Inspiration
Currently, developers face difficulties in showcasing their skills effectively, as all their data is tied to a centralized platform. If platform shutdown, users risk losing all their data. Additionally, because data is controlled by centralized platforms, they restricts users from searching for and socializing with others based on skills, leading to an influx of irrelevant advertisement messages and a significant waste of time.
Our project, Applauds, aims to empower developers to truly “own” their skills by publishing their achievements on the blockchain. This approach makes the developers’ skills searchable and more easily discoverable by others. Beyond this, by integrating payment and chat functionalities, we introduce a minor cost for sending messages, which the sender has to bear. This measure is designed to reduce meaningless advertisements and spam, thereby enabling users to engage in high-quality social interactions.
In essence, Applauds aims to liberate skills from the confines of centralized platforms and foster meaningful connections among users in a decentralized environment.
What it does
With Applauds, any organization (such as learning platforms like Coursera or Alchemy Academy) can publish learning tasks on Applauds. Subsequently, developers can complete courses on these platforms and earn a non-transferable NFT (Non-Fungible Token) as a certificate. This allows developers to showcase their skills on the blockchain in the form of these NFTs, making them discoverable by any one.
If the individual is a job seeker, this facilitates their discoverability by HR through skill-based filters, effectively becoming a candidate for companies. On the other hand, if the individual is an entrepreneur, they can leverage their blockchain-verified skills and achievements to make a more compelling case when pitching to VCs or other fundraising institutes.
Team
Sam J.
• Founder & CEO
• Former AI/Cloud Infrastructure lead, having served at several star
unicorn companies as well as renowned investment banks, and an
early participant in the Web3 ecosystem.
• Holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from US and is
currently pursuing an MBA
Uncle Lau
• Product Manager
• 6 years PM experience, former staff member at leading internet
giants.
• Early participant in Web3 ecosystem.
Alice Wong
• Chief Designer
• Illustrator, graphic designer, UI/UX designer.
• Former UI/UX designer at renowned fashion website, and NFT
projects
Alan Miao
• Blockchain Ecosystem Engineer
• 5 years experience in blockchain industry, former key engineer in
WanXiang blockchain.
Seven Lee
• Senior Full-stack Engineer
• 9 years engineering experience, with 5 years in web3.
Conight Wong
• Smart Contract Engineer
• 3 years web3 industry working experience.
How we built it
In the user achievement verification process, one of the most crucial aspects for us is enabling smart contracts on the blockchain (conflux) to access users’ off-chain learning outcomes, as these constitute their “achievements”. To facilitate this, we use oracles to relay data from learning platforms to blockchain contracts.
Furthermore, in the social features, to ensure message authenticity, we created a distributed message protocol allowing users to sign their messages and bind tips with their messages. This adds an additional layer of trust and integrity to the communications. We store large volumes of social data off-chain, while utilizing smart contracts for storing signature information and handling asset transfers.
In terms of Web2 backend technology, we leverage Alibaba Cloud for hosting and utilize a Postgres database to store all the data coming from the backend.
What’s next for Applauds
At present in our project, we only support users in publishing learning-related tasks to encourage learners to engage and complete them. In the future, we plan to expand the types of tasks, allowing the publication of bug bounties, GitHub PRs, hackathon awards, and any achievements related to developers. Chainlink Functions will be heavily leveraged in this regard to interface with all forms of “achievements.” Additionally, we will support integration with a broader range of Web2 platforms, to create a more comprehensive developer profile that is discoverable and showcases their achievements.
Total Budget and Funding Tier
Grant Tier: Tier 2
Grant Size: $15k
Road Map
Project tryout
https://applauds.xyz/
Project media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Applauds_xyz
Medium: https://applauds.medium.com/