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LEARN DEVELOPER NODE OPERATOR GRANTS

Dusk Grants Program

Thesan

Dusk’s grants program is named after Thesan, the Etruscan goddess of the dawn.

Thesan

noun /ˈθɛ.sæn/

is associated with the rising sun, the breaking of dawn, and the awakening of the world each day.

She is depicted as a radiant and youthful goddess, and often portrayed with wings and a torch to symbolize the light she brings. Thesan also represents childbirth and the giving of new life.

What is Thesan?

The Thesan grants program is designed to drive innovation and growth within the Dusk ecosystem by supporting projects through grants, investments, and Request for Proposals (RFPs).

Thesan focuses on positioning Dusk as the backbone for fintech by being its Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI). This means that Thesan incentivizes initiatives that advance Dusk’s role in facilitating the clearance and settlement of real-world assets (RWAs).

Grants Categories

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 people that contribute positively to the community and allow others within the ecosystem to benefit from, learn, and build upon these contributions.

There are two main categories for grant requests:

  • Requests for Proposals (RFPs) : Projects that Dusk is actively interested in funding, following predetermined specifications and objectives.
  • Community Proposals: Projects proposed directly by the community that, even if not listed in existing RFPs, benefit the overall Dusk ecosystem.

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

General Requirements

Thesan 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 be able to enroll in a Know Your Business (KYB) process. This requires the grant receiver to 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 license or Mozilla Public License 2.0, 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 with the Apache 2.0 license or Mozilla Public License 2.0.

  • Detailed Technical Specifications: Provide comprehensive technical specifications and descriptions of core components along with their scope. Sharing GitHub profiles of team members to demonstrate previous coding experience is beneficial.

  • Detailed Milestones and Budgeting: Carefully consider and justify the funding amount you are requesting. Provide a milestone-based budget detailed enough to clearly 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 1-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 to consider any application.

Additional requirements (non-RFP)

For grant submissions that do not belong to a specific RFP, it is crucial to also include:

  • 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 30,000 USD.

  • Clear Benefit to Dusk’s Strategic Objectives: Ensure the project aligns with Dusk’s strategic goal of becoming the leading FMI for fintech, specifically facilitating the clearance and settlement of Real World Assets (RWAs).

How to Apply

Fill out the Thesan application form. The information requested is highly useful for the Dusk team to properly evaluate the grant. For this reason, make sure to take your time to answer all the relevant questions in detail.

As the application may require some time, it is recommended to write your answers first in a text file and later on paste them in the form.

Decision & Follow-Up

Applicants will be informed by receiving an email to the email address provided in their application about 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 milestones’ completion, we kindly ask you to provide extensive documentation and testing:

  • Documentation. Documentation is vital for other developers to understand how your project works. For this reason, 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 individual 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. For any Rust code, it is highly encouraged to stick to the Style Guidelines. For other coding languages, it is recommended to follow established standards.

Join the Dusk ecosystem

Funding is available for the wider ecosystem for projects that benefit Dusk. This can range from protocols built on Dusk, protocols that will make use of Dusk’s technology, compliance, and privacy, or broader initiatives like security and auditing, events, hackathons, and documentation.

If you have an idea that is of benefit to the Dusk ecosystem, token holders, and makes good use of the tech stack, we’re looking forward to your application.