🌎 Polygon Introduces $MATIC Grants to Boost Developer Ecosystem

Polygon Launches Community Grants Program to Support Developers

Polygon has announced the launch of Season 01 of its Community Grants Program aimed at supporting projects within the Polygon and Ethereum ecosystems. Starting June 11, the program will allocate 35 million MATIC to developers working on Polygon.

For the first season, funds will be distributed in MATIC due to the network’s ongoing token upgrade to POL. Future grants will be distributed in POL. Projects must either be building on Polygon or willing to migrate to the network to be eligible for the grant. One of the goals is to ensure long-term commitment to the network.

The approval process will have an average turnaround time of four weeks, with applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Projects can secure between 5,000 to over 50,000 MATIC in funding. The funds will be injected into the network, with grant payouts scheduled for the first of each month following approval.

Grant Categories

Applications will be categorized into two tracks:

General Grant Track: Open to a wide range of projects without serious limitations. This category focuses on key areas like developer tooling, protocol infrastructure, and decentralized applications (dApps).
Consumer Crypto Track: Targets projects driving consumer adoption of cryptocurrency. Key areas include gaming, gamified commerce, decentralized social platforms, AI/blockchain integrations, and NFT innovations.

This categorization streamlines the application process and ensures appropriate support for each applicant. All allocations will be overseen by the Community Treasury Board, an independent body managing the funds from the Community Treasury. The board, introduced in April, includes members like Quickswap founder Roc Zacharias, Coinbase Wallet creator Peter Kim, and David Gogel from the dYdX foundation. The board will conduct monthly reviews of projects selected for the grant.

The Community Treasury will allocate approximately 100 million POL annually over a ten-year period, totaling 1 billion POL. Several projects have already received funding from Polygon, including QuickSwap, a decentralized exchange on Polygon, which received a $1 million grant in 2021.

Polygon’s Community Grants Program follows its recent acquisition of blockchain startup Toposware, aimed at bolstering its Zero-knowledge development.