Algorand Foundation Launches $50 Million Developer Grants Program

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The Algorand Foundation announced the launch of a 250 million ALGO grants program, providing around $50 million in stimulus for the project’s developer ecosystem.

ALGO Grants Program for App Builders

The Singapore-based foundation, an organization focused on engaging, educating, and enabling its community to build a borderless, frictionless economy on public, decentralized blockchain technology, will dole out 250 million ALGO tokens to app developers. 

The worldwide, multi-year program will provide funding to projects building apps to support infrastructure, end-user application, and research innovation on its blockchain.

As part of the program, 250 million ALGO, worth approximately $50 million, will be allocated to qualified developers across four major categories: novel research, development tools for the Algorand blockchain, applications (dApps) built on the platform, and education and community initiatives.

Potential use cases could include DeFi, payments, asset exchanges, social media integration, supply chain, copyright authentication, and asset tokenization.

Algorand Supporting Innovation

The ALGO Grants Program hopes to support innovation within the Algorand ecosystem. Fangfang Chen, Head of Operations at the Algorand Foundation, said:

“We believe that a public, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain with an open-source approach is fundamental to delivering on the vision of a borderless economy. As part of its vision of enabling a broad and active blockchain development community, the Algorand Foundation is committed to supporting that community as they explore the opportunities for innovation that exist within the Algorand blockchain ecosystem.”

The program has already awarded three grants. Multi-blockchain infrastructure provider, Bloq, which delivers Algorand nodes and APIs alongside other major networks received one grant. 

PureStake AlgoSigner, an open-source browser plug-in that enables developers to add Algorand transaction capabilities into their applications won another. Derek Yoo, CEO at PureStake said:

“Easy and pragmatic developer tools are critical to further expanding the accessibility of the Algorand network. We are pleased to have been selected by the Algorand Foundation for a grant that lets us break down barriers between token holders, application developers, and the blockchain network itself.”  

Reach, a development platform designed to remove the complexity of building dApps on the Algorand blockchain and to enable the future creation of DAOs, DEXs, and many other DeFi applications on Algorand was the recipient of the third. For Chris Swenor, founder of Reach, the grant “will be instrumental in accelerating the adoption of Algorand’s platform.”

Some Grants Will Be Decided by Vote

The Algorand Foundation will conduct the initial evaluation of the projects. In the future, the foundation plans to introduce an open grant program, which will allow the broader community to vote on which projects should receive grants. 

In support of participants in the grant program, the developer relations portal has been enhanced with new tutorials, solutions, and resources to make building on Algorand more simple and accessible. Chen told Crypto Briefing:

“We know that the Algorand blockchain can unlock the potential for so many amazing innovations across the financial ecosystem, but oftentimes a lack of funds gets in the way. That’s why the 250 Million ALGO Grants program is so exciting. We’re providing an economic stimulus to the blockchain development community, which is especially important during the challenging times caused by the current pandemic.” 

It’s exciting to to see whether this stimulus will have a lasting impact on Algorand’s budding developer community.

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