Wave 1 of the revised Cartesi Community Grants Program is live! Apply for a grant here.
The new structure of the CGP is detailed below. We invite the community to leave feedback and comments to help us continuously improve the process for applicants.
Abstract
Based on insights from the CGP pilot, the Grants Council is rolling out Wave 1 of the Cartesi Grants Program, set to last 4 months. Wave 2 will follow, informed by community feedback from Wave 1.
There are 2 primary objectives of Wave 1 of the Grants program:
- Grow the population of enthusiastic and talented value-aligned builders in the Cartesi ecosystem. The Grants program supports developers launching novel applications that will draw new users and maintain Cartesi’s long-term growth.
- Attract exceptional community members into the Grants program, individuals who share our goals and mission. This, in turn, will draw the most dedicated contributors to enrich the Cartesi ecosystem.
Cartesi Grants Program - Wave 1
Wave 1 of the Grants Program will take on the Request For Proposals (RFPs) approach with a focus on four areas of funding that represent specific challenges and needs that we are actively looking to fund. This approach will ensure that the Cartesi Grants Program allocates grants to projects that align with the Cartesi ecosystem’s priorities.
Areas of focus
1. New ideas & dApps:
Objective: Encourage more contributors to propose and run experiments for improving Cartesi protocol through novel ideas.
Request:
- Proposers whose ideas don’t necessarily fit into the other categories will likely find this category most suitable for their proposals.
- New ideas and dApps integrating with the Cartesi stack are prioritized in this category.
- Projects should address groundbreaking ideas and solutions that address consensus mechanisms, DeFi protocols, NFTs, etc., and blockchain’s end-user value.
- dApps that take advantage of opportunities created by Cartesi Rollups:
- Traditional stacks as base for dApps
- CPU-intensive transactions
- RAM-intensive transactions
- dApps that address any aspect (partially or completely) of the list of RFPs published.
- Novel approaches to aligning with wider blockchain community technical standards and initiatives within Cartesi rollups.
- New primitives that can be reused by other dApps.
2. Research and Integrations
Track 1: Research and Proof of Concept of Integration
Objective: Fund research and solutions that integrate Cartesi technology with other innovative technologies.
We encourage integrations to first apply for an initial research/proof of concept grant that demonstrates or proves the benefit of the integration. During the execution of the research grant, additional grant proposals can be made to productize/scale the integration.
Request:
- The primary criteria is that developers can use this integration to build their dApps.
- Well-documented solutions that combine Cartesi technology with other technologies.
- Integrations that add new use cases and explore new experiences for end users.
- Projects exploring new use cases of Cartesi technology.
- Proposals should include how end users can benefit from this integration.
Examples of possible integrations:
- Oracles
- Identity providers
- Bridges
- Sequencing
- Fraud proof
Track 2: Research and Development
Objective: This track is dedicated to in-depth research on topics we have identified as crucial for the advancement of the Cartesi ecosystem.
Request:
Exploring new ways to apply research in:
- Open source research associated with RISC-V, ZK and Cartesi.
- Research on novel improvements and use cases for Cartesi technology.
- Research and analysis in the context of bridging in Cartesi.
- Cartesi machine research.
Examples of Research proposals:
- Fraud-proofs and other L2 consensus mechanisms that can be employed by Cartesi.
- Alternative setups for Cartesi Rollups, including other architectures, operating systems, Data Availability solutions etc.
- Interoperability and decentralized bridging with other L2s.
3. Developer tooling:
Objective: Support the development of tools that simplify and enhance the experience for developers building on Cartesi.
Request:
- Tools that improve the developer experience building on Cartesi.
- Frameworks that make it easy to develop applications on Cartesi.
- Testing and debugging frameworks that help developers to test and debug their Cartesi applications.
- Monitoring and analytics tools that help developers to monitor and analyze the performance of their Cartesi applications.
4. Gaming:
Objective: Promote the development of innovative games that uniquely leverage Cartesi’s technology while encouraging growth and onboarding on Cartesi.
Request:
- Games that highlight the capabilities of Cartesi, e.g., on-chain games requiring extensive computational power or those that distinctively utilize its RISC-V / Linux VM
- Infrastructure and tooling that simplifies game development on Cartesi.
