Meet the Decentralized Futures grant recipients: transforming ideas into impact on Polkadot

Decentralized Futures - Fueling Polkadot’s Growth

The Decentralized Futures (DF) program by the Web3 Foundation is a bold funding initiative designed to kickstart innovative teams and projects essential for Polkadot’s success. With a substantial fund of 20 million USD and 5 million DOT tokens, the DF program supports individuals and teams with targeted goals for growing the Polkadot ecosystem. The key objective is to expand the network by adding self-sustaining participants. Funding is awarded to Polkadot-focused organizations committed to advancing the network, creating impactful solutions, and promoting a thriving decentralized ecosystem.

The DF program concluded its review process on July 31, 2024, awarding grants to many exceptional teams and individuals. These teams span various disciplines, including marketing, business development, onboarding, governance, and technology. Among the grant recipients are Distractive and Evan Thomas, who will host a series of community calls called the “Decentralized Mic” that dives into the achievements, challenges, and lessons learned by DF grant recipient teams.

Tune in for the debut of the Decentralized Mic on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, at 11am EST / 5pm CET. Catch the livestream on LinkedIn, YouTube, and X.

Decentralized Futures grant recipients

The following Decentralized Futures grant recipients have been announced: 

Marketing

AirLyft One - Community engagement through gamification

AirLyft simplifies parachain learning, onboarding, and incentivization. By automating critical steps and reducing operational complexities, AirLyft enables project teams to focus on their core offerings and technological advancements by creating product native tasks leveraging the off-chain, onchain indexers and API, exposable APIs, automated reward distribution, sybil prevention, and much more.

Evan Thomas - Spearheading decentralized social media

Evan is focused on developing and implementing a decentralized social media framework that aligns seamlessly with the ethos of the Polkadot ecosystem. An active member of the Polkadot community with a decade of digital marketing experience, he collaborates closely with the other DFP grant recipients to ensure Polkadot’s marketing narrative is aligned across all channels.

Decentered Studio - Decentered events production for centered impact

Decentered Studio is an event services agency driven by a mission to revolutionize Web3 events. With comprehensive offerings ranging from end-to-end flagship event execution to custom event initiatives, their services aim to elevate brand awareness, foster team collaboration, and provide expert guidance on event execution and treasury proposals.

Distractive - Marketing for the modern era of innovators

Distractive is a full-service marketing agency specializing in emerging crypto ecosystems and the de facto marketing department for the Polkadot network. Founded in 2023 by the same ragtag crew that launched the Moonbeam and Moonriver networks, Distractive’s integrative team specializes in strategy, content, and digital media to drive Polkadot’s growth.

Business Development

BlockDeep Labs - Fueling the next wave of innovation

At the forefront of BlockDeep Labs’ agenda is the delivery of the Mythos Parachain — an endeavor that promises to redefine the boundaries of what’s possible within the Polkadot ecosystem. Mythos is envisioned as a catalyst for growth, a platform where innovation meets scalability, and where the future of decentralized technologies takes shape.

Deep Ink Ventures - Fueling the next wave of innovation

Deep Ink Ventures, a blockchain consultancy and infrastructure builder with a strong focus on the Polkadot ecosystem. Deep Ink Ventures is deeply committed to agile development principles, optimizing them for the blockchain space with a focus on fast time-to-market, MVP-centered development, and scalable business models.

DotPlay bounty for gaming - Creating a thriving gaming ecosystem for Polkadot

The Dot Play Bounty is a strategic accelerator aimed at fostering a vibrant gaming ecosystem within Polkadot. A pivotal hub, focused on mass market, creator centric genres within gaming. Dot Play is building a ‘New Superstars’ community, providing through this program, tailored funding to promising game developers whose projects will enhance and contribute to the overall Polkadot ecosystem. Typically, funding is focused on ecosystem tools and game development, which require detailed planning and regular reporting to assigned bounty curators.

The Dot Play Bounty offers a new accelerator model, for passionate teams wanting to utilize Polkadot’s infrastructure to build the next global entertainment experiences. For more details and to learn more, visit the Dot Play teams portal.

Moondance - Business development

Moondance Labs, a core contributor to the Tanssi Network, is set to lead Polkadot’s business development efforts. Their strategic expansion initiatives aim to accelerate the adoption of Polkadot through the deployment of new parachains and smart contract-based applications.

