KaratDAO Launches on Ceramic to Revolutionize Data Privacy and Ownership

KaratDAO is a decentralized growth network that connects Web2 to Web3, giving users full control over their personal data. This means that users can choose who they share their data with and how it’s used.

KaratDAO was founded in early 2022 by high school friends and college roommates who all went on to work in Web3. They identified user data as the most important object in Web2 and sought a way to use on-chain data to make it easier for projects to acquire and leverage this data in a user-centric way in Web3.

The team says it has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities of data privacy and ownership in Web3. The first few dApps were built to allow teams to find their audience via community building and a recommendation system to identify holders of similar tokens and look-alike projects.

290,000 Karat network boarding passes have been minted on zkSync by users verifying their Web2 accounts, enabling eligibility for KAT claiming. Recent token listings on Gate.io, Bitget, BitMart, and MEXC offer access to liquidity KAT and aim to help drive increased utility for the network.

How KaratDAO Works

KaratDAO is built on Ceramic, providing a secure way to store and share data. The team uses Lit for encrypting and accessing data on Ceramic. Karat Smart Contract is a smart contract that manages the ownership and access control of data on Ceramic. This combination of technologies gives users full ownership of their credentials on-chain.

KaratDAO chose to build on Ceramic after looking at other options because it was the most developer-friendly tech for DIDs, offering the most extensions and toolkits for developers. It also made IPFS usable and had a strong community of other projects in its ecosystem.

Why KaratDAO Chose Ceramic

• Ceramic is the most friendly platform for DID projects. DIDs (Decentralized Identifiers) are a new way of identifying people and things on the internet. Ceramic is the most mature platform for storing and managing DIDs.
• Ceramic has the most extensions and toolkits for DIDs. Ceramic has a wide range of extensions and toolkits that make it easy to integrate with other projects.
• Ceramic makes IPFS more usable. IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a decentralized file storage system. Ceramic makes it easier to use IPFS by providing a layer of abstraction on top of it.
• Ceramic has a strong community of other projects. This means that there is a lot of support and development available for Ceramic.
• Ceramic is a long-term project with positive momentum and staying power. Ceramic has been around for several years and has a track record of positive development. This gives the KaratDAO team confidence that Ceramic will be around for the long term.

How KaratDAO Uses Ceramic

KaratDAO uses Ceramic to store three types of data:

• VCs: VCs are a way of storing verified credentials, such as a person's name, email address, or phone number. KaratDAO uses VCs to store user information in a secure and private way.
• Schemas: Schemas define the structure of VCs. KaratDAO uses schemas to ensure that VCs are consistent and easy to use.
• Lit protocol conditions: Lit protocol conditions are a way of defining rules for how VCs can be used. KaratDAO uses Lit protocol conditions to ensure that VCs are only used in a way that is consistent with their privacy policy.

Each piece of user data is stored as a separate stream in Ceramic. For example, a user's Twitter handle would be stored in a separate stream, and their Discord handle would be stored in a separate stream. This makes it easy to manage and access user data.

They use the Karat contract to write a pointer to the user data on-chain. This allows KaratDAO to verify the authenticity of the user data and to make it more accessible to other applications.

In the future, KaratDAO plans to use a smart contract wallet to improve the user experience of storing data on Ceramic. This will allow users to store their data on Ceramic without having to sign a contract.

KaratDAO offers a number of features and benefits that make it a powerful tool for data privacy and ownership. These features include:

• Decentralized control: KaratDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), which means that it is owned and controlled by its users.
• Rewards for data sharing: KaratDAO rewards users for sharing their data with projects. This helps to incentivize users to share their data responsibly and benefits the projects that can access the consumer data. There are roughly 100 projects using Karat dApps for their own websites, allowing them to host campaigns when users sign up that they can record on their data dashboards for airdrops and other giveaways.

The team is also working on a number of new features and integrations, including:

• A marketing platform that will help projects to better understand and engage with their users.
• A governance system that will give users control over the future of KaratDAO.
• Integrating account abstraction (EIP4337) into Karat Network, enhancing user experience.
• The incorporation of zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to further protect user’s privacy and bolster data ownership.

The Future of KaratDAO

KaratDAO is still under development, but the team plans to continue to grow the KaratDAO user base and become the leading data privacy and ownership platform in Web3. The team also plans to decentralize KaratDAO further, and to give users more control over the platform.

To learn more please visit the KaratDAO website or join the KaratDAO community on Discord.