ENF Grant Framework: A New Era of Development on EOS

The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) is dedicated to empowering developers, businesses, and individuals who wish to build on EOS. Already, through the funding of recognition grants, Pomelo and Eden, the ENF has made significant strides in enabling community driven projects to solve a variety of challenges, retain talent, and bring significant value into the EOS ecosystem.

Through various direct grants the ENF has been able to fund working groups that produced Blue Papers, serving to identify and initiate work on critical areas of development. Funding has also been distributed to, or earmarked for a handful of partners working to advance EOS network interests, from EOS Support, to the recent agreement with OCI on the API+ Transaction Lifecycle Proposal. However, until now the approach has been necessarily ad hoc and internally administered. What has been missing, is a streamlined and scalable grant framework with which to handle multiple requests for funding.

The Grant Framework truly began to take shape in Q4 of 2021, and the ENF’s intention to form such a funding mechanism was first announced here: Grant Framework Towards A Stronger Future. A great deal of study and consideration has been given to balancing the needs of the developer community with the integrity and flexibility required of such a system.

A New Era of Development Possibilities for EOS

Supported by an all-star cast of EOS community members, business leaders, and developers, the ENF is pleased to announce a major new pillar of support for the EOS ecosystem, the EOS Network Foundation Grant Framework.

With access to an efficient, transparent, and milestone-driven grant investment framework, the EOS Network will enter a new era of development opportunity previously unavailable to network participants.

The ENF Grant Framework is open to individuals, small teams, and companies alike, with grants scaled to fit the scope of each initiative. All forms of projects are encouraged to apply for grants however preference will be given to those with strong technical projects that clearly add to the public good.

ENF Grants have clear guidelines, an application process, a multi-stage approval process, and a milestone based pay-out system. A non-exhaustive guide to popular grant categories includes: Core EOSIO Chain / Sub-modules, Development Tools, UI Development, Backend Development, and Cryptography.

Grants are available to both “for profit” and “public good” entities, with the goal that all grants will benefit the EOS ecosystem. To maximize the chance of success applicants are advised to consult the acceptance recommendations.

Grants Levels

Grant proposals are accepted in three levels, each having different amounts and acceptance criteria. Each level of grant comes with different requirements and benefits commensurate with the size and scope of the project and funding level in question.

• Individual / Small — $10,000
• Team / Medium — Up to $50,000
• Company / Large — Over $50,000

Grant Types

There are three grant types that the ENF considers. Some are originated by the community itself, and some are proposed in the form of an RFP (Request For Proposal) by the ENF.

New Proposal

• Community initiated
• Follows standard grant process
• Wide range of projects

Maintenance Grant

• Community initiated
• Limited in scope
• Supports existing library, SDK, or tool

RFP Response

• ENF Initiated work request
• Open application process

Grant Process

The Grant Process itself consists of four major components. Grant submissions are reviewed and administered by the Grant Committee and the Milestone Delivery Process contains an External Evaluation step that rewards community participation depending on quality and depth.

• Application Process
• the Approval Process
• Milestone Reporting
• Payment(s)

The Grant Committee

The ENF is fortunate to have senior members of the EOS community serving on this committee. These are forward looking business leaders and developers who deeply understand EOS Ecosystem priorities and will make initial funding decisions based on program guidelines.

Yves La Rose — CEO of ENF

Aaron Cox — Founder of Greymass

Dafeng Guo — Founder of EOS Asia and Strikingly

Fu Pan — Founder and CEO of TokenPocket

Peter Watt — Newdex Project Leader

Van Kai — Iconic Founder and Leader of the EOS Cannon Community

Wen Huaqiang — Veteran Developer and Initiator of CryptoKylin

Damian Byeon — Founder of WYNG, Former CCO of ITAM Games, and Founder of AcroEOS

Grant Evaluators

The Grant Framework would be untenable without the in-depth technical acumen of the Grant Evaluators, who review applications approved by the Grant Committee for technical merit and achievability. The Evaluators are focused on whether the proposal solves the problem optimally, is realizable in the specified time frame, and utilizes proper processes as required for the milestone achievement metrics.

Areg Hayrapetian — Director of Engineering at EOS Network Foundation

Matt Witherspoon — Principal Engineer at EOS Network Foundation

Bart Wyatt — CTO of NFT42, Former B1 VP of Blockchain Engineering

Denis Carriere — CTO of EOS Nation

Grant Operations

Heading up the ENF’s Grant Operations program is a two person team with outstanding industry experience in operations and project management, focused on guiding the overall workflow of the ENF Grant process including: application acceptance and routing, notification of acceptance or rejection, monitoring of milestones and payment disbursals.

Ted Cahall — COO of the EOS Network Foundation

Jeff Werner — VP of Operations of the EOS Network Foundation

The Framework For A Stronger Future

The ENF Grant Framework completes a synergistic trio of funding pillars for the EOS community.

Eden leverages the wisdom of the crowd to select trusted leadership through the process of fractal democracy and distributes funds accordingly. Pomelo utilizes quadratic funding to distribute resources to projects based on community support, and finally, the Grant Framework directly evaluates and selects projects in search of funding based on transparent criteria and committee oversight, as well as being able to issue RFPs for development work as necessary. The ENF acts as a conduit for funding to all three of these. The potential synergies between the three initiatives are yet to be realized, but the interplay between Eden elections, Pomelo seasons, and the Grant Framework is shaping up to be a powerful recipe for highly productive development cycles within the EOS ecosystem.

The ENF will continue to maintain communication with the EOS community as projects begin to move through the application process, receive funds, and reach milestones. We are at the cusp of a new era in development on EOS, and proud to be here with such a steadfast and resilient community.

EOS Network

The EOS Network is a 3rd generation blockchain platform powered by the EOS VM, a low-latency, highly performant, and extensible WebAssembly engine for deterministic execution of near feeless transactions; purpose-built for enabling optimal web3 user and developer experiences. EOS is the flagship blockchain and financial center of the EOSIO protocol, serving as the driving force behind multi-chain collaboration and public goods funding for tools and infrastructure through the EOS Network Foundation (ENF).

EOS Network Foundation

The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) is a not-for-profit organization that coordinates financial and non-financial support to encourage the growth and development of the EOS Network. The ENF is the hub of the EOS Network, harnessing the power of decentralization as a force for positive global change to chart a coordinated future for EOS.