Builders Program and Grant Program Work Flow

General
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Purpose of this post
Currently, there is confusion about the scope of the builders program and grant program. In this post, I will clearly explain the process of applying for the builders program and the grant program.

Workflow

Screenshot 2021-08-02 at 6.33.22 PM
Screenshot 2021-08-02 at 6.33.22 PM1638Ă—848 114 KB

key Takeaways

  • To get a grant, projects need to join our builders program
  • First of all, a project that wants to join the builders program needs to fill out our form.
  • After filling out the form, an introduction meeting is scheduled.
  • After the discussion, a project posts an introduction on this forum. (The template will be ready)
  • IMPORTANT INFORMATION. In the coming months, we strategically fund infrastructure projects. Hense, infrastructure projects need to include a grant proposal in the builders program’s application.
  • After the approval, the infrastructure project will work on its milestones and receive a grant. In the case of an application project, the core team helps the project use dApp staking and earn more SDN/ASN rewards by nominating the core team’s token on the application.
  • Application projects’ grant proposals can be accepted after seeing the result of dApp staking and on-chain data.

The reasons for this process are explained below.

  • First of all, the biggest difference between other parachains and Shiden/Astar is dApp staking. In the Shiden/Astar ecosystem, every project can earn SDN/ASN while making their projects. This is kind of a decentralized and sustainable grant system.
  • Since we have this system, distributing grants by just reviewing a proposal is risky. Ideally, we can fund projects based on the result of their dApp staking and on-chain data (ie transactions, and unique active addresses) For example, Web3 Foundation gave 257 grants by 2021 first quarter. At the time of writing (2021 third quarter), 111 projects completed their grants. In other words, 43% of projects actually deliver their milestones. (See here).
  • Even though, granted projects deliver a product. In many cases, the submitted product has not been maintained. This is what we would like to avoid. Therefore, funding projects that can show the result of dApp staking is ideal. I think this idea is similar to Retroactive Public Goods Funding proposed by Optimism.
  • Shiden and Astar are still very early stage. We need infrastructure projects to make great applications. Hense, we strategically fund infrastructure projects first like Subscan and OnFinality.
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