Presentation of the ecosystem support program
In the beginning, most of the development and research related to Ethereum took place within the Ethereum Foundation. Today, the Ethereum ecosystem has grown from a small garden to a vast, vibrant rainforest. Along the way, the Ethereum Foundation’s role within the ecosystem has changed almost as much. However, supporting Ethereum to the best of our abilities has remained our number one goal.
From DEV Grantshas Grants focused on scalability), has general purpose supportGrants have long been a big part of how we support Ethereum. Increasing the leverage of our grant program has multiple benefits. So this is one of our main priorities.
This year, the Ethereum Foundation Grants team has strengthened its capabilities and consolidated its weaknesses to become a true ecosystem support program. Along the way we have:
- expanded the ways in which candidates can receive support
- incorporated a much broader base of experts as part of the evaluation process
- improved candidate experience
- proactively identified and established collaborations with people, projects, and entire fields where the Ethereum Foundation can be helpful
- …and much more (like our Local grant programs)!
Soon we will launch an extended version Ecosystem Support Program website. It will provide more details on all the ways we can provide support and make those details easier to find in the future (after all, for every person in the Ethereum ecosystem, dozens more are on the way 😎 ). Using upcoming blog posts and the Ecosystem Support Program website, we will provide a 2019 overview of the projects and people we supported, the amount of money we allocated, the how we conduct assessments, and much more.
Call for applications
Within the Ecosystem Support Program team is a group dedicated to supporting applicants by helping them refine their application, directing them to potential advisors or collaborators, among other assistance offered. Today we’re taking it to the next level with this call for applications. We are excited to help a wider range of projects and test and refine our support delivery capabilities.
Here is a list of application types that we are particularly interested in.
- Thin clients for eth2
- Including if you want to train or join a team dedicated to creating industrial-grade eth2 thin clients.
- Bridges between Ethereum and other blockchains
- If you are a mathematician interested in learning more about issues related to Ethereum or the cryptoeconomic space in general that leverage your skills, we would love to hear from you.
- Explorations of the security-usability trade-off space for crypto-assets.
- For example, social clawback mechanisms for portfolios, or rules that vary based on asset type/value/other attributes.
- Anything that makes a credible case for improving the Ethereum developer experience (at any level of the stack).
- We’re looking for applications that clearly articulate the problem(s) you’re trying to solve, demonstrate an understanding of how many people are affected, and outline the options they have today.
- Translators
- Bonus points for sharing past translations and/or sharing a list of your main translation targets, as well as an explanation of how you prioritized your choices.
The above list is intended to showcase the breadth of the ecosystem support program, but it is far from a complete list of what is important to Ethereum. We continue to be interested in applications related to other areas, such as our previous categories of scalability, usability, education, security, etc. As always, we look to the community and its active contributors to help us expand our understanding of the changing needs of the ecosystem.
So please don’t be shy if your project or idea doesn’t fall under one of the application types above. Whether it’s a big project, a small specific idea, a team that knows exactly what it wants to do, a person with rare skills who seeks to apply it in the best way possible. way, or something we haven’t even thought of yet, we are interested in hearing from you.
Go to to submit a request.
