Introducing the Neutron Grants Program

Introduction

Following the successful approval of our on-chain proposal, we're excited to update the Neutron community on the milestones achieved in the Neutron Grants Program (NGP) and outline our upcoming initiatives. This article serves as the cornerstone for future communications with current and prospective grantees, as well as the broader Neutron community. We're on the verge of opening the NGP for new grant applications, having laid the groundwork in legal, operational, and technical spheres to ensure the program's initial success.

The NGP aims to be a DAO-linked initiative designed to fund technical research, development, and other projects beneficial to the Neutron ecosystem. Governed by a 'BORG' structure, the program offers transparent and accountable management through smart contracts. We have been allocated 20 million NTRN, with a dedicated smart contract overseeing the distribution of up to 10.8 million NTRN in annual grants, and a multi-sig wallet managing an estimated $754,600 for operational expenses. For transparency reasons, the bylaws for foundation behind the NGP (the Neutron Grants Foundation) is available at the following link.

Our focus remains on positioning Neutron as the DeFi Hub of the Cosmos ecosystem. Grants will support a myriad of focus areas, from education and research to protocol development and user experience. Funding amounts will range from as low as $1,000 to as much as $500,000 in either NTRN or USDC. We've assembled a highly skilled committee to ensure that these resources are allocated effectively for the benefit of the Neutron community. As stated in the original proposal, the committee consists of the following members: Lanre Ige (Grants Lead), EffortCapital (Reviewer), Emir Izaddeen (Reviewer), David Park (Reviewer).

Focus Areas

In alignment with Neutron's strategic goals, the NGP will concentrate its funding efforts on the following areas:

• User Experience Applications: Tools and apps that directly benefit end-users.
• Developer Resources: Initiatives to enhance developer experience, including documentation and infrastructure.
• Core Protocol Development: Efforts aimed at optimizing the Neutron blockchain.
• User Interface Infrastructure: Enhancements to wallet integration, MEV mitigation, and other user-facing elements.
• Collaborative Funding: Joint ventures with other Cosmos ecosystem teams to foster collective growth.
• Education and Research: Projects aimed at educating users and advancing technical research beneficial to Neutron.

Within each of these pillars, we will present Requests for Proposal (RFPs) to help guide the initial wave of prospective grantees. In the original proposals we listed Requests for Proposal and in a follow-up post, we will go into more detail about specific Grants we wish to prioritize in the coming months based on initial research and early conversations with key Neutron and Cosmos stakeholders.

Progress so far

Even before the launch of the NGP, our team has been hard at work setting up the necessary infrastructure to successfully run the program. Here’s a brief summary of some of the work we have been carrying out behind the scenes:

• Setting up the legal infrastructure to run the NGP in a compliant way (the Neutron Grants Foundation)
• Setting up the technical infrastructure to run the NGP in a transparent and auditable way (whilst remaining accountable to the NeutronDAO) in the form of our custom grant contracts which give the NeutronDAO veto powers over our grant giving
• Setting up other operational infrastructure for the NGP (website, marketing strategy, etc.)
• Initial research to refine our core RFPs and working with key Neutron and Cosmos stakeholders and community members
• Diversifying the NGP's operational treasury to fund its first year of operations whilst avoiding any disruption to public secondary markets

Given the amount of progress that has been completed already we are in a position to officially launch the Grants Program as of today and you can apply via this link!

Next Steps

The crucial next step for the NGP is to officially launch the program which will allow prospective grantees to fill out a form available on our website and all our social media channels. We will intend to get back to our applicants within 2-3  weeks with our decision and/or next steps. In addition, we will be shortly publishing an article which will provide further details about our RFPs whilst also providing a deeper dive into some of our Core RFPs which we have earmarked for potentially receiving larger grants.

We hope this article has been informative and please contact us on Twitter or at grants@neutrongrants.com if you wish to share any feedback or if you have any questions.