The Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) is the arm of the Ethereum Foundation focused on providing support, both financial and non-financial, to teams throughout the Ethereum ecosystem.

All Ecosystem Support Program posts:

March 1, 2022 ESP
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Announcing Grants Round for Academic Research

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
We are excited to announce a new wave of grants to fund formal research that aims to create more knowledge about Ethereum, blockchain technology, and related domains. We encourage academics, research centers, PhD Students and all those interested in researching Ethereum to submit their project proposals. This grants round has up to $750,000 in total available funding.
February 24, 2022 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: January 2022 - Japan Local Grants Edition!

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
In today’s roundup, we’re excited to feature four recipients from a recent Local Grants wave in Japan! We see Ethereum as an ever-growing, creative and inclusive playground, and it is our responsibility to let everyone keep playing. It’s not easy to commit to public goods or novel use cases without a quick financial return, and it’s important to support the dedicated teams working to solve interesting problems, improve public infrastructure and build creative blockchain use cases. In this Local Grants...
February 15, 2022 ESP
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Allocation Update: Q3 and Q4, 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
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…
January 31, 2022 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: December 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on a couple of projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!
November 4, 2021 ESP
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Allocation Update: Q2 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s that time again - our Q2 grantee lineup is coming right up. But before we get to that: ESP is hiring a Team Lead! We’re looking for someone organized, innovative, and passionate about Ethereum. If you think you might be the right person to lead a small but hardworking grants team, see the job posting and apply here. And now, to the grantees: Category Project Recipient Description Community & education   Ethereum Cat Herders Community group supporting Ethereum core...
October 22, 2021 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: September 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on a couple of projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!
September 22, 2021 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: August 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on a couple of projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!
August 6, 2021 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: July 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on a couple of projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!
July 1, 2021 ESP
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Allocation Update: Q1 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
Happy July! Read on for the list of projects funded in Q1 of this year. But first: office hours are in session! Signups are open now through this Sunday (July 4) for teams or individuals to request a one-on-one call with the ESP team during the week of July 5-9. These calls are a simplified way for teams or individuals to access certain types of support such as high-level feedback, resource recommendations or guidance on applying for grants. More info...
June 2, 2021 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: May 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on a couple of projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!
May 3, 2021 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: April 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on a couple of projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!
April 1, 2021 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: March 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees!
March 22, 2021 ESP
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Allocation Update: Q4 2020

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
2021 is just getting started, but it’s already been quite an eventful year! We’ve got the list of Q4 funded projects below, but we also want to share some updates from the ESP team. We’re always looking for more ways to support the ecosystem as it grows and evolves, so we’ve tried a couple of new things in recent months. Read on to learn more and see how you can get involved.
February 9, 2021 ESP
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Staking community grantee announcement

by Lakshman Sankar
We’re excited to announce the grantees selected for the recent staking community grants round. This grants round invited proposals that make the Ethereum staking experience easier, safer, and more secure. We were thrilled to see all of the great work proposed by these teams, and we’re looking forward to continuing to find new ways to support the ecosystem. In the meantime, if you’re working on something in this space and could use support, consider submitting a project inquiry with the...
January 29, 2021 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: January 2021

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
Our intrepid grantees have been keeping busy as always - read on for some recent accomplishments 🏆
December 29, 2020 ESP
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Grantee Roundup December 2020

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
We’re here with our last hurrah before we head into 2021 - read on for the latest news on a few grantees!
November 25, 2020 ESP
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Allocation Update: Q3 2020

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s quarterly update time again! The big news is is the Q3 grantees, of course, but we always like to share what else the ESP team has been up to. A few things we’ve knocked out lately: Added a Guide to ESP on our website. Here you’ll find details on our mission, what we look for in the projects we support, types of support we provide, our process for accepting and evaluating grant proposals, and more. Published the first in...
November 18, 2020 ESP
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Grantee Roundup: November 2020

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
It’s always fun to hear about new grants as they’re awarded, but what happens after the announcement? In this series, we’ll check in on projects that are well underway - or already at the finish line. Read on to learn about some recent milestones and achievements by grantees! Where applicable, the grant recipient is listed first, followed by the project for which the grant was awarded. Fuel Labs for Optimistic Rollup R&D, SparsENS Fuel Labs is best known for their...
September 8, 2020 ESP
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Q2 Allocation Update [ENG/普通话]

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
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...
August 19, 2020 ESP
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ESP: Beyond Grants [ENG/普通话]

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
Since transitioning into the Ecosystem Support Program from EF Grants, we’ve talked about defining “support” more comprehensively, thinking beyond simple grant funding. But what does a more comprehensive definition of support actually mean? In practice, it means something different for every project, and it starts with a conversation. ESP was conceived to make a wide range of EF’s resources more accessible to the community, which starts with making our process accessible to anyone who might need support. We take the...
May 7, 2020 ESP
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Ecosystem Support Program: Allocation Update, Q1 2020

