EasyA x Polkadot University Microgrants Bounty
Background context
The EasyA x Polkadot University is currently being established with the support of the Web3 Foundation by means of a Decentralized Futures grant. Its purpose is to attract top university talent to build on Polkadot. Universities are a priceless source of blockchain innovation. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Polkadot’s own co-founder Robert Habermeier were both students when they left academia to build two of the world’s most successful blockchains.
The purpose of this bounty is to fund the microgrants programme for early-stage builders on Polkadot, as envisaged in the EasyA x Polkadot University’s founding mission. This will be modelled on Solana’s fast-grants model with a similar goal, but for Polkadot: anyone who wants to build on Polkadot can get initial funding to do so.
Hundreds of incredible EasyA builders have been inspired to build on Polkadot at our hackathons. Now, let’s get them funded!
The problem
This bounty is a response to the following problems in the Polkadot builder funnel:
- Polkadot doesn’t have clear funding opportunities for very early-stage builders; and
- There is no fast way for developers inspired about Polkadot to get funding to build.
These are both holding back the Polkadot ecosystem, and other blockchains that have solved this are rapidly growing their developer base.
The solution
The good news is that the answer to the above problems is simple:
- A clear programme for early-stage builders to get funding (up to $10,000 each); and
- Approvals made as fast as within 72 hours
Curators
The multisig will be a 3 out of 5:
- Otar Shakarishvili from JUST Open Source
- Phil Kwok from EasyA
- Dom Kwok from EasyA
- TBD*
- TBD*
*The remaining two curators are currently being finalised, and will be invited for their complementary skills - in particular their development expertise, and investment expertise. These curators will be proposed once they have agreed to join the curator set.
Conclusion
Everyone in the Polkadot ecosystem can feel that we’re at an inflection point. As contributors to the Polkadot ecosystem since 2022, we can sense this more than ever. Plaza is right around the corner, agile coretime has arrived, and we’ve inspired a record number of developers about Polkadot’s potential. Whereas previously Polkadot itself was only open to chain builders, it is now opening up to smart contract builders. This is a once in a cycle opportunity. And the EasyA x Polkadot University Microgrants programme is set to capitalise on this.
This bounty will benefit the whole Polkadot ecosystem, including programmes further downstream, producing top talent for bounties like the Dot Play and Open Source Developer Grants Bounty, with whom we are collaborating closely.
Thank you for taking the time to read our proposal. If you have any questions or suggestions, please do comment them here!
Our full proposal is available here. This includes more detail on the differences between this Bounty and the others that already exist, how it will work with those ecosystems, success metrics, budget, the Bounty manifesto, and other important information.
Comments (1)
Clearly I am interested in the success of the EasyA team, and their overall initiative to bring people on ground zero started on the journey into Polkadot.
Getting people to build their first hello world in Polkadot is an extremely important of the developer journey, and it seems that the EasyA team has the charisma, event coordination ability, and connections to universities to be a major part of that.
But I want to start a conversation about hard truths here.
Which is that the EasyA appa and EasyA educational content is not up to par for even this beginning journey.
I also am not a big fan of the brand "Polkadot University". This makes me feel like the program itself is an real educationalprogram, versus having a presence at universities with entry level hackathons. Truthfully, I find calling this program "Polkadot University" to be a big disservice to the work done by the Polkadot Blockchain Academy and the Web3 Foundation Education program, which are real university level educaitonal content.
So I want to discuss the path forward and toward success between Polkadot and the EasyA team.
Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully answer my concerns.
@shawntabrizi
Hi Shawn,
Thank you for reviewing our proposal! We appreciate your kind words about our charisma and awesome work in the Polkadot ecosystem, particularly around our connections with top universities and in-person events. As you say, we need to bring more people from ground zero up and into Polkadot.
Your questions seem to be focused around the EasyA in-app content and EasyA x Polkadot University. So that people coming to this discussion aren’t confused, we would like to start by clarifying that this proposal is separate from both of those.
The EasyA in-app content is funded by the Polkadot treasury. The same is true for the in-person Polkadot hackathons we host. The EasyA x Polkadot University does not change this.
The EasyA x Polkadot University itself is being supported by the Web3 Foundation. In the words of the Web3 Foundation, this support enables EasyA to build a ‘programme that focuses on educating students about Polkadot and helping them launch new projects in the ecosystem’. It does not fund the fast-track grants themselves, even though they are a core pillar of the EasyA x Polkadot University.
For context, this combination of Polkadot treasury and Web3 Foundation support is broadly the same mechanism as that which supports other Decentralized Futures teams, like Distractive, Dot Play etc.