Polkadot Music Events Initiative (PMEI) - Integrating music with Web3 tech

PMEI if focused on integrating Web3 technology into various aspects of the music industry, making it easier for users and enterprises to engage with blockchain technology in meaningful ways. Its global event series, {bash}, showcases Polkadot tech and offers fans and artists a chance to participate in co-creating new experiences in Web3.

PoKe - Integrating Polkadot into major organizational infrastructures

PoKe is the brainchild of Scytale Digital and BOTLabs GmbH, a strategic alignment aimed at leveraging Polkadot’s unique technological offerings to attract large institutions. PoKe’s objective is to enhance Polkadot’s visibility and utility across major organizational infrastructures, driving significant blockchain adoption.

Polimec - Community-driven funding protocol

Polimec enables fundraising in a decentralized, transparent, and regulatory-compliant manner, aligning stakeholder incentives during and beyond fundraising.

PolkaPort East - Attracting new teams and institutional investors

Polkaport East aims to establish a permanent and vibrant Polkadot community in Hong Kong. As a central hub for growth and investor relations in one of the world’s leading financial centers, PolkaPort East seeks to attract new teams and institutional investors to the ecosystem.

Transistor - Driving Ecosystem Growth in the US

Transistor, a New York-based Web3 ecosystem development firm, aims to play a pivotal role in accelerating Polkadot’s adoption and integration across various sectors of the U.S. digital economy. Transistor plans to establish a strong Polkadot community in crypto’s capital, New York City.

Onboarding

Accelerate Polkadot - Mastering blockchain development

Accelerate Polkadot lowers barriers for developers looking to build on Polkadot. The initiative focuses on creating detailed, code-first guides that provide practical applications and real-world use cases. These resources are designed to be accessible, engaging, and directly applicable, making it easier for developers to start building innovative projects within the Polkadot ecosystem.

Diogo Mendonça - Increasing builder onboarding

Diogo Mendonça, Ph.D., integrates Polkadot content into undergraduate university computer science courses and provides quality assurance for project deliverables that receive funds in the Polkadot ecosystem. His initiatives, including Polkadot at Universities and Milestone Deliveries On-Demand Evaluation initiatives, aim to improve builder onboarding and milestone evaluation.

EasyA - Educating next generation of Web3 builders

Web3 education app EasyA is well-known for its work in nurturing the next generation of Web3 talent through its in-app educational programs and hackathons. EasyA’s project aims to create a structured university program that focuses on educating students about Polkadot and helping them launch new projects in the ecosystem.

Interplanetary Talent Services (IPTS) - Revolutionizing Web3 talent recruitment

IPTS is set to transform the way web3 companies find and hire top talent. Known for their advanced recruitment strategies and mission-aligned services, IPTS offers a comprehensive range of hiring support designed to meet the unique needs of the Polkadot ecosystem.

PaperMoon - Empowering developer relations

PaperMoon enhances the developer experience by providing tailored DevRel solutions. They bridge communication gaps, streamline knowledge-sharing, and promote best practices to foster a productive developer community.

Play on Polkadot (POP) - Revolutionizing the developer experience

By providing a comprehensive toolkit, Pop CLI simplifies the creation, testing, and deployment of parachains and smart contracts through simple commands. This innovative tool aims to streamline and harmonize the entire development experience

PolkadotKit - Integrating Web3 tech into mobile apps

PolkadotKit will enable the integration of smoldot directly into mobile applications, eliminating the need for intermediary layers such as third-party frameworks or JavaScript runtimes. By removing these additional dependencies, PolkadotKit simplifies the development process for creating decentralized, trustless applications on mobile devices.

Governance

OpenGov.Watch - Fostering an inclusive and transparent governance model

OpenGov.Watch is a groundbreaking initiative aimed at developing governance operations and culture within the Polkadot ecosystem. By providing regular reports and pioneering initiatives, OpenGov.Watch empowers governance participants to stay informed, find consensus, and coordinate on projects that propel the community forward.

Tech

Accelchain - Enabling secure no-code dapps

Accelchain offers a no-code development platform powered by Large Language Models (LLMs), allowing developers to create, test, audit, and deploy Web3 dApps without writing any code. Accelchain plans to integrate Accelchain with Substrate to support the growth of decentralized applications (dApps) within the Polkadot ecosystem.

