As part of our commitment to zero-knowledge(zk) landscape, we are amped to bring a comprehensive grants program focused on Supporting innovative development, research and education efforts close to Plonky3 and circom Supported by Polygon Labs 💜.
Key Details:
- Total Grant Pool: $100,000
- Application Start Date: [August 29th 2024 ]
- Application Period: 30 days [ September 27th 2024 ]
- Focus Areas: Plonky3 and Circom-related projects, with an emphasis on creativity and impact.
For more information about zkBankai, Or any questions/thoughts or just want to hangout with the gigachads in the zk space Join here⚡️.
An overview of existing projects in the zkBankai repo, Along with broad project ideas we would potentially be interested in supporting, can be found here.
Finally, you don't need to start your project to be eligible for this grant program. Instead, some teams choose to port existing work to Plonky3, or Circom, where the pertinent licenses allow, or even to contribute to an existing open-source project. In the latter case, you should check in advance that the maintainers of the project are interested in your contribution, and the acceptance of the milestones will generally be tied to the inclusion of your work in said project.
If you have a good concept of the technical challenges that your idea entails and would like feedback/input before submitting it, you can send us an email and tell us about it.
SoulForge Grants Mentors and Support Committee
The committee consists of prominent individuals and organizations, With our aim to foster more advancement and exploration to [Plonky3 and Circom] we have an independent board of individuals committed to the advancement of the zk ecosystem and are responsible for evaluating the applications and providing feedback on these.
Evaluators are individuals who will be evaluating the applications submitted as a result of the Grants Program. The committee has the right to add or remove evaluators based on supermajority.
- Diego Kingston, Co-Founder, Aligned layer
- RJ, Co-Founder, Aligned layer
- Jeffrey Scholz, RareSkills
- Louis Guthmann, Head of Product, Starknet
- Leandro Ferrigno, Head of Engineering, Class Lambda
- Harsh Bajpai, zkBankai core ⚡️
- Chiro Hiro, Founder, Orochi Network
- Danilo, ex Co-Founder, kakarot zkEVM
- Weikeng Chen, Research Partner
- Harsha Karamchat, Co-Founder, Reclaim Protocol
In cases you have any thoughts or doubts please reach out to the below folks:
Abhishek Ekaanth [ tg : @humblefool06 ] Ayush Bhadauria [ tg : @amiabix ]
Everyone is welcome to apply for a grant. Projects part of this program[ SoulForge] are broad in scope, but our focus lies on strong technical projects that are keen to explore and build with Plonky3, and circom
Below are the guidelines, It must fulfil the following requirements:
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All code/research reports produced as part of a grant must be open-sourced and not rely on closed-source software for full functionality. We prefer Apache 2.0, but GPLv3, MIT, or Unlicense are acceptable.
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We do not award grants for projects that have been the object of a successful token sale or VC/Private rounds raise.
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Applications must not mention a specific token. Furthermore, the focus of the application should lie on the software being implemented/research being carried out as part of the grant and less on your project/venture/operation. For the application and delivery, think about how others might also benefit from your work.
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As a general rule, teams are asked to finish a grant before applying for another one.
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Lastly, we do not fund projects that actively encourage gambling, illicit trade, money laundering, or criminal activities in general.
Generally, your project will have better chances to be accepted if:
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It presents well-researched/detailed thoughts, for which, ideally, you can show some prior work.
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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.
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Your team has proven experience with the relevant languages and technologies and/or a strong technical background. You may be asked to provide the GitHub profiles of your team members as part of your application.
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Your application is rich in technical details and well-defined.
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You can present how your project stands out among competitors or implement technology that doesn't exist in the ecosystem yet.
Finally, we take licensing and the right of all teams in and outside the ecosystem to be recognised for their work very seriously. Using others' work with no attribution or indication that this was not your 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.
📢 The grants are distributed in milestones, with disbursements occurring upon the completion of 85% of the defined milestones. The grants will be distributed in USDT or USDC and sent to KYC/AML verified wallets, preferably exchange wallets. The funds are strictly to be used for the development and testing of the application and may also be utilized to incentivize open-source contributions. The grants must not be used for any DeFi activities.
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Read Our FAQs:
Get familiar with the details of our grants, applications, and overall program. -
Fork Our Repository:
Fork our grants program repository. In your fork, create a copy of the application template. Do not modify the original template file directly. -
Rename Your File:
Name the new file after your project:project_name.md. Refer to this sample application for guidance. -
Complete the Template:
Fill out the template with your project details. The more comprehensive your information, the quicker the review. Check our Grant Guidelines to ensure your deliverables are detailed. -
Submit Your Application:
Create a pull request with only one new file—the Markdown file you filled out. -
Spread the Word:
When you're done, give us a shout-out on X, We Would love to share your contributions ahead 🩵
- The committee 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 2 weeks, 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 committee. - The application will be accepted and merged as soon as it receives internal team members' approval. Usually, this will not take longer than 14-20 days.
Milestones are monitored from the submitted project's GitHub account. Once a milestone is completed, the SoulForge team [Mentors] will have a 30-minute call with the project team to review the milestone. Upon approval, the grant team will be notified, and the milestone grants will be coordinated accordingly (as mentioned in the application) more details to follow.
If you think that we should support the development of certain tools or projects that aren't in the zk tech stack, feel free to submit a suggestion using the process described above.
We are particularly interested in supporting projects that could be leveraged by other builders in the zk ecosystem.
The scope of this program consists of grants and feedback on delivered milestones. This means that we do not provide hands-on support as part of a grant, but if you face specific issues during development, we will do our best and try to direct you to the correct resources with the mentors of the project.
You can find general documentation and more information on Plonky3, and Circom, and we encourage you to join the community✨ to get help with specific issues or to stay up to date with the most recent developments.
For questions about the grants program itself, see our FAQ.
Additionally If you have any questions and want to reach out to the Polygon Team Join here Polygon R&D Discord