Loop — the discovery and cooperation protocol

01 · The problem

Ideas aren't scarce. Capital isn't scarce.
Cooperation is.

Today we fund companies, not problems. Every investor re-checks the same problem in private, early signals are easy to fake, and when a startup dies, everything it learned dies with it.

Where venture capital goes

~1%

Latin America is home to about 8% of the world's people and receives about 1% of its venture capital. In Mexico, only about 1 in 10 startups has ever raised funding.

World · 2025~$425B

United States~$274B · 64%

Latin America~$4.2B · ~1%

Mexico~$1.5–1.8B · ~0.4%

Venture investment, 2025. World and US: Crunchbase. Latin America: LAVCA 2026 Trends in Tech (estimate). Mexico: 2025 reports range $1.5–1.8B. Mexico startups funded: ~2,460 of ~25,600 (Tracxn, Sept 2026).

Waste

×N

The same problem is validated privately by every fund, company and agency, and the results are never shared.

Signal

Fake

Likes, follows and decks are cheap. Traction can be manufactured, and small backers pay for it.

Memory

Lost

A bankruptcy is a small library burning. The next team starts from zero, and often fails the same way.

02 · What Loop is

Every real problem gets its own loop.

A loop is a problem proven in public, with its own funders, a pool of competing builders, a ladder for early backers, and shared intelligence from everything tried. Loop is the protocol that runs them.

Proof of Problem

Is it real? Whose is it?

Experts check the facts. The people affected decide whether it counts. A randomly drawn jury handles appeals. Recorded on-chain; anyone with new evidence can challenge it.

The loop

Funders back problems

Corporates, foundations, research centers and cities fund the problem, not a single bet. They get exposure, never a vote on the verdict.

Conviction ladder

Backers climb

Watch, commit, bond, invest. The longer you stay and the deeper you commit, the more you count and the earlier you can invest.

Shared intelligence

Nothing tried is lost

Every outcome, including documented failure, stays in an open record: shared intelligence. The next team integrates it and starts where the last one got to.

04 · The conviction ladder

Watching is easy.
Commitment is what counts.

Money held over time is a signal you can't fake with likes. Loop turns support into funding, and funding into a first right to invest. Each rung reflects a deeper commitment and counts for more.

RUNG 1 · ×0.25

Watch

Park money behind a project. Leave anytime. Principal stays yours; its yield helps cover platform costs.

RUNG 2 · ×1 → ×3

Commit

Lock it for a period you choose. Leave early and you lose standing, never money.

RUNG 3 · ×5

Bond

Commit 5–20% to the team's milestones. It reaches the team only as milestones are verified, and converts to equity at a discount.

RUNG 4 · AT THE ROUND

Invest

Buy equity when the team raises, later and at lower risk, in order of how much your support has counted.

Why ×0.25, ×3, ×5?

Weight follows your commitment

The multipliers are design parameters, not market rates. They scale with what each rung puts at stake. Watch risks only the yield you give up, so a dollar that can leave anytime counts a quarter of a locked dollar. Commit adds being locked in. Bond puts principal at risk. Phase 0 calibrates the exact values on real data.

No fees to participate

Watching costs backers nothing

Watch-rung dollars stay the backer's own and sit in audited, low-risk instruments. The yield they earn helps cover platform costs, so backers and founders pay no fees to take part.

Disclosure: Bond funds go to the team as milestones are verified and can be lost if the project fails. The Bond and Invest rungs are offered only where licensed. Nothing here is an offer of securities.

Try it · you vs. a pump

Amount$1,000

Months held before the round12

Rung

Pump scenario: $25,000 parked on the Watch rung 65 days before the round, withdrawn right after. Commit counts more the longer the lock, up to ×3 at 12 months. Tenure constant T = 180 days. Parameters are illustrative.

