The Good Tech Companies - Fund Your Web3 Development With These Grant Programs
Episode Date: June 6, 2024This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/fund-your-web3-development-with-these-grant-programs. Explore how Web3 grants drive innovati...on in blockchain, supporting projects from inception through to success. Check more stories related to web3 at: https://hackernoon.com/c/web3. You can also check exclusive content about #web3, #web3-funding-programs, #web3-grant-programs, #web3-incubators, #bnb-chain-builder-grant, #cronos-ecosystem-programs, #vara-grants-program, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @ishanpandey. Learn more about this writer by checking @ishanpandey's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. Web3 is known for its numerous projects looking to drive innovation in various sectors. Projects receive money, but more importantly they get opportunities to connect with peers, a springboard with potential investors, as well as free advertisement and reputation. Some very well-known protocols have started out from grants or achieved success partly due to the grants they received.
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Fund your Web3 development with these grant programs, by Ashan Pandey.
Web3 is known for its numerous projects looking to drive innovation in various sectors.
Each new idea holds the potential to revolutionize the blockchain landscape,
but they can't always be implemented with force of will alone.
Grants are a usually the best solution
for early funding. Projects receive money, sure, but more importantly they get opportunities to
connect with peers, a springboard with potential investors, as well as free advertisement and
reputation. Some very well-known protocols have started out from grants or achieved success
partly due to the grants they received. For instance, Chainlink benefited from
early funding and grants from various sources, including the Web3 Foundation. Similarly,
Uniswap became one of the most popular DEXs in the crypto space with early support from the Ethereum
Foundation, among others. On the other hand, you probably haven't heard of projects like CoinEx,
Confido, or Nano Healthcare Token.
There were countless projects that couldn't continue due to lack of funding or opportunities.
While new projects can greatly benefit from being part of a grant program, well-established
platforms are likewise interested in launching such programs due to the ability to attract
new developers.
Here, there are 10 such platforms offering a wide variety of grants.
At least one of them may be the right fit for your idea.
1. VARA's GEAR Foundation Grants Program
The GEAR Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to nurturing the VARA network ecosystem
through research and education initiatives. VARA network is a substrate-based high-performance
decentralized network powered by the GEAR protocol, enabling very fast execution
and superior usage UX. The GEAR Foundation is running an attractive grant program,
which provides support to founders and developers through both tangible and intangible resources,
including strategic guidance. The GEAR Foundation is open to fund a wide range of
WEB3-based projects that go from the DeFi niche to GameFI, and projects focused on
developing tools and infrastructural nodes and APIs. 2. COTI Builders Program
Following the recent launch of COTI v2, the privacy-centric Layer 2 on Ethereum Haas
introduced a grant program dedicated to DeFi projects at various stages.
The grant aims to grow COTI v2 and support emerging DEXs and privacy-focused
protocols, while offering a wide range of choices to the COTI community. The grant will support
projects in the DevNet, TestNet, Mainnet launch, or growth phases, not only with financial aid but
also with technical support from the team, visibility through marketing campaigns,
opportunities for new partnerships and access to educational workshops and webinars. Grant amounts range from $1,000 to $100,000 in COTI, depending on the stage
of the applicant project. 3. EOS Network Foundation Grant Framework. Individuals, small teams, and
companies looking to build on EOS, whether for public good or profit, have the opportunity to
obtain grants ranging from
$10,000 to $200,000, depending on their development stage. The grant supports fully open-source
projects that aim to foster the growth of EOS and is divided into three types new proposals.
This covers a wide range of new projects proposed by members of the EOS community.
Maintenance grants. Dedicated to those specifically aiming
to revive and support libraries, SDKs, or tools on the EOS chain that have fallen out of maintenance.
RFP response. In this category, the EOS Network Foundation issues work requests to the community
in the form of a request for proposal. 4. Grants program. The Polkadot ecosystem is bustling with
new and modular projects. Some of these projects can secure funding through the Polkadot Treasury,
which consists of fund-chain funds collected from transaction fees and some of the staking rewards.
In addition to the Treasury and various alternative grant programs and funding sources,
aspiring project builders on Polkadot can now benefit from a substantial grant opportunity.
