‘Fund 3’ will see $500k made available for community proposals to improve adoption of Cardano
This follows the success of Fund 2, which will award $250,000 worth of ada to groundbreaking ideas voted on by the Cardano community
The decentralized funding platform currently has more registered voters than all of Ethereum’s top 100 DAOs combined
The fund forms an integral part of Cardano’s ‘Voltaire’ era, which aims to hand governance of the platform over to the community
The fund aims to become the world’s largest decentralized innovation fund
Leading blockchain research and development company IOHK today announced the launch of a $500k fund, the next stage in ‘Project Catalyst’, part of the rollout of the Voltaire element of the Cardano roadmap. In ‘Fund 3’ community members can submit proposals for the future development of the Cardano blockchain and decide, through Catalyst’s novel ‘on-chain’ voting process, which proposals are funded. The launch follows the successful completion of ‘Fund 2’, which attracted proposals on everything from improvements to Cardano, to Cardano adoption in West Africa and lowering the barriers to entry for developers on Cardano. Fund 2 saw $250k allocated to fund community-generated projects focused on improving Cardano.
Project Catalyst aims to be the world’s largest decentralized innovation fund, and with 1,752 community members registered to vote, it has already surpassed the number of unique voters in other prominent projects such as Dash, as well as all of Ethereum’s top 100 DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) combined.
Catalyst is the next step in Cardano’s journey to hand over the governance of the platform to its community. It aims to inspire a wide range of technical and non-technical ideas designed to enhance Cardano as a whole. This can include proposals on anything from marketing initiatives and infrastructure development, to content production and product enhancement.
While available funds in this round total $500k, subsequent rounds will offer increased funding pots, aiming to distribute around $100million of ada per year, depending on token price.
Charles Hoskinson, CEO at IOHK, said:
“The founding principle of Cardano is decentralised control. This principle encompasses not only the marginalized people that Cardano will empower, but also how the platform is run. Through Project Catalyst and its associated funds, all Cardano community members can play a role in deciding the future of the platform. Fund 2 was an experiment in decentralized democracy and showed just how remarkable our community is, and how powerful decentralized decision-making can be. Thousands of people came together to generate, refine and prioritize funding for proposals to drive Cardano forward, and we look forward to watching as Project Catalyst grows to become the world’s largest decentralized innovation and funding platform.”
Notes
In order to vote, community members must have at least 8,000 ada to lock for the voting period. This threshold was put in place as a security measure to ensure that malicious actors are not gaming the system to fund a particular proposal. The tokens are locked for the voting period in order to stop exchanges from participating in decisions that affect the wider Cardano community. Once the registration window closes voting will begin. After tallying the votes funds will be distributed to the winning proposals.
About IOHK
IOHK is an R&D and product engineering company, committed to using peer-to-peer innovations to provide 21st-century services to the 3bn who don’t have them.
We build blockchain-based products for governments, corporations, and academic institutions and upskill people across the world, empowering them to solve the most pressing problems faced by people in their countries.
We have core beliefs in decentralization, privacy, economic identity, and financial empowerment for everyone, and stand opposed to centralized control and bureaucracy.