The Ethereum Foundation’s Ecosystem Support Program (EFESP) has awarded a total of approximately $8.5 million to support 98 projects, according to the foundation’s inaugural grants report released on August 30.
Although the report breaks down projects by type, recipient and contact, it does not provide a detailed breakdown of the amount received by each project.
Most of the projects that received EFESP support are labeled “Community and Education,” with 41 of them supported by the Ethereum Foundation (EF), including events such as ETH conventions and small meetups around the world.
Additionally, EFESP supported 28 projects dedicated to “Cryptography and Zero-Knowledge Proofs,” the category with the second largest number of projects supported by the foundation.
This second category includes projects such as a protocol using zero-knowledge technology to prove ownership of an Indian residency ID card on Ethereum, creating a domain-specific language to write zero-knowledge circuits, and producing educational content.
EFESP also supported seven projects dedicated to “developer experience and tools”, two projects focused on improvements for the “execution layer”, two projects aimed at “general growth and support” and three “general research” initiatives.
Additionally, the Q2 grant package also included efforts to drive advancements in staking and protocol growth.
Reports at the heart of the controversy
Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin praised the initiative on social media, noting that the report was a good way to find out “what kind of things EF is spending money on.”
Buterin’s comments come after the EF was questioned after sending 34,000 ETH to a Kraken address, likely as part of a sell move. The amount equates to $94 million using the transfer’s day price.
Given the large amount, the crypto community on X wondered where the FE would allocate the funds.
On August 27, EF contributor Josh Stark discussed some of the spending over the past two years on social media. So far, EFESP has spent over $20 million on grants this year, which is nearly 33% of the amount allocated to project grants last year.
According to on-chain data, the Ethereum wallet address linked to the foundation holds over $751 million in various cryptocurrencies, with the highest amount being 273,532 ETH.