The Web3 Foundation, the organization spearheading the development of Polkadot,
Kusama, and Substrate, is currently offering a total grant pool of $20 million USD and 5 million
DOT tokens, presenting an unparalleled opportunity for developers and teams to bring innovative
projects to life within the Polkadot ecosystem. 5. Pythe Ecosystem Grants
Program. Pythe Network, an oracle solution offering developers access to low latency,
high frequency, and high-fidelity price data, is set to drive growth and innovation within the Pythe
ecosystem through a comprehensive grant program. Operated by a decentralized autonomous organization,
DAO, Pythe is allocating 50 million PYTH tokens for its grant
program. These tokens, sourced from its tokenomics, will be distributed in both unlocked and locked
forms. Its category of developer grants incentivizes the creation of new tools to support
protocol operations and innovative integrations with Pythe products. These grants cover new
applications and services designed to enhance
existing infrastructure and tooling like SDKs, APIs, and documentation. Other types of grants
include community grants for organizing events, content and activities related to Pyth network,
and research grants which is designed to improve the efficiency of the Oracle system.
6. A Star Studio. A developer console with a $200,000 grant program. Following
its collaboration announcement with Sequence, the development platform for Web3 games, Astar Network,
the smart contract hub on Polkadot and Polygon, is poised to introduce a developer console
solution for Astar ZK-EVM. This new partnership comes along with the launch of the Astar Studio credit grant,
offering $200,000 USD to projects contributing to the leveraging of Astar Studio Marketplace's
solutions. Additionally, grant recipients will enjoy discounted fees on Astar's solutions.
7. Stacks Grant Programs Stacks, the open-source blockchain network
that leverages the security and capital of Bitcoin for
decentralized apps and smart contracts, is focusing on supporting projects that enhance
the Bitcoin environment through different grant programs. Critical Bounties support the development
of Bitcoin's underlying infrastructure, tools, research, and other initiatives that advance the
growth of its network. DeGrants is a community-driven initiative where members distribute
grants for projects they
find significant or intriguing and are not covered by critical bounties. Chapters are led by local
community groups who are responsible for driving engagement within specific geographic areas.
The residency program supports experts at experimenting, conducting open-ended research
and long-term projects. 8. Tezos Foundation's Grant Program
Tezos, the open-source blockchain known for
its unique smart contract platform, has launched a grant program too.
This initiative has the objective of cultivating collaboration within the Tezos ecosystem by
supporting developers and innovators eager to contribute to its expansion.
The grants are dedicated to projects aligned with Tizo's ongoing research areas,
including advancements in the banking ecosystem, the development of additional tools for developers,
user-centric applications, and initiatives focused on privacy and security.
9. Kronos Ecosystem Programs Kronos, the blockchain ecosystem committed
to driving mainstream adoption of self-custody, DeFi, and Web3 gaming,
is accelerating the mainstream adoption of Web3 through its Kronos Labs initiative,
which offers comprehensive support to developers looking to launch on their platform.
Their ecosystem grant program enhances the development of Kronos by fostering projects dedicated to infrastructure components, development tools, product integration,
and education. Grants, typically ranging from
$10,000 to $50,000, are often distributed through bounties upon achieving specific milestones such
as transaction volumes, and they also include both technical and marketing assistance.
Kronos ecosystem program also offers an incubation program and an acceleration program,
structured as a 10-week project.
10. BNB Chain Builder Grant. BNB Chain, Binance's decentralized blockchain ecosystem dedicated to decentralized data management, LAYER2 scaling, and pioneering solutions for DeFi,
is committed to backing not-for-profit projects that aim to serve the public good.
The main strength of the BNB Chain Grants Program is
its emphasis on open-source frameworks, developer tools, infrastructure, and compatibility modules
for BNB Chain. Grant sizes will be determined based on the features and roadmap of projects,
and they will be allocated in milestones-based bounties. Grants are the best way to get started
hunting for grants may be incredibly lucrative for early stage developers.
Even if the grants are focused on improving an existing product,
this can still be a useful commitment to start earning money that can then be spent on your
product. And as always, experience and connections are even more important.
You never know which door might lead to the next big thing.
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This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program.
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