A tradable claim to the credit, and any future rewards, for a specific piece of beneficial work, intended to let investors pre-fund public goods in expectation of retroactive rewards.
In more detail
The idea underpins the theory of retroactive public goods funding: if funders commit to reward proven impact later, early investors can buy certificates from builders today and profit when rewards arrive. Experiments include 'hypercerts' on blockchains. Such markets remain small, and critics question how impact can be defined, divided and verified, and whether speculative markets in social impact would reward visibility over value.