Archisinal - Integrating within the building sector

Archisinal is pioneering a decentralized marketplace for professionals, leveraging NFTs to revolutionize how architectural and design works are monetized and managed. Their platform aims to integrate blockchain technology within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector.

ETF Network - Empowering the future of onchain randomness

ETF Network, short for “Encryption to the Future,” is at the cutting edge of developing a substrate-based blockchain. ETF network is addressing the challenges of secure delayed transactions, offering a robust solution to front-running resistance and enabling trustless multiparty interactions on the blockchain.

Kylix Finance - Advancing DeFi lending

Kylix Finance addresses the gaps in the current DeFi landscape on Polkadot by providing a comprehensive onchain lending solution. Their focus is on offering strong incentives for liquidity providers, innovative adaptive rates, a robust collateral liquidation auction system, and a composable asset lending product.

MLabs - Formally verifying the GRANPA protocol

MLabs aims to bring mathematical rigor to the GRANDPA (GHOST-based Recursive ANcestor Deriving Prefix Agreement) protocol at the heart of Polkadot's finality mechanism. MLabs will apply formal verification to ensure the protocol's correctness, enhancing network security and reliability.

Ocelloids - Building Polkadot’s universal cross-chain monitoring network

Ocelloids plan to build upon the foundation established by the XCM Monitoring Server to create a universal, robust, open-source cross-chain monitoring system for Polkadot. The goal is to develop a reliable and resilient monitoring system bundled with monitoring logic that can be operated by any party according to their needs.

Pendzl - Propelling the development of smart contracts

Pendzl is a smart contract library poised to redefine the development landscape for Polkadot’s ink! smart contracts, enriching the developer’s toolbox with essential features such as event emission. They offer essential features like event emission and a streamlined user experience to enhance usability and simplify the development journey for smart contract developers.

Polkadot Multisig powered by Signet - Facilitating enterprise adoption

Built by the team at Talisman, the Signet platform simplifies enterprise blockchain operations. Built on Substrate, it incorporates multisig, proxy, governance, and staking pallets, making it easier for enterprises to engage in blockchain operations like treasury management, payments, staking, and governance while ensuring best practices in risk management.

StorageHub - Revolutionizing data efficiency and accessibility

StorageHub is a decentralized storage public good blockchain, optimized for file-based storage and large data sets. Their platform ensures data accessibility and efficiency without compromising on decentralization principles, revolutionizing data management in the blockchain space.

Velocity Labs - Unleashing Polkadot's full DeFi potential

Velocity Labs aims to transform the Polkadot ecosystem into a DeFi innovation hub. The ecosystem builder and venture studio is dedicated to building essential infrastructure, tools, and products that will enable DeFi on Polkadot to thrive.

Xcavate - Decentralizing access to real estate

Xcavate is a community-driven protocol designed to simplify real estate investments by using blockchain and tokenization. The protocol removes the need for intermediaries, ensuring a more transparent and cost-efficient process.

Staex EMF - Streamling EMF certification via blockchain

Staex, a technology company specializing in IoT and blockchain solutions, aims to digitize and automate the certification of cell towers’ compliance with regulatory limits on EMF radiation levels. This automation addresses inefficiencies in the current manual certification process.

Perfuse - Simplifying development

Perfuse, powered by Zeeve, a blockchain infrastructure company, aims to develop a open-source, one-click parachain deployment toolkit for Polkadot, Kusama, and Rococo networks. The toolkit will simplify the process of launching, managing, and scaling parachains.

Tune into the Decentralized Mic and stay updated on DF projects

The Decentralized Futures program is an important initiative fueling Polkadot’s decentralization by providing funding to individuals and teams launching new initiatives with the objective of growing the Polkadot ecosystem. Complementing this initiative, the Decentralized Mic plays a supporting role by keeping the community informed and engaged with funded initiatives’ progress and achievements.

Through a series of community calls, the Decentralized Mic provides a platform for funded individuals and teams to share their journey. Together, Decentralized Futures and Decentralized Mic foster innovation, transparency, collaboration, and community participation within the Polkadot ecosystem.

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