Catalyst FC 12

The number twelve has always held high significance. There are twelve zodiac signs, twelve calendar months, twelve hours on the clock. Perhaps it is no coincidence that some big changes are being introduced or refined in Cardano’s Project Catalyst twelfth iteration.

If you’re new around here…

Project Catalyst is an experiment to bring on-chain governance to Cardano. Teams and individuals building on or for Cardano can receive financial and other support from the Cardano treasury to build cool stuff about every four months… and there’s more!

To dig deeper into project Catalyst, checkout our landing page of in-depth articles at www.lidonation.com/tags/project-Catalyst.

On Apr 26, 2024, the twelfth round of Project Catalyst kicked off with the biggest bang in the project’s history. For the first time ever, there was a physical kickoff event held in Barcelona. Rather than the usual zoom call with presentations and announcements regarding the new funding round, a couple hundred people filled a room in Barcelona to receive the presentation in person. The event was also live-streamed, with hundreds tuning in. A cake was involved. IOG chief of staff J.J. Siler gave the opening keynote and the Cardano Foundation CEO, Frederik Gregaard, delivered a virtual closing keynote.

The Barcelona event will be complemented by 14 other live events. Some already took place alongside Barcelona on the 26th. Others are scheduled to take place through the end of June. In addition to the 15 in-person events, there are also 10 online events. All of this was made possible by a 1M ada winning proposal in Fund 11.

Fund 12

Fund 12 is officially launched! Proposal submission opens up on April 29 and will remain open for two weeks for most people. There is again 50 Million ada up for grabs. The categories that proposals can be submitted to have mostly remained the same as Fund 11, with the addition of a new “Cardano Partners and Real World Integrations” category.

This is a special category targeting exclusively companies or consortiums with over 5M per annum revenue. Qualifying teams have a cap of 2M ada budget to propose solutions. These proposals have an extended window, until June 6, to submit proposals. These proposals will skip the community review process and go straight to the ballot, after a traditional review and preapproval step done by the intersect civics working group.

For a more detailed timeline and full fund 12 rules and parameters see docs.projectCatalyst.io.

Catalyst Working Groups (CWGs)

The global in-person events punctuating the Barcelona Fund 12 launch is a part of a new experiment to bring more community involvement into governance of Project Catalyst. This is the third experiment after the idea of Challenge Teams, then the Catalyst Circle. Catalyst Working Groups are a collaborative global series of workshops within the Cardano community focusing on specific aspects of the Catalyst ecosystem.

The CWGs will be looking at Catalyst Strategic Funding Priorities CWG, Catalyst Operating Parameters CWG, and Catalyst-Funded Project Incubation and Acceleration CWG. The outputs of these workshops are meant to shape future funding categories, rules and parameters and resources provided by Project Catalyst beyond funding. Many working group sessions have already taken place with the last one in this series scheduled for the end of June. I myself was part of the two-day Nairobi in person working group on the 25 and 26th and will probably attend a couple of the online sessions. For a full schedule of this series of working groups and related outputs, bookmark https://Catalystwg.gitbook.io/docs/cwg-schedule.

Catalyst FC

The revelation of Catalyst FC came as a short teaser at the Barcelona event, with the promise of more information to come. Unfortunately it is not a Football Club! Catalyst Foundation Company (Catalyst FC) is a registered IOG spin-off, in a ‘crypto friendly jurisdiction,’ with the mandate to deliver the program and be the legal real-world interface to Catalyst. The goal is to create more legal clarity around Catalyst grants.

All outstanding and future funded teams are expected to enter a legal contract with this new entity which has been quietly running since around Fund 10. The formation of this legal entity is what has paved the way for the much needed projectcatalyst.io and other resources that have popped up since Fund 10.

The team promised more details soon, so look forward to that. Perhaps the answer to how you report the source of income and justify jurisdictional tax assumptions will also come with the promised details.

The Cardano Foundation voting

During Federick’s closing keynote, he congratulated the impact of the Catalyst so far and expressed the foundation’s continual support and involvement with Project Catalyst. Prior to Fund 10, the Cardano Foundation’s involvement in project Catalyst took the shape of 1 seat on the Catalyst Circle as well as voting on the challenge setting for the next fund. Well, with both Challenge Setting votes and the Catalyst Circle sunsetting, the foundation is reexamining future participation. Frederick made it clear that nothing is set in stone at the moment but the foundation is exploring both submitting Catalyst proposals for some agendas as well as voting on proposals like any other community member. Discussions about the implications are already happening among the community and I’m sure will come up during future working group sessions. What are your thoughts on this level of participation of one of the founding entities - one that controls more than 600 Million Ada (which equals voting power). What questions does it raise for you? Leave them in the comment!

Conclusion

If you’ve been around for a fund or two, you might be familiar with its unusual anthem:

Welcome to the experiment! Things may: Break, Lack documentation, Differ greatly between iterations, Disorient, overload, and inspire… Our goal is to provide a safe and lively environment for you to explore the highest potential of human collaboration.

Beyond astrology and counting, the number 12 has even risen to biblical proportions, often associated with completeness or perfection. While it may be time for a new anthem, Fund 12 feels like a new, more perfect era of iteration and experimentation. In Fund 10, the Catalyst Team won a proposal to reshape and deliver 3 funding rounds in 2024, 11, 12, and 13. The full scope of this work remains to be realized so it’s fair to say more big changes lie ahead. Perhaps going forward, inspiration, a safe and lively environment to explore the highest level of potential of human collaboration will be at the forefront instead of the previous breaking, lack of documentation and disorientation.