DFINITY Announces Community Awards Program to Supercharge the Internet Computer Ecosystem
The DFINITY Foundation is introducing a dedicated grant program focused on Internet Computer community growth and development.
In May 2021, the DFINITY Foundation announced a CHF 200 million Developer Grant Program to jump-start the Internet Computer blockchain’s ecosystem. The program has since begun awarding grants to entrepreneurs and developers who are building dapps, games, NFTs, DeFi, tooling, and infrastructure on the Internet Computer.
Based on community feedback, DFINITY is now introducing a dedicated grant program focused on community growth and development. The Community Awards Program is a Foundation initiative to provide funding to artists, educators, community organizers, content creators, and developer evangelists. Applications are being accepted at dfinity.org/community.
Since the Internet Computer’s Genesis event last May, its developer community has seen explosive growth — boasting more than 1,000 developers in less than six months — as dapps and services built on the Internet Computer consistently surpass active user and product roadmap milestones. Hundreds of teams are hard at work building on the Internet Computer, encompassing instant message and social media dapps, play-to-earn and GameFi, decentralized exchanges, marketplaces, enterprise software, and infrastructure projects. Among recent updates:
- PokedStudios launched the Bots NFT collection in an early foray into the metaverse on the Internet Computer, with the rarest Bot netting a sale of 3,000 ICP (~$172,140) on November 10.
- Fleek rebranded as Psychedelic, a product studio DAO on the Internet Computer.
- OpenChat’s user count has spiked to 80,000, with more than 640,000 messages sent over its decentralized messaging service.
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At the heart of the Internet Computer is one of blockchain’s smartest and most creative communities. The new Community Awards Program will equip individuals within the Internet Computer ecosystem with funding, training, and support. Award recipients will engage in activities that help grow and expand the Internet Computer ecosystem outside of technical development.
Funding is awarded in tiers of $5,000 to $100,000, depending on the scope of the project and the particular grant category, and will be distributed in ICP utility tokens.
There are a number of different focus areas for the Community Awards Program:
Artists
Awards under the Artist category will support teams and individuals working on digital art, physical art, and other creative projects.
Organizers
Awards under the Organizer category will provide support for social media channel admins, community managers and moderators.
Marketing
Awards under the Marketing category will support creative endeavors to spread awareness about the Internet Computer.
Events
Awards under the Events category will support hackathons, regional meetups, workshops, and other efforts to organize.
Education
Awards under the Education category support activities like course development, clubs, university relations.
Editorial
Awards under the Editorial category support journalism, blogging and other forms of multimedia storytelling.
We’re looking for imaginative proposals from the Internet Computer community in the above categories, and welcome you to apply for a community award. Please note, we will prioritize projects that have the potential to be self-sustaining beyond their award period.