Weight at the round · Loop ladder

YOU—

PUMP—

Same scenario · plain capital × time

YOU—

PUMP—

05 · Reputation

Your record opens doors.
It never decides verdicts.

Today reputation is both the key and the judge: whoever is famous gets heard and funded. In Loop, your record can earn you access, but no record can decide whether a problem is real or a project is accepted. Each role has tiers that rise with activity and verified milestones.

Doors · allowed

Earlier access, residencies, matches, review priority

Records count only costly things: money held over time, milestones checked independently, work that strangers reuse. They fade if you stop showing up.

Verdicts · never

Validation, standing, acceptance

Decided on evidence by accountable people. A record can make you eligible to judge; who actually sits is drawn by lot.

Player card

@lucia

ID Bv4qH2…Lk9Tz

VERIFIED HUMAN

Backer · Tier IIMentor · Tier IBuilder · —Founder · —

Projects backed

62%

Reached milestones

38%

Documented failures

11 mo

Avg. commitment

Residencies

48 h

Mentorship

Commitment by topic

CLIMATE

14 mo

FINTECH

6 mo

CITIES

2 mo

Illustrative. Scores actions, never the person · fades without activity · opens doors, never verdicts

Your ID in the network

Everyone has a player card

Your card is your ID in Loop. It keeps score of what you do, not who you are: no follower counts, no titles. Only verified actions move it.

Track record: how many projects you backed reached their milestones, and how many failed and were documented. A documented failure still counts as a contribution.
Commitment: how long you stayed and how deeply you committed, by topic.
Contribution: residencies completed, mentorship and counsel hours confirmed by the people you helped.
Tiers per role: backer, builder, mentor, founder and validator each have tiers that rise with activity and verified milestones.

Record

Backer

Counts

weight held through pivots; priority exercised

Opens

allocation order, deal flow

Tiers

I · II · III

Record

Builder

Counts

verified milestones; work reused by strangers

Opens

residencies, loop grants

Tiers

I · II · III

Record

Mentor

Counts

mentee milestones, attested by mentees

Opens

paid faculty roles

Tiers

I · II · III

Record

Founder

Counts

projects shipped; documented failures count too

Opens

faster review, funder intros

Tiers

I · II · III

Record

Validator

Counts

accuracy, not volume

Opens

eligibility for panels (seat by lot)

Tiers

I · II · III

06 · Selection · Phase 0

Invite or apply.
Nothing else gets you in.

Loop starts closed. Curators enter first, one set per topic being solved, and invite the people they trust in that topic. Every invite carries the curator's reputation, so trust is earned, attached and traceable from day one.

Step 1 · Curators enter first

Seeded by topic

Each loop opens with curators who know its field: water, climate, financial inclusion, cities. They anchor the network around the problems being solved.

Step 2 · Invite

Reputation attached

Curators and members invite people they trust in that topic, 5–10 each. The inviter's reputation is attached to every invite: strong invites grow it, misconduct by an invitee costs the inviter.

Step 3 · Application

Earn your way in

Open calls by a loop's funders, maintainers of open-source code that projects use, and residency alumni. Screened by agents and reviewed by members drawn by lot.

Every door · one gate

Proof of personhood plus identity checks (KYC for people, KYB for companies). Documents stay off-chain; only a cryptographic "verified" goes on-chain. Curators open doors; they never decide verdicts.

The network · live demo

Phase 0: curators enter first, one per topic.

07 · Agents

Agents run the rules.
Humans keep judgment.

Every agent acts for an accountable operator, logs every action on-chain, and can be appealed. They can warn and freeze. They never punish, vote or back projects.

Sentinel

Canmap invites, backing and attestations; catch wash backing and sybils; freeze

Can'tsanction without human review

Clerk

Cankeep the registry, provenance and shared intelligence current

Can'talter any validation outcome

Verifier-assist

Canpre-check milestone evidence; draft reports

Can'tsign off; a human verifier signs

Treasurer

Canrelease funds when milestones are attested on-chain

Can'trelease without attestation

Matchmaker

Canpropose residency, mentor and builder matches

Can'tassign anyone; every match is opt-in

08 · The flywheel

Every turn makes the next one cheaper.

