Referendum: Community Building Fund for Bend-PVM - Attracting Developer Contributors to the PolkaVM Ecosystem (500 DOT)

This referendum proposes allocating 500 DOT from the treasury to establish a Community Building Fund for Bend-PVM, aimed at expanding the contributor base and fostering an active developer ecosystem around this innovative smart contract language optimized for PolkaVM.

Community-Driven Development Model

Rather than funding a small core team, this proposal takes a decentralized approach by creating incentives for a broader community of developers to contribute to Bend-PVM's evolution. The requested funds will be strategically deployed to nurture a thriving contributor ecosystem through:

Contributor rewards for merged pull requests and significant improvements
Hackathons and coding challenges with DOT prizes for specific feature implementations
Bug bounty program to strengthen the language's security and reliability
Educational resources and workshops to onboard new contributors

Funding Allocation

The 500 DOT will be distributed as follows:

60% (300 DOT): Direct contributor rewards for code contributions
20% (100 DOT): Community hackathons and development challenges
15% (75 DOT): Educational content creation and developer workshops
5% (25 DOT): Administration and transparent fund management

Strategic Community Goals

This community-centric approach addresses critical ecosystem needs:

Knowledge Distribution: Prevent single points of failure by spreading expertise across multiple contributors
Innovation Acceleration: Harness diverse perspectives to solve complex language design challenges
Ecosystem Growth: Create pathways for Ethereum developers to become active Polkadot contributors
Sustainable Development: Establish a self-reinforcing community that outlasts any single funding round

Expected Outcomes

Increase monthly active contributors from current baseline to 25+ within 6 months
Achieve 10+ educational workshops/events to onboard new developers
Complete 3 targeted hackathons addressing specific language features
Establish a transparent contribution tracking system with clear reward criteria

Governance Transparency

All fund distributions will be publicly recorded and verified through a designated multi-signature account. Monthly reports will detail contributor rewards, event expenditures, and development progress metrics.

Community Benefits

This community-first approach will:

Accelerate Bend-PVM development through parallel workstreams
Create a sustainable pipeline of skilled PolkaVM developers
Strengthen Polkadot's position as a developer-friendly ecosystem
Demonstrate the effectiveness of treasury funds in fostering grassroots innovation

Social

We invite all stakeholders to support this referendum to build a vibrant, community-driven development ecosystem around Bend-PVM and position Polkadot as the home for next-generation smart contract innovation.

A referendum has been proposed to allocate 500 DOT from the treasury to establish a Community Building Fund for Bend-PVM, a smart contract language optimized for PolkaVM. The goal is to expand the contributor base and foster an active developer ecosystem. The funds will be used for contributor rewards, hackathons, coding challenges, bug bounties, educational resources, and workshops. The allocation is as follows: 60% for direct contributor rewards, 20% for community hackathons and challenges, 15% for educational content and workshops, and 5% for administration and fund management. The community-driven approach aims to distribute knowledge, accelerate innovation, grow the ecosystem, and ensure sustainable development. Expected outcomes include increasing active contributors, hosting educational workshops, completing hackathons, and establishing a transparent contribution tracking system. All fund distributions will be publicly recorded and verified through a multi-signature account, with monthly reports detailing expenditures and progress. This approach is expected to accelerate development, create a pipeline of skilled developers, strengthen Polkadot's position, and demonstrate the effectiveness of treasury funds in fostering innovation.