Jokerace

Jokerace operates a decentralized, no-code platform for creating and managing on-chain competitions and governance structures for online communities. The company was founded in 2022 by David Phelps and Sean McCaffery. The concept originated from a social media experiment among friends to see who could post the funniest joke, which served as a proof-of-concept for a broader platform.

The platform allows any community or project, from large protocols to individuals, to launch contests, hackathons, grant distributions, and other community incentive programs directly on the blockchain. This ensures a high degree of security, transparency, and composability, as the results of a contest can programmatically trigger other on-chain actions, such as token transfers. Key clients include major blockchain ecosystems like Polygon, Farcaster, Bankless, and Kraken, which use the platform for community engagement and decision-making.

Jokerace's business model is centered on its versatile platform, which is compatible with over 90 EVM chains and can be deployed in minutes. It features a "Vote-and-Earn" system where contests can be self-funded; a portion of the fees paid by users to vote is pooled into a prize fund for the winners, enabling prize creation without upfront capital. The company has secured $5 million in total funding over two seed rounds, with the most recent being a $3 million round led by Maven 11 in July 2024 to expand marketing and business development.

Keywords: on-chain governance, decentralized contests, web3 community engagement, no-code blockchain, crypto rewards, hackathon platform, community grants, EVM compatible, decentralized applications, DAO solutions