[Closed] Public Goods Large Grants - Q2 2023

Summary

The Large Grants opportunity from the Public Goods Working Group awards up to 50k USDC to applicable projects that have a long-standing record of making an impact as Ethereum or Web3 public good.

This grant aims to provide a pathway for foundational public goods in the Ethereum or Web3 ecosystems to request more significant funding from the Public Goods working group. Foundational public goods in the context of this grant have exceptional usefulness and an established record of making an impact for users or developers in the Ethereum and Web3 ecosystems.

The basic criteria are similar to that of our Small Grants and Growth Grants, with added requirements and restrictions based on the project’s lifespan and funding received. A submission must have been active for at least a year to be eligible for this round and may not have raised more than 500k in other funding.

These additional parameters aim to intensify focus on projects that have been making a long-standing impact in the community while ensuring that this grant is of substantive value to the grantee.

In Q3, applications for the Large Grants will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis, but to accommodate the short time frame left in the remainder of this term, a “short round” will commence on May 5th, 2023. The round details will be discussed on the May 5th working group call.

Key Dates

  • Q2 Submissions
    • Submission Phase: May 5th – 25th.
    • Review/Voting Process: June 1st – 8th
    • Grants Awarded: June 15th
  • Q3 Submissions
    • Submission Deadline: Rolling Submission Begins July 1st

Award

  • 50k USDC will be awarded to two winning grant submissions.

Eligibility

To be eligible for this grant, a submission must be a Web3 or Ethereum public good, have been active for at least a year, and may not have raised more than 500k in other funding. As in our other Public Goods grants, ENS-centric projects are not eligible.

To be eligible for this grant, a submission must meet the following criteria:

  1. Is a Web3 or Ethereum Public Good.
  2. The submission should fall into one of three classifications.
    1. Infrastructure - Core technical implementations used by developers or enable Web3 or the Ethereum network.
    2. Tools - Utilities that improve the way we interact with Web3 and Ethereum.
    3. Education - Information, workshops, or resources that foster a better understanding of Ethereum or Web3.
  3. Has been established for at least a year
  4. Has received less than 500k USD of private funding or launched a token.
  5. Effectively communicates value, reach or impact by providing supporting information and data.
  6. Is NOT ENS-Centric. (These are directed to ENS Ecosystem WG)

Note: All submissions must undergo KYC/AML process before accepting funds from the working group.

Submission & Evaluation Process

For the Q2 Large Grant “short round,” the working group stewards will review all qualifying submissions. For those qualified, they will be evaluated based on the following two parameters:

  1. Project Usefulness - Exceptional usefulness demonstrated. Submission may be essential to the Ethereum ecosystem.
  2. Project Impact - Exceptional value, reach or impact with supporting information to back it up.

For the Q2 2023 “short round,” the Working Group stewards will choose up to two recipients as winners.

How to Apply?

  • Applications Open Now - Official Form
  • Visit this Notion for comprehensive details before submitting.
  • Feedback can be provided here.
9 Likes

Large Grants Wrap-Up

Our working group is excited to announce the winners of our first Large Grants round :partying_face:.

This Large Grants process has been experimental to create a pathway to fund Public Goods demonstrating exceptional usefulness and impact in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Thank you to everyone who participated with submissions, feedback, and involvement along the way.

Submission Stats

  • A total of 38 submissions were received.
    • 19 Education category submissions
    • 7 Infrastructure category submissions
    • 12 Tools category submissions

Review Process

  • The Public Goods working group stewards reviewed submissions.
  • The potential winners were contacted, and their submissions were substantiated to verify an unmet need and that they would benefit from the grant.

Grant Recipients

Four recipients were chosen to receive the 50k USDC grant. All of these projects have provided exceptional usefulness and impact on the Ethereum or Web3 ecosystems. In no particular order, the recipients are:

Ethereum Cat Herders

The Ethereum Cat Herders have supported Ethereum Ecosystem since 2019 by assisting Ethereum core developers with project management, communication, and coordination.

In addition to their technical efforts of improving the EIP processes and support of network upgrades, there is also a depth of content in their PEEPanEIP videos on Youtube and medium articles.

We are happy to support their steadfast dedication to moving Ethereum forward with this grant.

Links

Website: https://www.ethereumcatherders.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EthCatHerders
Calendar: Ethereum Cat Herders
Youtube (Call recordings) Ethereum Cat Herders - YouTube

wagmi

The wagmi library is a React Hooks collection containing everything you need to work with Ethereum. This project has an impressive half a million downloads a month, 4.6K stars on GitHub, and provides foundational tools for developers interacting with the Ethereum Blockchain.

If you’ve used an app with a connect wallet button, this was likely made possible by the wagmi library. Public Goods are often essential but overlooked - they are the air and water which enables our ecosystem to thrive. We feel that wagmi is one critical component that deserves our support.

Links

Website: https://wagmi.sh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wagmi_sh
Github: https://github.com/wagmi-dev/wagmi

SheFi

SheFi is launching the next wave of women and non-binary contributors, entrepreneurs, builders, and leaders in Web3. They have a community of over 1500 women and non-binary contributors. SheFi offers 14 weeks of cohort-based learning where members receive 60+ hours of live instruction, demos, and guest speakers to level up their crypto and blockchain knowledge across all use cases.

SheFi has an important mission, especially in a technical industry that is well-understood to have less representation for women and non-binary individuals traditionally. The task of building decentralized and open networks needs to be accessible to all.

Links:

Website: https://www.shefi.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/She__Fi
Cohort Sign-up: Season 9 Waitlist + SheFi Newsletter

Token Engineering Commons & Token Academy

TE Academy offers free online courses and a learning community in token engineering. Still, beyond that, TEC unites the token engineering field around the ethical principles, standards, tools, and methodologies as this nascent field advances.

They currently have over 2,200 students enrolled, more than 30 study groups across 14 languages, and 15 partnerships with crypto protocols and ecosystem partners. It is essential to the reputation and success of Ethereum for token economies to be created with ethical, safe, and resilient practices in mind.

Links:

Website: https://tecommons.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tecmns
Google Calendar: TEC Internal

Next Steps

Grant Recipients

The large grant recipients have been contacted, and the payout process will begin next week. They will be scheduled to present to the ENS community on a future Public Goods Working Group call.

All Other Submissions

We will reach out to the projects that were not selected to suggest another grants stream and answer any questions they may have.

For anyone that not selected you are encouraged to present on one of our weekly working group calls. We want to provide space for projects to build awareness of their work.

Feedback

We encourage feedback on any part of this process so it can be improved or reinforced. Please visit, this form, if you wish to leave comments

3 Likes