Algorand FoundationAlgorand Foundation, has launched a 250M Algo Tokens (ALGO) Grants Program. This broad, multi-year program aims to provide funding to projects building apps to support infrastructure, end-user applications and research innovation on the Algorand blockchain. The Algorand Foundation describes itself as focusing on “engaging, educating and enabling its community to build a borderless, frictionless economy on public, decentralised blockchain technology”.

Fangfang Chen, Head of Operations at the Algorand Foundation
Fangfang Chen, Head of Operations at the Algorand Foundation

We are thrilled to announce the 250M ALGO Grants Program, which is designed to support innovation that helps to grow the Algorand ecosystem,” said Fangfang Chen, Head of Operations at the Algorand Foundation. “We believe that a public, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain with an open-source approach is fundamental to delivering on the vision of a borderless economy. As part of its vision of enabling a broad and active blockchain development community, the Algorand Foundation is committed to supporting that community as they explore the opportunities for innovation that exist within the Algorand blockchain ecosystem.

The Algorand Foundation Grants Program

The Grants Program proposes to allocate 250M ALGO (currently worth c. US$50M) to qualifying developers across four major categories:

  • innovative research
  • development tools and infrastructure for the Algorand blockchain
  • use cases for decentralised applications (dApps) – to be built on top of the Algorand blockchain
  • education and community initiatives.

Potential use cases include:

  • DeFi
  • payments
  • asset exchanges
  • social media integration
  • supply chain
  • copyright authentication
  • asset tokenisation.

Initial recipients

One of the criteria in the selection process (for recipients) includes an assessment of whether a project will have a positive impact on the wider Algorand community and the ecosystem in general. Other criteria include:

  • the quality of submissions
  • the technical or academic strength of the proposal
  • the opportunity for growth
  • the commitment of the team submitting the projects.

The Grant Program has already selected three initial projects, totalling some 6M ALGO, with all exploiting Algorand technologies:

  • Bloq
  • PureStake AlgoSigner
  • Reach.

Bloq is a multi-blockchain infrastructure provider which delivers Algorand nodes and APIs alongside other major networks. PureStake AlgoSigner is an open-source browser plug-in which enables developers to add Algorand transaction capabilities into applications while allowing users to keep control of keys. Reach is a development platform which seeks to:

  • remove the complexity of building dApps on the Algorand blockchain
  • enable the future creation of DAOs, Decentralised Exchanges and other DeFi Applications on Algorand.
Derek Yoo, CEO at PureStake
Derek Yoo, CEO at PureStake

Derek Yoo, CEO at PureStake said: “Easy and pragmatic developer tools are critical to further expanding the accessibility of the Algorand network.

We are pleased to have been selected by the Algorand Foundation for a grant that lets us break down barriers between token holders, application developers, and the blockchain network itself.

Enterprise Times: what does this mean

Increasingly blockchain platform providers are seeing the need for seeding eco-systems, and then acting. This is what the Algorand Foundation is doing and the emphasis on developer tools and extending the infrastructure is not surprising. To encourage potential participants in the Grant Program, there are enhancements to the developer relations portal – with new tutorials, solutions and resources – all with the objective of making building on Algorand simpler and more accessible.

While the Algorand Foundation will conduct initial evaluations of projects looking to obtain grants, it also says it plans to introduce an open grant program. The advantage, it claims, is that this will allow a broader community to vote on which projects should receive grants.

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