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
The Ecosystem Support Program is an arm of the Ethereum Foundation dedicated to providing financial and non-financial support to projects working to help Ethereum grow and thrive. We recently published an update detailing how the Ecosystem Support Program spent 2019, and how we allocated financial support throughout the year. Going forward, we’ll be sharing allocation updates on a quarterly basis. 2020 got off to a strange and difficult start, but Ethereum’s builders have kept on building through it all. The...
April 1, 2020 ESP
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Ecosystem Support Program: Allocation Update

by Ecosystem Support Program Team
As we embark on a new decade(!), the Ecosystem Support Program team wanted to speak to some of the recent growth, transition and learning around the program, and share details of our 2019 financial allocations.
November 14, 2019 ESP
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Announcing a Taiwan-specific Wave of Grants

by Ecosystem Support Team
The Taipei Ethereum Meetup recently hosted Crosslink Taiwan 2019. It was a wonderful event and a perfect opportunity for the Ethereum Foundation’s Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) to provide a Taiwan-specific wave of grants! The recipients are as follows.
February 21, 2019 ESP
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Ethereum Foundation Grants Program Wave 5

by Ethereum Team
The Ethereum Foundation Grants Program is an ongoing and continually improving experiment into how the EF can best invest the Ethereum community’s resources for the highest long-term impact on the Ethereum ecosystem. When the Grants Program began in early 2018, the core focus was on supporting scalability efforts. This focus later expanded to include security, usability, privacy, and education. In 2019, we are returning to our core focus to support critical Eth2.0 and layer 2 scaling efforts. However, we remain...
January 7, 2019 ESP
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Announcing an Ethereum Foundation Grant to Parity Technologies

by Ethereum Team
The Ethereum Foundation is thrilled to announce a scalability, usability and security grant of five million dollars (USD) to Parity Technologies. For several years, Parity Technologies has been an invaluable member of the Ethereum ecosystem for their leadership in core development efforts, their Parity Ethereum client and more. Their work has continued at a blazing pace. At Devcon4 in Prague, Parity team members presented their plans to develop a Serenity implementation, exampling an exciting direction for the years ahead. By...
October 24, 2018 ESP
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How the Ethereum Foundation grants program makes decisions

by Ethereum Team
Our goal on the grants team is to be faithful stewards of Ethereum community resources. As part of the Ethereum Foundation’s ongoing effort to diffuse power throughout our community, we give grants that we believe will return the highest impact on the Ethereum ecosystem over the long-term.
October 15, 2018 ESP
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Ethereum Foundation Grants Update - Wave IV

by Ethereum Team
Greetings from the Ethereum Foundation Grants Team! As we go full steam ahead to Devcon 4, we’re back to announce Wave 4 of the Grants Program! Thank you to all the fantastic community members that have applied with creative ideas on how to bolster our ecosystem. We would not exist without the time and energy that you put into Ethereum. While the program continues to grow, we will increasingly continue to involve more community members in the decision making process....
August 17, 2018 ESP
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Ethereum Foundation Grants Update - Wave III

by Ethereum Team
Ethereum Foundation Grants Update We’ve been hard at work getting to know so many amazing people and projects, and are extremely excited to announce the recipients of the Wave III of the Ethereum Foundation Grants Program! We kicked off 2018 with a blog post to galvanize scalability research for first and second-layer solutions. Since then, we’ve committed over $11M to 52 projects dedicated to advancing the Ethereum ecosystem. Grants have funded multiple plasma and state channel implementations, diverse client research,...
May 2, 2018 ESP
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Announcing May 2018 Cohort of EF Grants

by Ethereum Team
Thank you all for applying, and we’re excited to announce the latest Ethereum Foundation grants! We funded 22 recipients for a total of $2.84M. Apply here for the next round! 🦄 Background The Ethereum project seeks to support useful dapps and smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, and the goal of the Ethereum Foundation is to empower developers with best-in-class R&D, developer experience, and education. Despite the early promise of the ecosystem, we still have a long way to go,...
March 7, 2018 ESP
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Announcing Beneficiaries of the Ethereum Foundation Grants

by Ethereum Team
We’re excited to share the results of the first wave of grants from the Ethereum Foundation. As a reminder, the Ethereum project seeks to support useful dapps and smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, and the goal of the Ethereum Foundation is to empower developers with best-in-class R&D, developer experience, and education. Despite the early promise of the ecosystem, we still have a long way to go, and we are here to work with the community to drive concrete progress....
January 8, 2016 ESP
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ÐΞVgrants Update and New Funding

by Wendell Davis
If DEVCON1 proved anything in spades, it was certainly the enthusiasm, creativity, and momentum of the Ethereum developer community. Utilizing the never-before-seen potential unleashed by the Ethereum World Computer, our small-but-growing community is not just re-imagining money (or even just re-imagining the Internet)… It is also re-imagining and delivering alternative models for re-organizing the very fabric of our society around a more transparent and inspectable “stack”. ÐΞVgrants came into existence on April 7, 2015, in order to ease some of...
April 7, 2015 ESP
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DEVgrants: Here to Help

by ÐΞVgrants Team
Few would argue against the fact that Ethereum has been gifted with one of the most diverse and thoughtful communities ever gathered around any open source project. Fueled by what can only be described as impassioned determination, developers from all walks of life have risked their time and credibility to pioneer in this radical and largely unknown domain of innovation. Indeed, even before genesis, Ethereum already boasts hundreds of projects covering everything from self-stabilizing currency to potential replacements for government...
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