Project Catalyst Funds - 5-9

CARDANO FUNDS PART II

In part one we looked at the beginning of Project Catalyst, starting with the trial fund, through to Fund 4. In this part we will dive into details about Fund 5 to Fund 9 which as I am writing is at the beginning stage. Every fund starts with a number of campaign challenges which define the problems that proposers are tasked to solve.

Fund 5

In this Fund there were nine challenges and a total of $1.6m was awarded. There were a total of 244 project proposals and 69 projects were funded. Here is one project that was funded in the “Grow Africa, Grow Cardano” Campaign, called “Planting Roots in Africa.” This proposal solution states that the lack of infrastructure development is a ground upon which Cardano growth is derailed. Its plans will come from the ground, but African devs lack infrastructure to push Cardano forward. Cardano community support is needed. Four areas it majors with are Infrastructure (main purpose of this proposal), Education, Development and, Outreach.

Fund 6

In this Fund there were 19 challenges, 152 funded proposals and $3.3million awarded. One of the challenges was about Metadata; in this challenge, there were 30 proposals and only 9 were approved. Voting in this fund was done online with the same registration details used in Fund 4 and Fund 5 (The idea is - you register in your chosen wallet where available and then vote via Catalyst App). In Fund 6 there was a Grow Africa Grow Cardano challenge, also, and one of the funded proposals was called “The CatalystSchool - Focusing Africa”. The CatalystSchool is a project which creates a place that enhances the impact of Catalyst as a whole by improving the contribution of all its different players and roles.

Fund 7

In this fund there were 25 challenges, 268 funded proposals and $6.5M awarded. In the “Scale up Cardano’s Community Hubs” challenge there was a Cardano Blockchain Lab in Kenya that was funded. I am beneficiary of this proposal, as I work as a translator on Lido Nation Swahili articles. The building of this lab in Kenya has made working easier as I get access to resources, data and even human personnel. Lido Nation partnered with an NGO in Kenya, where they got a team of graduates to join in as developers and community outreach officers for Cardano.

Fund 8

In Fund 8 there were 23 challenges, 360 funded proposals and $12.6M awarded. In the “Grow Africa Grow Cardano” challenge, the Africa Catalyst school was funded. The aim of this proposal was to Provide Africa with a Catalyst school to onboard local communities and enhance the impact of Catalyst in the continent. This project is a collaboration between WADA (West African Decentralized Alliance) and the main Catalyst school.

Fund 9 Fund 9 is at its prime, new proposals were accepted until June 30, and are now awaiting assessments in July, and voting in August. The strategic goals of Fund 9 are four:

• Prepare a group of people willing and able to make contributions to the ecosystem.
• Turn Cardano into an open source project & attract more developers.
• Build real-world solutions based on the Cardano blockchain.
• Improve tooling to support human processes in Catalyst.

This will be used in determining the winning proposals in the given challenges. There is a ‘Grow Africa Grow Cardano’ challenge. One proposal is “Swahili Learn to Earn”. This project is both clear and practical, while taking on relevant considerations of language, local context, and monetary incentivization. It takes up the fact that most African countries have Swahili as a language majorly used and uses it to increase the Blockchain awareness.