Announcing the Cartesi Grants Program, Wave 1.

Wave 1 of the Cartesi Grants Program is live! Apply for a grant here.

The Cartesi ecosystem thrives in both bear and bull markets with all the interesting projects that are being built with Cartesi Rollups and the Cartesi Virtual Machine (CVM). It also benefits from many tools and resources that come directly from our community.

After a successful pilot for the Cartesi Grants Program (CGP), we funded builders and projects working on tooling, DeFi protocols, NFTs and generative art for the ecosystem. Take a look at the grantees here.

Now we’re so excited to announce Wave 1 of the Cartesi Grants Program (CGP) as a way to further grow the population of enthusiastic and value-aligned builders in the Cartesi ecosystem in the long term. We want to boost projects that are building within a new cone of innovation and all the behind-the-scenes work that makes it possible.

The Deets

• Applications are open for 4 months, starting from today, January 30th, 2024.
• The Cartesi Grants Council will allocate 1,000,000 USDC in total across Waves 1 and 2.
• Wave 1 will support qualifying projects with a fund of 500,000 USDC.
• Each grant will range between $5,000 - 50,000 USDC (milestone-based payments).
• Grantees can also receive additional support ranging from technical advice and guidance, marketing, consulting, as well as introductions to accelerators and investors.

Ready to apply? Check out the application process, template and guidelines over on Charmverse to get your proposal submission ready!

If you already have any questions or feedback, jump into the #cgp-questions channel on Discord or share under the Wave 1 overview governance post. Your feedback will inform Wave 2!

What We’re Looking For

The CGP will focus on projects that make great use of Cartesi technology and contribute to the long-term growth of the ecosystem. We’re specifically looking for:

New ideas & dApps

Encourage more contributors to propose and run experiments for improving Cartesi protocol through novel ideas.

Proposers whose ideas don’t necessarily fit into the other categories will likely find this category most suitable for their proposal.

• New ideas and dApps integrating with Cartesi stack are prioritized in this category.
• Projects should address groundbreaking ideas and solutions that address consensus mechanisms, DeFi protocols, NFTs, etc., and blockchain's end-user value.
• dApps that take advantage of opportunities created by Cartesi Rollups:
  • Traditional stacks as a base for dApps
  • CPU-intensive transactions
  • RAM-intensive transactions
• dApps that address any aspect (partially or completely) of the list of RFPs published.
• Novel approaches to aligning with wider blockchain community technical standards and initiatives within Cartesi rollups.
• New primitives that can be reused by other dApps.

Total allocation for Wave 1: $150,000 USDC

Research & Integrations

We’re looking to support important research and integrations that are key to the development of the Cartesi ecosystem at large. To do this, we’ve focused on two separate tracks within this category:

Track 1: Research and Proof of Concept of Integration

Objective: Fund research and solutions that integrate Cartesi technology with other innovative technologies.

Examples of possible integrations:

• Oracles
• Identity providers
• Bridges
• Sequencing
• Fraud proofs

Track 2: Research and Development

Objective: This track is dedicated to in-depth research on topics we have identified as crucial for the advancement of the Cartesi ecosystem.

Examples of Research proposals:

• Fraud-proofs and other L2 consensus mechanisms can be employed by Cartesi.
• Alternative setups for Cartesi Rollups, including other architectures, operating systems, Data Availability solutions etc.
• Interoperability and decentralized bridging with other L2s.

Total allocation for Wave 1: $100,000 USDC

Developer tooling

The Grants Council is also funding grants for tools that empower developers to build any and all Cartesi dApps more easily. These could be:

• Tools that improve the developer experience when building on Cartesi.
  • EG: Random number generator integration (Drand)
• Frameworks that scale abstractions and make it easy to build on Cartesi.
• Testing and debugging frameworks that help make Cartesi dApps more robust.
• Monitoring and analytics tools that help developers assess dApp performance.

