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Allocation Update: Q3 and Q4, 2021

Posted by Ecosystem Support Program Team on February 15, 2022

Allocation Update: Q3 and Q4, 2021

This one's a double header! Below you'll find the lists of grantees from both Q3 and Q4 of 2021.

A note on categories: where we once listed Ethereum 1.0/1.x or Ethereum 2.0, you'll now see "Execution Layer" and "Consensus Layer" respectively. This is part of a broader effort to shift terminology to be more clear, accurate, and inclusive. Check out this recent post for more on the reasoning for the shift.

And now, to the grantees...

Q3

CategoryProjectRecipientDescription
Community & educationDAO DropsdOrgResearch into approaches to third party allocation via programmatically defined DAOs (based on on-chain traction) which could leverage the domain knowledge of individuals and communities in the Ethereum ecosystem to serve as resource allocators.
Community & educationETHAtlanta 2021ETHAtlantaEnterprise-focused community event in Atlanta, Georgia, US.
Community & educationETHTurin Meetup 2021/2022ETHTurinMonthly meetup in Torino, Italy, with a project-focused agenda.
Community & educationLisCon 2021Community-focused conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
Community & educationRoad to Devcon: Remix LearnethDacadeIncentives for developers learning to write smart contracts through the Remix Learneth program, deployed in Spanish on the Dacade peer to peer learning platform as part of the Road to Devcon initiative.
Community & educationRoad to Devcon Meetup and Event GrantsRound of small grants to virtual and in-person meetups around the world.
Consensus layerBeacon Chain Network Stress TestingCryptoManufakturBeacon chain network stress and scenario tests on cloud instances distributed across the globe; initial tests will be performed against small 32-node networks to assess viability, refine test tooling, and formulate a methodology for subsequent, larger tests.
Consensus layerValidator Load TestingEthereum on ArmMainnet load testing on restricted capacity ARM devices, and publication of metrics and reports regarding load capabilities of Ethereum validators on many different client and hardware choices.
Consensus layerWagyu SuiteDevelopment and continued support of Wagyu, a multi-client, desktop UI automating the setup and management of staking infrastructure.
Cryptography & zero knowledge proofsAdvancing Tree-Based Vector CommitmentsExploration into approaches to tree-based vector commitments, including RSA groups, multilinear and lattice-based constructions, to address challenges such as aggregatability and post-quantum security.
Cryptography & zero knowledge proofsFoundations of hash-based SNARKs bookAlessandro Chiesa and Eylon YogevBook covering the information-theoretic foundations of hash-based SNARKs, with a focus on mathematical correctness, comprehensiveness and clarity of results.
Developer experience & toolingdethcryptodethOngoing development and maintenance of TypeChain and other Ethereum developer tools.
Developer experience & toolingWeb3JS Maintenance and Ecosystem DevelopmentChainsafeMaintenance and extension of the web3.js Ethereum JavaScript API and development of a website to serve as a hub for web3.js documentation, educational content, and community.
Developer experience & toolingKind-Lang Ethers Module ImplementationVictor Maia with Rigille Menezes and Tiago CamposFormally verifying key Ethers.js modules in Kind-Lang, and support for Kind-Lang community development.
Developer experience & toolingImproving JS Ethereum CryptographyPaul MillerSecurity & auditability improvements to the widely used js-ethereum-cryptography library.
Developer experience & toolingZero MEVP McgoohanCollection, publishing, and categorization of MEV-rich data in order to bring further visibility to MEV and promote understanding of the problem.
Developer experience & toolingWeb3 Bounty ToolingTarun SachdevaOpen-source toolkit for facilitating contributions and bounties across the Ethereum ecosystem.
Execution layerMempool Research & Data Support - EIP 1559BlocknativeProvision of historical mempool data for backtesting and simulations of how EIP-1559 would have behaved under past scenarios.
Execution layerOpenEthereum Execution ClientOpenEthereumMaintenance of the OpenEthereum client as needed until the merge, and contribution to development of the Erigon execution client.
Execution layerBesu Execution ClientHyperledger BesuContinued maintenance and development of the Besu execution client.
Execution layerNode Crawler UIMohamed MansourAPIs and front end interface for the open-source Ethereum node crawler available as part of go-ethereum.
General ResearchProtocol ResearchDaniel PerezSponsorship of PhD research at Imperial College London, including L1 actual transaction throughput and DeFi contract vulnerabilities.

