Leading blockchain research and development company IOHK this week announced the launch of a $500k fund, the next stage in Project Catalyst, part of the rollout of the Voltaire element of the Cardano roadmap.
In Fund 3 community members can submit proposals for the future development of the Cardano blockchain and decide, through Catalyst’s novel ‘on-chain’ voting process, which proposals are funded. The launch follows the successful completion of Fund 2, which attracted proposals on everything from improvements to Cardano, to Cardano adoption in West Africa and lowering the barriers to entry for developers on Cardano. Fund 2 saw $250k allocated to fund community-generated projects focused on improving Cardano.
Project Catalyst aims to be the world’s largest decentralized innovation fund, and with 1,752 community members registered to vote, it has already surpassed the number of unique voters in other prominent projects such as Dash, as well as all of Ethereum’s top 100 DAOs (decentralized autonomous organisations) combined.
Catalyst is the next step in Cardano’s journey to hand over the governance of the platform to its community. It aims to inspire a wide range of technical and non-technical ideas designed to enhance Cardano as a whole. This can include proposals on anything from marketing initiatives and infrastructure development, to content production and product enhancement.
While available funds in this round total $500k, subsequent rounds will offer increased funding pots, aiming to distribute around $100million of ada per year, depending on token price.
“The founding principle of Cardano is decentralized control,” IOHK CEO Charles Hoskinson said. “This principle encompasses not only the marginalized people that Cardano will empower, but also how the platform is run. Through Project Catalyst and its associated funds, all Cardano community members can play a role in deciding the future of the platform.
“Fund 2 was an experiment in decentralized democracy and showed just how remarkable our community is, and how powerful decentralized decision-making can be. Thousands of people came together to generate, refine and prioritize funding for proposals to drive Cardano forward, and we look forward to watching as Project Catalyst grows to become the world’s largest decentralized innovation and funding platform.”
