We are happy to announce that Concordium has launched a Free and Open Developer Grants Program. This ambitious program operates in an open-source fashion and aims to fund projects that support both the Concordium Ecosystem and the RustLang Ecosystem.
The Concordium Free & Open Grants Program seeks to allocate resources to projects and open-source developers that benefit the Concordium ecosystem.
The Concordium Free & Open Grants Program focuses on technology grants of up to $20,000 for initial Grants and up to $75,000 for follow-up Grants, tracked transparently on GitHub and disbursed in GTU or Fiat.
The Concordium Foundation aims to sponsor free, open-source developers on an ad-hoc basis to contribute to Concordium and the RustLang ecosystem.
You can find a list of RFP's in the Concordium Technology Stack where there is a particular demand for development.
We also consider applications from any other project that furthers the general usability, adoption or functionality of the Concordium ecosystem or projects that want to port onto the Concordium blockchain.
And for those who don't feel comfortable going public, we accept private applications via this Google Form.
For exceptional projects, we can consider much higher limits. Please contact us via the Google Form above.
Concordium welcomes everybody to apply for a grant. We aim to fund projects that dream big and add value to the open-source ecosystem as well as the world of decentralized applications. We encourage projects that add value to both the Concordium and the Rust ecosystem. Join us and become a partner in building a better future.
Generally, we place a strong emphasis on the following:
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The applying project should be well-researched both scientifically and technically, or be a tried and tested concept with prior history.
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Projects that show the indication of continuing to deliver after the grant is finalized, either by an explicit commitment to the applicability of technology, a desire to seek additional financial resources beyond Concordium grants, or creating a sustainable business model.
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Your project specification is technically sound and clearly defined.
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Applicants have proven experience with the relevant programming languages and technologies and/or solid technical background.
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Providing GitHub profiles of all team members as part of your application will be a huge plus, and we will examine these for past activity and code quality. Naturally, you can also link to project deployed on other platforms.
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Your vision and understanding separate you from your competitors, or you demonstrate a strong sense of what is lacking in the Concordium ecosystem.
Additionally, an applicants project must also fulfil the following requirements:
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All code produced as part of a Grant must be open-sourced, and it must also not rely on closed-source software for full functionality. We prefer Apache 2.0, but GPLv3, MIT or Unlicense are also acceptable.
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A successful token sale may not necessarily guarantee a successful grant award.
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It is generally encouraged that you apply for a new Grant once you have finished the prior Grant.
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Concordium is a Blockchain Project that expects a 100% contamination-free environment when it comes to the legal scope of activities supported within the ecosystem. Hence we do not fund projects that actively encourage gambling, illicit trade, money laundering or criminal activities in general.
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Note that your project will need to comply with our Guidelines for Milestone Deliverables
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At a minimum, written documentation is required for funding. We expect all projects to create documentation that explains how their project works. Tutorials or videos are also helpful for new users to understand how to use your product. If your team's background is purely technical, consider working with a freelance or part-time technical writer as part of the Grant.
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We also have Announcement Guidelines for grant-related communication procedures.
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We take the right of all teams throughout the ecosystem to be recognized for their work very seriously. Using others' work with no attribution or indication that this was not your own work as part of a milestone delivery will lead to immediate termination. Our team is friendly, reach out to us before submitting if you have any doubts on how to comply with a specific license, and we'll be happy to help.
The Committees consist of the Concordium Foundation representatives and the Concordium Foundation appointed individuals who will ensure that the funding priorities of the Concordium ecosystem are met. The committees evaluate quarterly grant applications and provide feedback on these applications.
Here is the Committees structure:
- Michael Jackson - Former Skype COO and Mangrove Capital Partner
- Suhas Hegde - Concordium Tech Community Programs Manager
- Beni Issembert - Concordium CMO
- Ernest Kissiedu - Concordium Rust Developer Evangelist
- Dr. Torben Pedersen – Concordium CTO
- Lone Fonss-Schroder – Concordium CEO
- Jørgen Hauglund – Concordium CFO
- Prof. Ueli Maurer - ETH Zurich
- Prof. Hans Gersbach – ETH Zurich
- Dr. Aleš Bizjak – Concordium Senior Software Engineer
- Dr. Thomas Dinsdale-Young – Concordium Senior Researcher
A non-exhaustive overview of project ideas ( RFPs) Concordium would potentially be interested in funding can be found here. A complete list of accepted applications will also be available.
Applications represent concrete and deployable ideas for projects that we aim to see running on top of Concordium. Teams are encouraged to apply even if another group has submitted a proposal for a particular project. We invite you to proceed anyway if you are interested.
Last but not least, you don't need to start your project from scratch to apply for a Grant. Teams working on other Blockchains willing to port their existing projects to Concordium, where the relevant licenses allow are welcome to apply for a grant. Teams interested in contributing to an existing open-source project building on Concordium should check in advance that the project's maintainers are willing to onboard you.
We recommend checking out the Technical Grant template. It gives an indication of what a good roadmap looks like, plus it outlines the criteria of what we look for in an application.
Fully or partially public applications should be made via a pull request to this repo by following the steps below:
- Fork this repository.
- In the newly created fork, create a copy of the technical grant template.(
grants/Grant_Proposal_Technical_Template.md)If you're using the GitHub web interface, you will need to create a new file and copy the contents of the template inside the new one. Make sure you do not modify the template file directly. Name the new file after your project:project_name.md. - Most applications should go into the speculative sub-folder.
speculative - In the few cases where the application responds to a specific RFP, the application should go into the RFP's sub-folder.
rfp-responses - Label the file as "project_name.md".
- Fill out the template with the details of your project.
- Once you have completed the application, click on "create new pull request". The pull request should only contain one new file—the Markdown file you created from the template.
- The pull request body will show a template that requests an abstract of the project and the completion of a checklist.
Please complete as appropriate and take care to include all necessary information. You can tick the items in the checklist once the PR has been created.
Privacy is at the core of Concordium ethos and we understand that some of you would prefer to keep yout work private. For this purpose, we have a parallel process in place. All you have to do is fill this form, and we will get back to you within 7 working days.
The Committee will review the applications received, determine if more information is required, and potentially schedule a call with the team. Third-party experts may also assist in the review of applications.
The Committee will notify the applicants of whether their proposal has been accepted or not. If an application is accepted, further communication will be required to determine specific details around timelines and payment schedules.
Once the project has started, the Committee and the relevant teams will have follow-up conversations to see how the project continues to progresses. A weekly meeting will be mandatory for each granted team.
The Committee makes payment to the GTU address specified in the initial application or to a FIAT-based bank account, subject to standard full KYC and proper due diligence. Grant applications can be amended at any time, necessitating a reevaluation by the Committee. Up to 4 weeks after the acceptance of an application, funds will be wired. A fully compliant "receipt" will be asked in return.
To successfully receive grant funding for your application, the project your codebase must be open-sourced under an applicable licence. We prefer Apache 2.0, but the GNU GPL v3 license is also acceptable.
To ensure ease-of-use we require all projects to create comprehensive documentation that explains how their project works. At a minimum, written documentation is required for funding. Tutorials or videos are also helpful for new users to understand how to use the product.
You can check Concordium's Code of Conduct here.
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