EasyA x Polkadot University Microgrants Bounty

Background context

The EasyA x Polkadot University is currently being established with the support of the Web3 Foundation by means of a Decentralized Futures grant. Its purpose is to attract top university talent to build on Polkadot. Universities are a priceless source of blockchain innovation. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Polkadot’s own co-founder Robert Habermeier were both students when they left academia to build two of the world’s most successful blockchains.

The purpose of this bounty is to fund the microgrants programme for early-stage builders on Polkadot, as envisaged in the EasyA x Polkadot University’s founding mission. This will be modelled on Solana’s fast-grants model with a similar goal, but for Polkadot: anyone who wants to build on Polkadot can get initial funding to do so.

Hundreds of incredible EasyA builders have been inspired to build on Polkadot at our hackathons. Now, let’s get them funded!

The problem

This bounty is a response to the following problems in the Polkadot builder funnel:

1. Polkadot doesn’t have clear funding opportunities for very early-stage builders; and
2. There is no fast way for developers inspired about Polkadot to get funding to build

These are both holding back the Polkadot ecosystem, and other blockchains that have solved this are rapidly growing their developer base.

The solution

The good news is that the answer to the above problems is simple:

1. A clear programme for early-stage builders to get funding (up to $10,000 each); and
2. Approvals made as fast as within 72 hours

Curators

The multisig will be a 3 out of 5:

1. Otar Shakarishvili (Project Advisor and Governance Specialist at JUST Open Source, ex-Parity Project Manager)
2. Sacha Lansky (Developer Relations at WebZero, ex-Parity Engineering)
3. Flavio Bianchi (Polimec Foundation Council Member, Polimec Marketing and BD)
4. Phil Kwok (Co-Founder of EasyA)
5. Dom Kwok (Co-Founder of EasyA)

Conclusion

Everyone in the Polkadot ecosystem can feel that we’re at an inflection point. As contributors to the Polkadot ecosystem since 2022, we can sense this more than ever. Plaza is right around the corner, agile coretime has arrived, and we’ve inspired a record number of developers about Polkadot’s potential. Whereas previously Polkadot itself was only open to chain builders, it is now opening up to smart contract builders. This is a once in a cycle opportunity. And the EasyA x Polkadot University Microgrants programme is set to capitalise on this.

This bounty will benefit the whole Polkadot ecosystem, including programmes further downstream, producing top talent for bounties like the Dot Play and Open Source Developer Grants Bounty, with whom we are collaborating closely.

Thank you for taking the time to read our proposal. If you have any questions or suggestions, please do comment them here! Further context from our discussion post last month can be found here.

Our full proposal is available here. This includes more detail on the differences between this Bounty and the others that already exist, how it will work with those ecosystems, success metrics, budget, the Bounty manifesto, and other important information.