- Open-source games that can be reused/built upon by other developers.
Funding Availability:
- The Cartesi Foundation has committed $1,000,000 in total to the first two waves of the Cartesi Grants Program. During Wave 1, the Grants Program will allocate a maximum of $500,000 USDC, with a further $500,000 USDC available for allocation during Wave 2. The CGP’s goal is to significantly ramp up in speed and scale through future waves of grant funding, dependent on the CGP’s feedback and learnings from Waves 1 and 2.
- Contributors can apply to receive between $5k to $50k of funding per grant.
- The planned allocation of budget for Wave 1 is within these areas of focus:
- New ideas & dApps: $150,000
- Research & Integrations: $100,000
- Developer Tooling: $100,000
- Gaming: $150,000
Program Length and Expected Outcomes:
- CGP Wave 1 has a duration lasting 4 months, accepting applications on a rolling basis.
- Initiatives funded through CGP will be assessed and reviewed by the Grants Council.
- The review period for applications will be a maximum of 4 weeks by which submitted applications will be reviewed by the Grants Council.
- Before the initial 4-month period of Wave 1 ends, the Grants Council and community should present a new CGP renewal for Wave 2. This proposal will use data and insights collected from the CGP to assess the program and shape its next phase.
CharmVerse is a productivity tool for Web3 that enables communities to better coordinate and communicate. During Wave 1, the Grants Council will use CharmVerse to receive applications and the governance forum to share grant updates and reports.
Grants Council’s landing page and more information about Wave 1 are available on CharmVerse.
Grants Application Process
Grants Template
The specifics of the application process and the template are provided on CharmVerse.
Approval Process
- Phase 1 (Filtering): Applications submitted on Charmverse will be reviewed and discussed by the Grants Council.
- Phase 2 (Refinement): Within 7 days of receiving the application, the Grants Council will provide feedback to proposers and follow up with questions and/or request a call. Applicants will have the opportunity to incorporate feedback from the Grants Council to refine their grant applications.
- Phase 3 (Final Decision): The Grants Council will review and discuss refined proposals during a CGP Weekly Sync. An internal vote will be conducted by the Grants Council to determine which proposals are recommended to be pushed to Snapshot for the wider community’s approval.
If a majority of token holders vote in favor of the proposal at the end of the 7-day voting period, the proposal is officially approved for funding.
The project team can then work with the Grants Council to discuss milestones and deliverables in accordance with the Grants Program Terms & Conditions.
Grantee Milestones and Guidelines
- Initial grant proposals should prioritize milestones achievable within a 2-3 month timeframe.
- As part of their application, each grant proposer is expected to assess how their project’s roadmap aligns with and enhances the Cartesi ecosystem.
- Grant applicants are required to outline a set of milestones by which the Cartesi Community and the Grants Council can judge the progress of the proposer’s project.
- As part of their application, each grant proposer is expected to describe the expected timeline for overall grant completion.
- Milestones play a critical role in establishing consensus between the grant proposer, the Grants Council, and the community. They serve as specific benchmarks that showcase genuine commitment to achieving the proposed project objectives.
- The Grants Council will collaborate directly with successful grant proposers to define milestones that will determine the overall success of each project.
- Each successful proposer must establish completion of each milestone deliverable within the defined grant scope.
- Milestone payments will be disbursed upon the successful completion of each milestone.
Payment and Administration
- Wave 1 of the Cartesi Grants program will operate on milestone-based payments.
- All payments are 100% administered in USDC by the Grants Council via the Cartesi Grants Program multisig.
- Projects are encouraged to specify 1-3 milestones in addition to final deliverables
Grants Council review criteria and consensus
- The Grants Council will use a Rubric to grade proposals during Phase 1 of the application filtering process. To arrive at a final decision, the Grants Council will carry out an internal vote to determine which proposals are recommended to be pushed to Snapshot for the wider community’s approval.
We invite the community to provide feedback and comments on the revised grant program structure.
The CGP Grants Council looks forward to reviewing your applications and is ready to offer feedback on your proposals. Apply for a grant today here!