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Q2 Allocation Update

Posted by Ecosystem Support Program Team on September 8, 2020

Q2 Allocation Update

Hello again! We’re back to share the grants that went out over the second quarter of 2020 - but first, some ESP updates from the last few months:

We're writing about grants today, but grants are not the only kind of support ESP can offer! We recently published a blog post featuring some amazing teams that you won’t find on the list below, since they received support other than the traditional grants highlighted here.

Meanwhile, the community has put on some awesome virtual events that really are the next best thing to the in-person gatherings that we've all been missing - and in some ways, even better. Through some of these events the ESP team has had the opportunity to connect with hackers and attendees all over the world; check out recordings of our presentations at ETHGlobal’s HackMoney and HackFS, Gitcoin’s Protect Privacy, and ETHPlanet’s EDCON.

Last but not least, we added a “pinboard” to our Wishlist page, where you can find some specific challenges posed by the eth2 team. If you want to make a unique contribution to eth2, this is a great place to start!

And now, without further ado, here’s our list of grant recipients in Q2:

CategoryRecipientDescriptionMore Info
Community and EducationAkomba Education InitiativeOn-chain certification framework, and development of modular learning resources and accredited courses using this framework.akomba.com/
Community and EducationCougerEducational initiative creating working groups and corporate meetups/workshops to discuss and develop open standards and proofs of concept.
Community and EducationFOSS RespondersEvent organized by Open Software Foundation to help connect open source projects and teams affected by COVID-19 with funding opportunities in various open source ecosystems.fossresponders.com
Cryptography and ZKPSTARK-related explorationsResearch and development on Distaff, a zero-knowledge virtual machine written in Rust which automatically generates a STARK-based proofs of execution, including progress toward Turing-completeness.github.com/GuildOfWeavers/distaff
Cryptography and ZKPzk-SUMMERProgram for students to learn about and build on Ethereum, with zero knowledge proofs as a key focus area.
Cryptography and ZKPHubbleOptimistic rollup hub which enables creation of optimistic rollup chains within the same interface, removing the need to ever "exit" the ecosystem by allowing users to move between chains instantly and at negligible cost once they have entered the rollup space. The goal of Hubble is to allow the creation of any rollup chain simply by writing a solidity function.thehubbleproject.github.io/docs/
Cryptography and ZKPPeek-A-BookPrivate order matching system that allows users to advertise trading orders without leaking the amount or price.
Cryptography and ZKPUniRepPrivate and nonrepudiable reputation system which uses zero knowledge proofs and Ethereum contracts.
Cryptography and ZKPzkzkrollupImproving Fawkes-Crypto to support a PLONK-based recursive solution for cheaper Layer 1 verification.github.com/zeropoolnetwork/fawkes-crypto
Cryptography and ZKPAnalysis of Arithmetization-Oriented CiphersResearch to optimize the advanced cryptographic protocols that make use of symmetric ciphers.
Cryptography and ZKPMACI User InterfaceWeb-based user interface for Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure.
Developer ExperienceMeson: A Mixnet To Rule Them AllResearch into network level privacy based on Katzenpost, including decentralising the public key infrastructure, incentives, and dynamic tuning of mixnet parameters.github.com/hashcloak/Meson
Developer ExperienceSWARMResearch and development on Swarm, a decentralized storage solution.ethswarm.org
Developer ExperienceChainSafeGrant to ChainSafe for maintenance and improvements on the Web3JS library.github.com/ethereum/web3.js/, chainsafe.io/
Ethereum 1.0OpenEthereumMaintenance on the OpenEthereum client and repository.
Ethereum 1.0/Ethereum 2.0DataHopLarge-scale simulation of the proposed DiscV5 service discovery protocol for eth2 in order to evaluate and improve performance and provide Sybil resistance.datahop.network
Ethereum 2.0RSA MPC reviewAudit of the RSA MPC (multi-party computation) paper and code by the KZen team.eprint.iacr.org/2020/374.pdf, github.com/ligeroinc/LigeroRSA, Diogenes Octopus Playing Red Team for Eth2
Ethereum 2.0SchlesiAn initiative to create a number of multi-client eth2 testnets in preparation for mainnet. This work led to the current Medalla testnet, composed of 20k+ validators and 600+ nodes with the majority run by the communitygithub.com/goerli/medalla
Ethereum 2.0BSC Eth2 Network EvaluationCollaboration between a professor and master's student to evaluate libp2p gossipsub simulations using the Barcelona Super Computer (BSC), investigate ways of hardening gossip networks against attacks, and develop a monitoring tool.bsc.es
Ethereum 2.0Beacon FuzzContinued maintenance and infrastructure upgrades by Sigma Prime on Beacon Fuzz, a differential fuzzer for finding crash-causing and consensus bugs in eth2 clients.github.com/sigp/beacon-fuzz
Ethereum 2.0LighthouseContinued development of Sigma Prime's Lighthouse staking client, written in Rust, for the Ethereum 2.0 network.github.com/sigp/lighthouse
Ethereum 2.0Prysm ClientContinued development of Prysmatic Labs's Prysm staking client for the Ethereum 2.0 network written in Go.github.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm
Third Party FundingUNICEF CryptofundCryptocurrency-denominated investment fund targeting startups that use blockchain technology for social impact.unicef.org/innovation/blockchain
Third Party FundingCLR.FUNDOpen quadratic funding protocol using Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure (MACI).clr.fund
Layer 2PerunGo-based implementation of state channels hub and node client.perun.network
Layer 2Fuel LabsResearch and development of optimistic rollup for building scalable, permissionless, trust-minimized rollup.fuel.sh/
Layer 2Unified State ChannelsContinued work on getting State Channels production-ready, including launch of Web3Torrent, a demo app which uses state channels to enable micropayments for torrented data.statechannels.org/
User ExperienceGas Station NetworkProductionizing GSN2, testnet dapp integrations, and educational materials.opengsn.org/

Total Q2 allocations: $3,884,000

This list represents non-recurring funding from across the EF, including grants via our public inquiry process, delegated domain allocations and third-party funding (types B, C and D as defined in the EF Spring Update). As always, it’s a privilege to work with these amazing projects and so many more.


Keep up with future ESP news by following us on Twitter @ef_esp or signing up for our newsletter. And as always, we’d love to chat about how we might be able to support you in your own work - just get in touch at esp.ethereum.foundation/en/project!

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