Knowledge loop

Proof gets cheaper

Every proof and every documented failure lowers the cost of the next proof in that field. A water loop in another city starts from the first one's evidence.

Trust loop

Records get more credible

Every verified milestone, every honored priority right and every caught pump makes the record more trustworthy, which brings in larger funders who would never trust an anonymous crowd.

Network loop

Trust compounds through invites

Strong records earn more invites; misconduct shrinks them. Growth follows verified trust instead of diluting it.

Dimension	Traditional VC	Loop
The bet	Problem, solution and team bundled into one pitch	A proven problem; many teams compete under it
Problem check	Private, repeated by every fund	Public, done once, open to challenge
Early signal	Warm intros, decks, followers	Money × time × commitment from verified humans
Access	Whoever you know	Invite or apply; earned by record
Pre-seed money	Angels on trust	Bonds released only on verified milestones
When it fails	Money and learning both lost	Money lost; learning kept for the next team
Reporting	Quarterly PDFs	Live, on-chain, auditable
Fees	2/20; platform cuts on crowdfunding	No fees for backers or founders

10 · Business & launch

How Loop earns, and where it starts.

Revenue 1 · now

Proof of Problem as a service

Flat fee per proof, paid by hosts and sponsors. Same price whether the problem holds up or not.

Revenue 2 · core

Corporate loops

Annual subscription for companies running loops on the protocol: innovation challenges, intrapreneurship, open innovation. They fund the loop; independent panels still validate it.

Revenue 3 · grows with capital

Loop administration fee

A published share of each loop's treasury, paid by its funders, like a fund's management fee. Never charged to backers or builders.

Revenue 4 · later

Pooled carry

A capped share of returns from Loop's equity pool across all loops, paid only on verified outcomes and disclosed on-chain.

The firewall · how revenue stays clear of judgment

Capital never buys judgment, including Loop's own.

Loop has no seat on any panel that decides whether a problem is real or a project gets in. Five rules keep its revenue from bending the system:

1 · Pooled. Any equity Loop holds sits in one pool across all loops, so no single decision pays Loop more than another. 2 · Recycled. A fixed share of carry funds proofs and loops for problems that will never be profitable. 3 · Earned. Carry pays only on independently verified outcomes, never on paper valuations, and is capped. 4 · No self-review. Sentinel flags on projects in Loop's pool are reviewed by people with no stake in Loop. 5 · Public. Holdings, agent rules and curator selection are on-chain and open to appeal.

Corporate loops follow the same rule: a company can fund a loop on its own problems, but cannot run its validation. Internal-only checks are called internal reviews, not Proof of Problem.

First loop · corporate innovation

IRIS StartUp Lab · Grupo Salinas

Certify the group's innovation challenges, then open a corporate loop around a problem with public value, with the affected customers seated in the standing decision.

in conversation

Second loop · climate

México por el Clima

A civic climate loop with the network's working groups and planned venture hub for environmental startups.

in conversation

Third loop · cities

Smart city lab

Back-validate incoming city challenges; residents sit on the standing panel; city agencies adopt.

in creation

Q4 2026

Founding team + legal

Founding agreement on the protocol rules, roles and IP; Mexican fintech counsel confirms which rungs can launch and how

Q4 2026

Genesis network

150–300 verified members: ~15 curators across the first three loops, each inviting up to 10, plus applicants; Sentinel v0

Q4 2026

Proofs #001–004

First problems certified and published

Q1 2027

First loop funded

Two or more funders; charter and treasury live

Q1–Q2 2027

Ladder live

Watch and Commit rungs live; 10 projects; first residency

Q3 2027

First round

Priority honored on-chain; Bond rung if licensed; public results report