Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform: the first to be founded on peer-reviewed research and developed through evidence-based methods. Project Catalyst is a series of experiments in Cardano which seeks to generate the “highest levels of community innovation’’. A funding round for Project Catalyst happens around every 12 weeks. Through it, they have come up with campaigns where they fund peer proposals that aim to solve problems that have been laid out in time through challenges. In each funding round, community members can submit proposals to any of the challenges available.
There was a trial campaign in which the participants were not funded, they called it Fund One. This voting cycle was done together with the public, but did not offer ‘real’ funding. Before fund One there was Fund 0, whose participants were only internal IOG members. After Fund One, then came Fund 2 with real funding added, and now as I am writing we are in the beginning of Fund 9. This is with twois two years since Project Catalyst was begun. There are numerous incentives possible to receive during participation in Project Catalyst: These include the voter rewards, Proposal Advisor rewards, and the proposal rewards.
Till today there have been over 1000 projects funded and over 32 million US dollars spent to do the funding. These funds are not given in full but are paid in bits (monthly), and are paid in ADA. Project proposals are submitted under different categories, called Campaigns and in each campaign there are challenges. For each Campaign there are separate funds available. Beyond the Campaign Categories themselves, each Fund has had some overarching themes driving the community. Let’s look at some of the themes and results from past funds:
Fund 2
Fund 2 was an experiment in decentralized democracy and showed just how remarkable our community is, and how powerful decentralized decision-making can be. Fund 2 allocated $250,000 to community-driven projects focused on improving Cardano. Fund 2 generated incredible creativity and strong proposals. In this fund 12 projects were funded. Project Catalyst maintained an 8000 ADA threshold to vote so as to prevent security breaches. For Fund2, they devised a methodology for insuring price stability:
(1) We measure ADA/USD price showing on https://coinmarketcap.com/ on Oct 21 15:00 UTC (2020-10-21T15:00+00:00) = 0.107$ per ADA.
(2) At the date of rewards allocation. We will adjust the amount of ADA given to the winning proposal to be equivalent to the same amount of USD calculated in (1).
##Fund 3
Fund 3 had three challenges: Developer ecosystem challenge, DApp creation challenge, Community choice’ challenge. Fund 3 allowed community members to submit proposals for future Cardano development and decide which ones will be funded through Catalyst’s “on-chain” voting process. Fund 3 made $500,000 available for community proposals to help drive Cardano adoption. In this Fund 21 projects were funded, plus 2 community projectchallenges. In Fund 3 there was a food traceability solution for Africa and an African Blockchain Center for Developers. When their proposal won they received the amount they requested.
Food traceability solution - Africa
Solution: Mapping potential opportunities in Nigeria to apply a pilot using the outcomes of "EMURGO Traceability Solution" implemented in Indonesia.
ABCD
Solution: ABCD will create opportunities for Africans providing blockchain solutions to the world utilizing the pool of talent working from Africa.
Fund 4
Fund 4 focused on incentivizing solutions that make it easier for developers to build on top of Cardano. Fund 4 innovation phase launch: Feb 16th 2020 . There are some fundamental pillars on which Fund 4 is built on and they include: Developer ecosystem, Proposer outreach challenge, DApps and integration challenge, Distributed decision-making challenge, Local community centered challenge. Fund 4 voting was done on a mobile app. If you’ve registered to vote in Fund 4 or later, your registration will remain valid across voting rounds. In Fund 4 a total of 51 projects were funded and 5 community projects, you canchallenges, can check out the results in the link below. https://forum.cardano.org/t/project-catalyst-fund-4-official-results-56-projects-funded/66188 . Here are some examples of funded projects in Fund 4, again aimed at solving problems in Africa
West Africa Proposer Outreach
Solution: A 2-Day Virtual Event with guest speakers, project proposals, interviews, live Q&A and 2x1-hour webinar workshops (French & English)
West Africa Catalyst Onboarding
Solution: Implement a diversified membership scheme to attract and engage W/Africans to contribute to Project Catalyst goals
Local Centers in West Africa
Solution: Obtain Cardano Foundation funding to register Hubs, and to enable access to the Foundation's oversight and resources.
Cardano Adoption in D.R. of Congo
Solution: Create a local Blockchain Hub for Solution Design, for both developer and policy-maker onboarding.
Cardano has a focus on expansion to Africa, and you will find out that any proposal that links to Africa has a chance of getting funded. You can participate either with a proposal, as a voter or as a community advisor in the upcoming funds. Check out my next article as I take a look at some of the results from funds 5-8.
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