IOTA Ecosystem Fund ($10 million)

Every great open source project has a great ecosystem surrounding it, in many ways it is the defining characteristic that separates a mediocre project from a great one. A thriving ecosystem is a prerequisite for long term success. In that spirit we are very happy to announce the ‘IOTA Ecosystem Fund’, which is valued north of $10,000,000. This fund is entirely dedicated towards fostering growth of IOTA through incentivizing participation in expanding and shaping the ecosystem.

We firmly believe that a single demonstration outweighs a thousand presentations. A Proof of Concept takes a vision from the abstract idea realm and transforms it into a tangible concept others are inspired by in the real world, it conveys the vision better than any whitepaper, article or presentation ever could. If you are a developer, or a team of developers, this is your opportunity. Whether you are a Maker or a distributed ledger enthusiast we welcome you to explore the many possibilities of new applications that are possible to realize through IOTA’s unique distributed ledger technology. Whether it be something relatively simple like adding some sensors to a Raspberry Pi and making it useful through IOTA or something significantly more complex, the IOTA Ecosystem Fund exist to make it a reality

As elucidated in the public IOTA Development Roadmap, the engineering philosophy behind IOTA is one of modularity and pragmatism. Rather than attempting in vain to create a ‘all in one’ universal solution, which goes against all design and engineering principles, we instead keep the underlying ledger protocol as basic and efficient as possible and extend its utility through the IOTA eXtension Interface(IXI). Anyone can build an IXI module, whether it be for their own needs, due to there being a demand for it, or simply for the love of creating something useful.  

In addition to that, we also want to make the overall development of IOTA easier and widen its utility through libraries. If you have an idea for a library which you think is useful for the community, feel free to apply to get its development funded.

As mentioned before, the IXI modules is how IOTA manage to stay lightweight and optimized, while also extending its utility beyond the core client. New IXI modules take a lot of time to develop, often due to the vast amount of time that goes into research. If you are more inclined towards researching topics and writing whitepapers than coding, this is your opportunity to make money doing precisely that.

Nothing is more conducive to growth than teaching others to master what you have already mastered, at IOTA Learn we are curating tutorials on how to get started using and implementing IOTA into your projects. In order to ensure a certain quality and maintenance of tutorials, significant sums will be allocated towards this section. So if you have done a Proof of Concept or similar on IOTA and want to share the step by step process on how you did it, this is an opportunity for you to earn money while enriching the world of knowledge.

IOTA already has a history of co-hosting hackathons. Not only are hackathons fun, but they are also a very useful tool to bring brilliant people together to work on new ideas that otherwise might never be explored. We will host and co-host both virtual and physical hackathons throughout 2017 and 2018 with different themes in many different areas with sizable prizes, so keep you eye out for the upcoming announcements about these.

Update: We have now teamed up with F6S on this endeavor!

If you are interested in applying for funding in any of these categories, head over to the F6S form. There you will simply have to fill out some basic questions, including the ones about the total desired budget for the project, its scope, description, timeline and so on.  

The way that the funding works then is that some of our community representatives will get back to you, ask more questions and define the deliverables of the project with you. After the terms has been agreed upon the IOTA Foundation will greenlight the project and you will receive the first payment and the project will officially start.

Finally we want to give a special thanks to the community members who have been imperative in making the IOTA Ecosystem Fund a reality. Among these community heroes we find Achim Heiniger, Tristan Turner, Marc Bettinger, Khaoudy Yassin, Denzel Schwimmer and many more who have chosen to remain anonymous. You are a testament to the IOTA community’s progressive and dedicated attitude towards ensuring IOTA’s longevity and success.