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Dusk Grants Program

The Dusk Grants Program is designed to drive innovation and growth within the Dusk ecosystem by supporting projects through grants and investments.

Grants incentivize teams to help position Dusk as the backbone for fintech by serving as its Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI). This means that the Dusk Grants Program incentivizes initiatives that advance Dusk’s role in facilitating the clearance and settlement of real‑world assets (RWAs).

Embracing the ethos of open source within the Dusk ecosystem, and in line with our commitment to making Dusk a truly decentralized protocol, we seek to support projects and individuals who contribute positively to the community, allowing others to benefit, learn, and build upon these contributions.

Depending on the maturity of the project proposal and the applicant’s experience, ad-hoc deals involving funding for equity can also be discussed.

Requirements

The Dusk Grants Program prioritizes several key elements in all grant applications. Your application will have a higher chance of approval if it includes the following:

  • Ability to enroll in a KYB process: Applicants must complete a Know Your Business (KYB) check. The grant receiver must be an individual capable of issuing invoices for milestone payments or a company/legal entity eligible to apply for the grant. Applicants from prohibited jurisdictions will not be considered.

  • Open source software: The majority of the software provided must be open‑source and available under an Apache 2.0 or Mozilla Public License 2.0 license, included in every relevant GitHub repository. The software should operate independently of proprietary software, ensuring any dependencies on external software or IP are also compatible under Apache 2.0 or MPL 2.0.

  • Detailed technical specifications: Provide comprehensive technical specifications and descriptions of core components along with their scope.

  • Detailed milestones and budgeting: Carefully justify the requested funding amount. Provide a milestone‑based budget detailed enough to justify the requested funding and its scope. Cost breakdowns of each milestone should be based on the number of full‑time employees working on it and their required time. Providing approximate timelines for each milestone is highly encouraged.

  • Long‑term commitment: It is required to include a final milestone that covers a one‑year maintenance plan for the delivered repositories. Documenting concrete steps to transform the grant project into a sustainable business is highly appreciated (as well as suggested future collaboration with Dusk).

  • Prior experience: Verifiable technical expertise or evidence of preliminary research/work increases the chances of approval. Sharing the GitHub profiles of team members, relevant repositories, and any previous research carried out is essential for consideration.

  • Quantifiable business deliverables: Detail both technical and quantifiable business deliverables. Justify how the funding will enhance Total Value Locked (TVL), transaction volume, developer engagement, or integration with existing legal frameworks. This evaluation element is particularly critical for funding requests exceeding $20,000.

  • Clear benefit to Dusk’s strategic objectives: Ensure the project aligns with Dusk’s strategic goal of becoming the leading Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI), specifically facilitating the clearance and settlement of securities and other real‑world assets (RWAs).

How to Apply

Fill out the grants application form.
Because the form can take time, draft your answers offline in a text file, then paste them into the form.

Decision & Follow‑Up

Applicants will be informed via the email address they provided of the decision on their proposal. Dusk’s team will strive to get back to each applicant as soon as possible, regardless of the outcome of the submission.

Successful applicants will then coordinate with the Dusk Business Team to finalize the terms of the grant agreement.

Completion Criteria

To ensure a smooth and rapid assessment of milestone completion, we kindly ask you to provide extensive documentation and testing:

  • Documentation. Documentation is vital for other developers to understand how your project works. Therefore, along with software deliveries, detailed technical documentation needs to be provided, including:

    • Required dependencies and configurations.
    • Necessary steps to install, compile, run, and test.
    • Comprehensive list and description of API calls utilized in the project (if applicable).
    • Overview of the entire project architecture, along with detailed descriptions of each component.

  • Testing. To ensure the quality and functionality of each milestone delivery, it is required to include a comprehensive testing suite. Logical components of the delivered code should be accompanied by unit tests, and integration tests need to be provided when applicable.

  • Formatting and Style. It is recommended to follow established coding standards.

Join the Dusk ecosystem

If you have an idea that is of benefit to the Dusk ecosystem and token holders and makes good use of the tech stack, apply now.