Total allocation for Wave 1: $100,000 USDC

Gaming

Games are a great way to feature the added functionality that Cartesi brings to web3 in an interactive and understandable way. Some eligible projects could include:

• Games that highlight the capabilities of Cartesi, e.g, on-chain games requiring extensive computational power or those that distinctively utilize its RISC-V / Linux VM
• Infrastructure and tooling that simplifies game development on Cartesi.
• Open-source games that can be reused/built upon by other developers.
  • EG: Ultrachess - an on-chain AI chess arena that allows players to compete against other humans, or deploy their own chess engines as NFTs to compete on their behalf.

Total allocation for Wave 1: $150,000 USDC

Why Apply?

Cartesi and the Grants Council have supported many groundbreaking ecosystem projects in the past with both funding and advisory. Some of these projects have been hackathon winners and proofs of concept for innovative dApps that could only be built on top of Cartesi technology, such as:

• DCA.Monster: a novel AMM leveraging ERC20 streams for granular, efficient on-chain DCA. For streamable tokens, Cartesi provides a scalable environment for the efficient handling of large-scale streams and precise real-time balance computations. Additionally, DCA’s AMM feature leverages Cartesi’s computational strengths to introduce advanced swap modalities, which would be computationally infeasible without the capabilities provided by Cartesi.
• AI License Plate Violations detector: an on-chain-verifiable image recognition system using AI algorithms, which can be run on the Cartesi Virtual Machine and whose results can be stored in the blockchain.
• A collective painting dApp: allowing users to collaboratively paint and generate unique NFTs. A playground dApp that showcases how Cartesi supports the implementation of complex decentralized logic with software libraries readily accessible in the open-source world.
• Complex Vouchers: An RFP proposal for implementing Complex Vouchers in Cartesi Rollups.
• Dazzle: a competitive online puzzle RPG that leverages Cartesi Rollups and the Cartesi Machine for high-stake, e-sport-like tournaments.

These projects have chosen to build on Cartesi because it’s a scalability solution where every dApp can count on:

• Its own optimistic rollup with dedicated CPU power
• A VM with support for RISC-V architecture that boots an entire Linux OS. Supports decades of existing rich code libraries, programming languages, and open-source tooling.
• Predictable and stable fees with no competition over limited blockspace
• A customizable app stack, data solutions, and other dApp-specific needs

…And it’s not just money. CGP grantees will also benefit from technical support, introductions to accelerators and investors, consulting services, and access to marketing.

How to Apply?

Bear or bull, it doesn’t matter! Help grow the Cartesi ecosystem and reap the benefits of computational and abstraction scalability. Here’s how you can apply:

1. Log-in to CharmVerse
2. Click on the funding category that you are applying for
3. Complete the Proposal form
4. Once you've completed your proposal, click publish at the bottom to submit it for review by the Grants Council

Take a look here for a more detailed guide on the application process, or check out this quick application tutorial that will walk you through the process.

Application Resources

• Explore grant ideas from the Cartesi community repo to find inspiration for your proposal. We encourage proposals that fit into one of the four funding categories listed above.
• Just want a new project to get stuck into? Browse projects from the Cartesi Grants Wishlist (RFPs) for a quick and easy way to get started.
• New to Cartesi? Get familiar by reading the docs, or check out these blog articles for a high-level overview of the Cartesi stack.
• Learn more about Cartesi use cases across DeFi, NFTs, AI, and Gaming to spark an idea for your project proposal.

Other ways to get involved

Not a developer, but want to contribute to the growth of the Cartesi Ecosystem? We love to see it! Here’s how you can help:

• Submit a request for proposal: Have a great idea for something that you want to see built with Cartesi tech? Submit an RFP to the Governance forum to get it added to the Cartesi Grants Wishlist (RFPs) for developers to browse.
• Vote: The Grants Council will review and discuss proposals on a weekly basis to determine which proposals will be pushed to Snapshot for a wider community vote. If a majority of token holders vote in favor of the proposal at the end of the 7-day voting period, the proposal will be officially approved for funding. Only those with staked CTSI are eligible to vote on Snapshot, so make sure you’re ready by staking your CTSI before the vote opens.
• Spread the word! Let other people know about the Cartesi Grants Program, be it a developer friend or web3 community/DAO you’re involved with.