In a challenging market of layoffs and tightened spendings with venture capital cash harder to come by, Opolis is a success story. The member-owned platform that uses blockchain to provide employment infrastructure to independent workers has secured a fundraising round of $6.6 million. 

Crypto investment firm Greenfield led the raise, with support from the NEAR Foundation, Draper Associates and Polygon Ventures. 

Opolis Founder John Paller is better known in the web3 world as the creator or EthDenver, which he describes as a collision of creativity. He talks about the importance of playing the long game, with VCs slower to deploy capital. 

“It’s definitely a difficult market compared to our series seed raise we did for five and a half million in May 2021 that took three weeks. This round took seven months to complete,” Paller said in a recent interview. “The projects that haven’t proven sustainable in the first iteration aren’t getting funded now”. 

Paller said while EthDenver has helped him demonstrate the ability to execute at scale, he ultimately couldn’t raise off the back of the festival’s reputation alone. Opolis secured strategic and community investors who believe in the ability of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to change the future of work. 

“If we’re moving away from the corporate style environment, how do we do that with all these independent workers?” Paller said. “There are no products in the market right now for solopreneurs and self-sovereign workers. It’s pretty easy to conclude, this has got a great shot.” 

The era of self-sovereign employment, a new social order 

Opolis is built specifically for independent contractors who exited the typical corporate structure but still want access to all the benefits and safety features of traditional employment. “You're getting health care, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and everything that you would normally get working for the man, except the man now is you,” he said. 

“The current health insurance model is so entrenched, I don’t see it changing because the special interests that profit off of that own both political parties,” Paller said. “What I do know is our way gets to the point of giving people portable, affordable, high-quality healthcare insurance, without having to have permission from some other entity. What we’re effectuating is control of your commercial life through owning your employment.” 

The funds raised will be used to scale the business, automate proof of scale through partnerships and close the education gap. 

This fundraise follows pre-seed and seed round raises, bringing Opolis to a total of $13.3 million with the most recent funding raised at a $50 million valuation. Series A will be next for Opolis.