Neo Adds Three New Funding Initiatives to Support Development on Neo N3
Building on an ongoing commitment to support developers who contribute to the Neo blockchain, Neo has introduced three new grant programs into the Eco Support ecosystem. The new programs include General Grants, Core Developer Grants, and Research Grants.
This year’s release of Neo N3 signified a transformative leap in Neo’s journey to build the best blockchain for dApp developers. We are proud of and grateful to the members of the dedicated and growing community of developers around the globe who made this landmark achievement possible. The Neo Foundation dedicates a combined $200 million USD to Eco Support grant initiatives. Through these initiatives, we prioritize the success of the Neo blockchain by investing in our most important asset — this community.
Grant programs to support the full development lifecycle for Neo N3
Our new programs join an existing set of thriving initiatives that foster Neo blockchain development efforts large and small. These initiatives to date have included three programs:
- The EcoBoost Program incubates small and medium-sized project teams who develop on the Neo blockchain. This program works by building up a partner network to assist Neo-based projects. EcoBoost includes partners in areas such as media organizations, Exchange, Wallet, dApp directory, educational organizations, and security. Together, the EcoBoost partner network helps support the full project lifecycle. This help is customized for each individual project. Support may include assistance such as outreach and publicity; token listings and stimulating liquidity; providing industry resources, etc. We’re proud to have boosted numerous successful projects such as O3 Labs, Switcheo, Liquify, and many more.
- The EcoFund Program is an investment fund established to bring diversified help to the Neo ecosystem while creating long-term value and sustainable returns for the Neo Foundation. EcoFund invests in private equity and unlisted projects, manages the fund’s crypto assets, incubates the invested portfolio, and manages projects post-investment.
- The Early Adoption Program is a short-term jumpstart program that launched in June 2021 and runs through year’s end. This program is designed to encourage developers with promising projects to start building on Neo N3. Through this program, Eco Support helps developers of selected high-potential projects with funding as well as high-priority technical and other support. A number of outstanding projects focused on DeFi, crowdfunding, NFTs, translation, gaming, and more have been accepted into the program this year. Current program members include TOTHEMOON, Humswap, Rentfuse, Defina Finance, Saffron Finance, NekoHit, GhostMarket, Polychain Monsters, and iMe Smart Platform.
To these successful programs, we are pleased add three new programs to round out the Eco Support ecosystem, providing a new level of comprehensiveness to drive continued growth of the most developer-friendly blockchain in the industry:
General Grants Program
The General Grants Program is designed to kickstart experienced development teams in contributing to the Neo ecosystem. The program focuses on funding development of tools and infrastructure for the Neo N3 blockchain. Typical funding can range from US $5,000 to $50,000.
This program targets support for teams that can execute outstanding blockchain software development initiatives to improve the Neo ecosystem. Examples include developer tools such as SDKs, nodes, layer2 protocols, IDE plugins, and infrastructure protocols.
Grants are available for complex new projects as well as for existing projects with major new capabilities or upgrades. Development teams selected for this program can receive benefits such as funding to help their projects, guidance from Neo core developers and other technical leads, and access to developer community events such as the Neo Community Assembly.
Core Developer Grants Program
Neo has been developed through GitHub open-source contributions from the start. Anyone can make contributions (shipping new features, proposing NEPs, submitting patches, improving documentation, etc.) to Neo’s core code base.
The Core Developer Grants Program encourages developers who have made outstanding contributions to the Neo core codebase to apply to become Core Developers. Those chosen can contribute in their own ways to become deeply involved in Neo’s technical and engineering decisions.
Core Developers receive a select set of permissions and honors (with accompanying expectations and responsibilities) in areas including GitHub contribution, Neo technical architecture and roadmap design, Neo Project GitHub Management, and public presentation and media engagement on behalf of Neo.
Beyond the ability to build influence and personal brand in the industry, Core Developers can receive a one-year fellowship with a monthly stipend as well as quarterly grants based on actively contributing to selected Neo repositories.
Research Grants Program
Finally, the Research Grants Program sponsors applied research that will foster continuous growth and development in the blockchain industry. We seek applications from pioneering researchers in areas such as universities, research institutes, laboratories, and consultancies.
Grant recipients will demonstrate the ability to bring real-world improvements to the Neo blockchain in areas relevant to the Neo Foundation’s vision and roadmap. Examples relevant to the near-term roadmap include topics such as cryptography, economic model optimization, interoperability across blockchains, large-scale enterprise adoption, security, and more. Typical grant funding can range from US $10,000 to $100,000.
Highlight the specific requirements for research and middleware products for Oracle, NeoFS and NeoID.
High-priority project topics
We welcome project submittals from talented developers working on a range of infrastructure and modules, application development support, and middleware and applications. Currently, we will particularly prioritize applications focused on areas including:
- Oracle: A built-in oracle enabling secured access to any off-chain data. We are looking for projects that are building a decentralized, secured, and stable price feed service for De-Fi, NFTs, and games in the Neo ecosystem.
- NeoFS: A distributed data storage solution made for scalability and privacy. We are seeking projects that will build comprehensive applications based on NeoFS or on infrastructure that boosts the utility of the NeoFS service.
- NeoID: Redefine trust, let users have complete control over their identity data, and seamlessly integrate with existing business systems.We are looking for the projects built with NeoID to provide users with our decentralized identity service or credential issuers to provide authentication services.
Important links
Neo is dedicated to helping everyone from hobbyist developers to fledging startups to established businesses bring their visions to life on the Neo blockchain. Together, our go-forward grant programs constitute the most comprehensive set of funding initiatives available in the history of Eco Support. Explore these opportunities at the links below:
- Learn how to choose and apply for the best-fit initiative for you at neo.org.eco: https://neo.org/eco
Get more information about our research grants for core developers at our GitHub repository: https://github.com/neo-project
Learn more
Neo official website: https://neo.org/
Follow Neo on Twitter: @Neo_Blockchain
