Dusk Network Opens $5.000.000 Grants Program

AMSTERDAM, June 1st, 2021 - Dusk Network has opened their Grants Program. The program was revealed on April 9th during DuskCon, the first ever Dusk Network Conference. It is the first of its size in The Netherlands: $5.000.000 offered by a privately held company focusing on blockchain technology.

The Dusk Grants Program seeks to engage (independent) projects, developers, researchers, academics, or community organizers that want to accelerate the growth and accessibility of the Dusk Network blockchain platform. The program is open to anyone and everyone, though applications need to be relevant to Dusk Network.

Specifically, they are looking for initiatives in the following areas:

• Ecosystem tooling and improved infrastructure: i.e. hardware wallets integration, mobile wallet integration, smart contract creation suite, etc.

• Research proposals for future-proofness of the network: (layer-2) scaling, sharding, quantum-resistance

• Applications and use-cases that drive mainstream adoption: multi-signature contracts, privacy-respecting decentralized finance

For the Dusk team, privacy and transparency are not only central elements in their network. Privacy and transparency are also deeply embedded in their company culture. That is why the process is as transparent as possible, while respecting applicants’ privacy. Applications are reviewed by the Dusk team from different angles such as business impact and tech feasibility, and after a successful onboarding shared with the public.

The Application Flow is as follows:

Inquiry form

Formal proposal

Evaluation

Tech deep-dive

Funding decision

Onboarding

All applications will be reviewed and receive a first response within one week after submitting the inquiry form. If the conversation moves forward, the team will continue with the formal proposal process. The entire process will be assessed by experts from the core team.

In the coming year, a newly instantiated Governance Council consisting of core team members and reputable industry developers will start to govern the grant program. This dedicated team of 7 people will also govern the network’s Community Development Fund (CDF), and is tasked with securing the long-term future of Dusk Network. Further down the line, the team aspires to govern the network directly on-chain through a decentralised governance procedure. 

Since Dusk Network was founded in 2018, it has amassed the backing of many talented blockchain developers. And now, the project is heading towards its TestNet phase, to be opened to the public soon. With the $5,000,000 grant program, the team aims to attract new industry talent to build upon its foundation and utilize the network’s unique capabilities.

Dusk has had experience in the past with grant programs or public funds, and discovered their challenges early on. There is a clear mismatch between what the market demands of high-tech companies, and what a typical grant program is able to offer. Governmental programs are oftentimes behind in knowledge and experience, and choose to fund well-understood, but typically outdated initiatives, thus doing little for the deep tech sectors. Finally, the majority of programmes steer towards a consortium approach, neglecting the industry’s individual talent and speed. A grant program of our own offers the exclusive ability to implement a process that we think is best practice, and also leverage this to educate policy makers around us. 

The program is estimated to fund over 35.000 hours of work related to the Dusk ecosystem. For good measurement, this can be 100 smaller initiatives, or up to 20 larger projects and range from smaller funds to a million dollar size.

About Dusk Network

Dusk Network is an open source blockchain for financial applications. Data protection and privacy-preservation play a major role in Dusk Network, as well as its design for regulatory compliance. The blockchain is eco-friendly, thanks to its Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism; a novel and efficient method of reaching agreement on the current state of the global ledger. Notably, the blockchain supports privacy-friendly smart contracts. Companies use the Dusk Network to power financial applications, issue tokens, trade and collaborate on a global scale. Dusk Network is built by a team of experts from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

--------------------- END OF PRESS RELEASE -------------------------