verified on-chain, in an immutable and transparent way.
Emma Cui, founding partner of LongHash Ventures, shared the objective of this initiative:
“As one of the world’s first Web3 accelerators, we are proud to continue to push the frontier of Web3 venture building through a decentralized contribution network with an on-chain incentive and reputation layer. Whether you are a builder or investor, we invite you to join us to accelerate the next generation of leading Web3 projects.”
Ian Lee, co-founder of Syndicate, spoke about the role of Web3 in venture capital and the innovation its poised to spark:
“Community-driven investing models enabled by DAOs are the next major evolution of the venture capital and startup accelerator model. We’re thrilled to be working with LongHash Ventures to pioneer new models for investing and venture building that are only possible with Web3 technologies.”
We believe that the creation of the LHW will unlock significant value in the following ways:
1. Democratize Web3 investing
2. Create a transparent, immutable, and verifiable contribution platform
3. Attribute the impact and value added by contributors
4. Attract more high-impact contributors to mentor LongHashX program participants
5. Form a tight-knit community among contributors, projects, and LongHashX
Looking Ahead
Notable Web3 thought leaders have already signed up as launching mentors of LongHash Web. They include Marco Cora from zkSync, Fernando Martinelli from Balancer, Arthur Cheong from DeFiance Capital, Miko Matsumura from gumi Cryptos Capital, Sunny He from Hashkey Capital, Yaoqi Jia from AltLayer, Tony Gu from NGC, Philipp Zentner from LiFi Protocol, and many others.
Although LongHash Web will initially be stewarded by LongHashX, it could eventually evolve to recognize contributions in a decentralized, peer-to-peer manner, i.e. projects will be able to issue SBTs to contributors outside of the LongHashX Accelerator. We envision LongHash Web to become a self-reinforcing and self-sustaining network of contributors with a common goal of mentoring and advising early-stage Web3 startups.
Join us at LongHash Web to help us shape the future of Web3 together.
About LongHash Ventures and LongHashX Accelerator
LongHash Ventures specializes in bootstrapping Web3 ecosystems. Our venture funds invest in early-stage Web3 protocols, and our LongHashX Accelerator partners with ecosystems and protocols to accelerate early-stage founders. Founded in 2018, LongHashX accelerated more than 70 prominent Web3 projects that have secured north of $150M in funding. Among the prominent alumni of LongHashX are Acala, Astar, Balancer, Lit Protocol, Huddle01, Lighthouse, Mintable, Tranchess, Xanpool, and more.