Total awarded in Q3: $2,992,000

Q4

CategoryProjectRecipientDescription
Community & educationWeb3 LagosConference in Lagos, Nigeria covering a variety of topics including making the switch from Web2 to Web3.
Community & educationBlockchain FellowshipESatyaThree month online course aiming to familiarize Nepalese developers with the key elements of blockchain technology through instruction and project-based learning.
Community & educationEthereum Eje Cafetero MeetupsEthereum Eje CafeteroCommunity talks and meetups in Colombia's Coffee Region.
Community & educationETH CUBAKickstarting community growth in Cuba.
Community & educationEthereum MedellínPlatohedroCommunity development in Medellín, Colombia.
Community & educationEthereum TegucigalpaSupport for Ethereum community development in Honduras including meetups, developer events and Spanish-language Ethereum content.
Community & education0xPARC Organization supporting applied cryptography research and development.
Community & educationETHGlobalVirtual and in-person hackathons focused on building the Ethereum developer community through learning opportunities and hands-on support for hackers.
Community & educationElectronic Frontier FoundationNonprofit dedicated to promoting digital privacy, free speech, and innovation.
Community & educationFight For The FutureGrassroots activism group that fights for a future where technology is a force for liberation and not oppression.
Community & educationCoin CenterNonprofit promoting sensible regulatory approaches to cryptocurrency technology through research, advocacy and educating policymakers.
Consensus LayerLighthouse grant through April 2022Sigma PrimeContinued development of the Lighthouse consensus client.
Consensus LayerLodestar, light clients and JS toolingChainsafeContinued development of the Lodestar JS consensus client, with goals including light client R&D, improved tooling and documentation, and Merge readiness.
Consensus LayerPrysm clientPrysmatic LabsContinued development of the Prysm consensus client.
Consensus LayerStereum Q4 2021Rock LogicContinued development of the Stereum "one click installer" for solo stakers to install a beacon chain client and dependencies in a single setup, with support for all production clients on testnet and mainnet.
Consensus LayerEthStakerContinued support for ETHStaker, a community group promoting and supporting Ethereum staking through education, advocacy, technical support, tooling, etc; and funding of a mainnet ETHStaker validator to be used for demonstrations, client metrics, and more.
Consensus LayerInvestigation of Delay for Applied Boolean FunctionsMoscow State University, Faculty of Computational Mathematics and CyberneticsInvestigation of circuit latency bounds, a crucial security consideration for Verifiable Delay Functions.
Consensus LayerDiscV5 ResearchDataHopResearch and optimization of the DiscV5 service discovery mechanism; current goal is the publication of a report including performance evaluation of the proposed mechanism and an evaluation of its resistance against attacks.
Consensus LayerSSZ SimpleSerializeContinued development of ssz.dev, a website documenting and demonstrating the SSZ serialization standard, including a visualization playground and React-based SSZ implementation.
Cryptography & zero knowledge proofsIdentity, Reputation and ZKP researchJustin MartinDevelopment of proofs of cryptographically-verifiable truth claims, such as ownership of web2 identities or government issued credentials.
Cryptography & zero knowledge proofsPrediction markets for content curationJanmajaya MallContent sharing platform demonstrating the use of a prediction market mechanism for collaborative curation.
Cryptography & zero knowledge proofszkEVM Research and DevelopmentYing Tong Lai, Electric Coin CompanyContributions to research and development on the zkEVM project, which aims to build both a zk rollup that directly supports smart contracts, and a proof of validity for the EVM that could verify Ethereum's entire history in one proof.
Cryptography & zero knowledge proofsMaci: Coordinator ServiceChao MaAPI to manage MACI proof generation using messages signed with the coordinator's private key, a more straightforward and scalable interface allowing users to construct correct proofs by running commands in the cli.
Developer experience & toolingObsidian On EthereumCarnegie Mellon University School of Computer ScienceContinuation of research and proof-of-concept development by a group of students and professors from the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science to demonstrate that key features of the Obsidian smart contract language can translate successfully to Ethereum.
Developer experience & toolingFormal Verification of Contracts LibraryOpenZeppelinFormal verification by Certora of OpenZeppelin's library of template contracts for commonly-used components and standards.
Developer experience & toolingZK Rollup and L2 Developer ToolsRyodanWork on Layer 2 and zk rollups including a zk rollup design that eliminates transaction history data for contract execution and zkCloud, a service which aims to help developers use zero-knowledge proofs to write smart contracts and programs more easily.
Execution LayerLow-level optimization of a bigint library for IPA base field calculationsDag Arne OsvikOptimized field-operation library in Go, intended to replace Go's bigint library in Verkle tree implementation for improved performance following the switch from KZG to IPA commitment scheme.
Layer 2L2BEATMaintenance and expansion of L2BEAT, a website offering statistics, analysis and risk factors for comparison between Layer 2 scaling solutions.
OtherStartrailInfrastructure for recording the distribution and appraisal of physical artworks.
User experiencew3a.ioa42 Inc.Ethereum-based authentication and authorization of usage rights to physical devices.

Total awarded in Q4: $10,837,000

Are you working on something you think could change Ethereum for the better? Head to our grants page to learn more about what we look for in the projects we fund.

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