As such, many of these questions are technically off-topic here, since this proposal solely concerns the fast-grants bounty (not EasyA hackathons, or EasyA in-app content). EasyA representatives are just 2 of the curators of this bounty, alongside the other independent curators. To clarify, EasyA curators will not receive a curator fee (as set out in the Bounty manifesto); this bounty’s goal is to solve fundamental problems in the Polkadot builder funnel, and will benefit the whole ecosystem.
However, we appreciate you taking the time to ask these questions. Therefore, we have taken the time to answer them here.
Here are our responses, grouped under the 4 main themes of your questions:
1. In-app content
We first launched Polkadot in the EasyA app early last year. Our community loved it, and have continued to do so. It quickly proved to be an easy first step into the ecosystem, bringing hundreds of new builders to each of our in-person Polkadot hackathons.
Since launching Polkadot in the EasyA app, there have been major developments for Polkadot, and indeed for the ecosystem as a whole. Therefore, this year we took on the task of updating it. We have already updated the content on most of the parachains, and are coming to Polkadot at its core next.
There’s a lot that we’ve learnt about what newcomers to the Polkadot ecosystem need, and so we’re now perfectly positioned to take the in-app content to the next level!
In particular, we’re excited to be working together with experts in the Polkadot ecosystem like PaperMoon. At your suggestion, we’ve already moved to make the content open source, so that we can welcome the community’s contributions.
The EasyA app has proven product-market fit. It has delivered immeasurable value to Web3 and the developer community. The app inspires builders about what’s possible in Web3, all in the form factor people use and love most: mobile. Once builders have been inspired, they’re then primed to go deeper into the ecosystem. One of the primary reasons EasyA hackathons are always sold-out shows that generate massive excitement IRL and online is the education we provide developers via the EasyA app in the run-up to our hackathons.
In fact, the EasyA app has become one of the most popular ways for people outside the Polkadot ecosystem learn about Polkadot.
2. EasyA x Polkadot University branding
Thank you for sharing your perspective on the naming here. We aren’t in competition with those other educational initiatives, who have done great work in the ecosystem. We carefully chose the name University, since our programme is indeed actually focused on universities.
We have made this clear in our communications, and are positioned as a core growth funnel from universities into Polkadot. This naming makes the most sense.
As the Web3 Foundation explains in its announcement of the EasyA x Polkadot University: 'EasyA has now set its sights on building the EasyA x Polkadot University, an initiative designed to tap into university talent to fuel growth in the Polkadot ecosystem'.
We all acknowledge that there is not enough top new talent coming into the Polkadot ecosystem. Our core thesis is that universities will be a big driver of growth. The EasyA x Polkadot University is the result of months of work and refinement with detailed feedback and discussions with the Web3 Foundation.
We are of course always open to ideas/suggestions!
3. Resources
We are currently finalising the roll-out for the EasyA x Polkadot University, so this is perfect timing! As explained in the Web3 Foundation’s announcement, our programme has 3 core pillars:
a. Workshops
b. Hackathons
c. Fast-grants
As we finalise the roll-out, we’re working together with the ecosystem and its projects to gather their feedback and suggestions. Specifically, Plaza has been put forward as being of high importance. We are currently waiting on the testnet, but as soon as this is available PaperMoon will be taking the lead on building out the documentation around it. We will be working closely with them on it, alongside other resources.
In terms of making someone available at each workshop, our goal is to work towards the eventual decentralization of the EasyA x Polkadot University as much as possible to ensure its long-term sustainability, as well as to scale as quickly as possible. Therefore, our plan is to work with PaperMoon and other ecosystem participants to build workshops packs that can be leveraged by student ambassadors. We have leveraged these to great effect with other fast-growing blockchain ecosystems.
We are therefore still refining precisely what this will look like, and welcome your suggestions while we are still shaping everything.
4. Launching into Polkadot
This microgrants bounty is precisely the means by which we can help developers launch on Polkadot rather than taking their ideas to other chains. As we’ve explained in our full Bounty proposal here, two of the biggest issues we’ve seen in the Polkadot builder funnel are the lack of clear funding opportunities for very early-stage builders, and the lack of a fast way for developers inspired about Polkadot to get funding to build. This bounty is a key step towards solving those issues and provides builders with a logical next step after winning a hackathon.
Far from educating developers and then those developers going to other EVM chains, Plaza is a huge opportunity to bring EVM developers to Polkadot who might otherwise have built on other chains. We agree with Rob Habermeier on this point.
Conclusion
Thank you for your messages on Telegram about chatting on a call too - we’ve responded and are looking forward to finding a time.
To sum up, thank you for sharing your thoughts. They come at the perfect time, while we are putting together the foundational elements. We would love to hear your specific suggestions so that we can take action on them. We’re looking forward to working together and to bringing the best builders to Polkadot and overall growing the ecosystem!
– Phil and Dom (EasyA Co-Founders)