To fund the development of projects and applications that contribute to the Darwinia/Crab ecosystem and promote overall network growth, we encourage passionate teams to build innovative, interconnected projects on Darwinia/Crab and reward use cases with application scenarios. For more information about the Darwinia Network and Crab Network, please visit the Darwinia website and Crab website.
Anyone is welcome to apply for a grant. Projects funded through our programs are broad in scope, but our focus lies on strong technical projects that add value to the ecosystem.
Generally, projects must fulfill the following requirements:
- All code produced as part of a grant must be open-source, and it must not depend on any closed-source software for full functionality.
- We do not award grants for projects that have been the object of a successful token sale.
- As a general rule, teams are asked to finish a grant before applying for another one.
- Lastly, we do not fund projects that actively encourage gambling, illicit trade, money laundering or criminal activities in general.
Additionally, your project will have better chances to be accepted if:
- It presents a well-researched or tested concept, for which, ideally, you are able to show some prior work.
- You can demonstrate that the project will be maintained after completion of the grant, be it through an obvious commitment to the technology from your side, additional funding sources, or an existing business model.
- Your team has proven experience with the relevant languages and technologies and/or a strong technical background. You will be asked to provide the GitHub profiles of your team members as part of your application, which we will examine these for past activity and code quality. Naturally, you can also link to projects on other platforms.
- Your application is rich in technical details and well-defined.
- You can clearly present how your project stands out among competitors or implements technology that doesn't exist in the ecosystem yet.
In particular, we require all projects to create 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 your product.
Finally, we take licensing and the right of all teams in and outside 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. Please 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.
Darwinia Foundation is interested in providing grants within the following areas of interest. If any of these topics are of interest to you then please make a speculative application to request funding for your project.
- Tooling and infrastructure
Projects that support the development tools and infrastructure needed by other teams. These projects must fill existing tooling gaps from the developer tools portfolio in Darwinia/Crab. Such as wallets, oracles, and API services.
- Ecosystem projects
Projects which support the ecosystem through a wide range of use cases, such as Defi, NFT, DAO, Identity, Metaverse Games, Insurance, and more. Also, projects that use the Universal Darwinia Cross-Chain Messaging SDK to develop Dapps also have the opportunity to receive funding. This category aims to promote the Darwinia/Crab ecosystem development by providing useful services and utility on the network.
- Amount: Up to $2,000
- Target: Individuals & small teams
- Amount: Up to $6,000
- Target: Small teams & start-ups
If your project is complicated and you feel that it is not suitable to use the above levels, you can communicate with our team to determine the grant amount.
The process below is independent of the level. Payment is made in USDT, USDC, DAI, or RING. Grant Program-funded teams are entitled to choose the composition and percentage of different tokens.
- Fork this repository.
- In the newly created fork, create a copy of the technical grant template.
- 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".
- Darwinia/Crab team can (and usually does) issue comments and request changes on the pull request.
- Clarifications and amendments made in the comments need to be included in the application. You may address feedback by directly modifying your application and leaving a comment once you're done. Generally, if you don't reply within 1 month, the application will be closed due to inactivity, but you're always free to reopen it as long as it hasn't been rejected.
- When all requested changes are addressed and the terms and conditions have been signed, someone will mark your application as
ready for reviewand share it internally with the rest of the team. - The application will be accepted and merged as soon as it receives after the majority of the team agrees, or closed after 1 month of inactivity. Unless specified otherwise, the day on which it is accepted will be considered the starting date of the project, and will be used to estimate delivery dates.
- If your application contains multiple milestones, please submit a corresponding pull request as “project_name-milestone_number” after completing each milestone, and the pull request must link to the original application and details of all tasks completed in this milestone. Team can (and usually do) issue comments and request changes on the pull request. Their feedback needs to be resolved before your milestone is accepted.
- Team will merge your pull request to accept the delivery.
- The operations team receives a notification once the delivery is accepted. Payments are usually processed within 14 days.
If your project does not meet the requirements of open-source but does make a positive impact on the development of Darwinia/Crab Network. We encourage you to explore the alternative funding options listed below. Please note, however, that you should not seek to fund the same scope of work from multiple sources and that any team found doing so will have its Darwinia Foundation support terminated.
The funds held in Darwinia's on-chain treasury can be spent on spending proposals. Darwinia offers everyone the opportunity to apply for funding via the treasury. Treasury funds can be allocated via on-chain governance in three ways: proposals, bounties, and tips. General proposals are the best method when a person or team has an idea for a project that they would like to complete, earning RING in return. Proposers need to put together a detailed plan for the project and the desired budget, and submit the proposal for an on-chain council vote.
- Start the conversation. Download Telegram if you don’t already have it, join the Darwinia Technical channel, and ask the team for feedback on your proposal idea.
- Draft your proposal. Your proposal should address a problem, outline a goal, give a detailed account of how you will reach that goal, and include any ongoing maintenance needs. As much as possible, you should itemize the tasks to be completed so fees can be evaluated and milestones can be followed. A proposal template can be found here.
- Publish your proposal. Post your proposal on Subsquare. Once published, share the link to your proposal in the Darwinia Technical channel for feedback. Be prepared to answer questions.
- Revise your proposal. Incorporate the feedback received and revise your proposal accordingly.
- Submit it on-chain. If your proposal has enough support or accepts by Darwinia team, submit it on-chain for a vote. Please refer to the section creating-the-proposal of the Polkadot wiki. The process of submitting an on-chain proposal in Darwinia is the same as that in Polkadot, you just need to switch to the treasury tab of Darwinia Apps and perform the same operation. Once the proposal was created, your proposal will become visible in the Treasury screen and the council can start voting on it.
- Report back on your progress. Be sure to report back to the community on Subsquare on the progress your project makes, showing relevant deliverables, results, links to work done, and any success metrics if relevant if your proposal includes multiple milestones. This is crucial for ensuring accountability and community alignment, particularly if you want to continue working with treasury funds in the future.
The best way to find out about upcoming hackathons is by following Darwinia on various social channels, such as Twitter or Medium.