Near Foundation’s Grant Program
Near Foundation’s Grant Program was announced to help new developers to grow their projects in NEAR Ecosystem. This is in line with the Foundation’s goal of providing a clear and concise update to continue to foster transparent communication.
At this time, NEAR Foundation is actively working towards a more decentralized model of capital allocation that will initially involve the DeveloperDAO, MarketingDAO, and CreativesDAO, with an additional DAO that will begin formation in Q1 of 2023.
This will impact the ecosystem in the following ways:
- Effective immediately, NEAR Foundation will cease allocating capital directly from its inbound start-up grants program. With the exception of its current events grants, which will be handed over to the MarketingDAO when they are set up to manage them.
- In January and February, they will work directly with community members to outline a transparent application process for funding via the DAOs. Processing time is expected to take 6-8 weeks.
- Any projects that have already received a portion of their funding and are working towards their agreed milestones will continue to be supported through the remaining milestones.
- In addition, any application that is not already in the approval stage will not receive funding.
However, Near Foundation, does its best to redirect users or developers to appropriate, alternative funding sources.
Furthermore, NEAR Foundation’s goal is to empower the ecosystem to make decisions that support the strategic approach that will drive NEAR to the next phase of its roadmap, with a look ahead at new areas of product and development, as outlined in the NEAR Strategic Update and Outlook for 2023. It will continue to be as transparent as possible about the new funding strategy as it rolls out. The Foundation will also communicate as often, and as frequently, as possible.
ABOUT Near Protocol
The NEAR protocol is a sharded, proof-of-stake, layer-one blockchain that is simple to use, secure and scalable.
ABOUT NEAR Foundation
Near Foundation is a non-profit foundation headquartered in Switzerland. It is responsible for contracting protocol maintainers, funding ecosystem development, and shepherding core governance of the NEAR protocol.