SSV Network Grants Program

about the grant program

SSV DAO, the org behind decentralized staking infrastructure ssv.network, will distribute $10 million in grants to development teams working on decentralizing Ethereum’s consensus layer in preparation for the network’s long-anticipated transition to a proof-of-stake model, scheduled for August.

SSV DAO will funnel more than $3 million into open and predefined grants for developers building applications and staking pools and other tools needed by the network. In addition, the organization has earmarked $3 million for bug bounties and $4 million for incentivized programs for early adopters and testers. The grants will be distributed in USDC, ETH and SSV tokens.

Since March, SSV DAO has awarded $1 million in grants to companies and builders like RockX, Swell, Forbole and Ankr, but SSV.network protocol lead Alon Muroch hopes the DAO’s commitment to double down on grants will incentivize companies and developers to build on top of the SSV protocol.

What Types of Grants Does SSV Offer?

The ssv.network DAO will use its own treasury and mint new tokens to structure a grant program for the ecosystem. Developers can apply with the intent of innovating the network by building on top of the SSV protocol.

The grants serve as seed funding for developers, not the full cost of development.

There are 3 types of grants:

• Predefined - A set of grants with predefined scope and size
• Open - Completely open grant requests
• Bug bounties - Grants for finding issues in the SSV node code

1/ Predefined Grants (Total: 75K SSV, 750K USDC ~ $1.5M)

Grant payments are encouraged to be in SSV or up to 50% in USDC (depending on token inventory available).*

2/ Open Grants (Total: 75K SSV + $750K USDC ~ $1.5M)

A completely open grant allocation where it is up to the applicants to describe and justify the requested amount. Open grants MUST not copy any of the pre-defined grants.

3/ Bug bounties (Up to 300K SSV ~ $3M, minted)

Bug bounties should be pre-defined by severity and urgency by the grant committee. This is a variable budget allocation, such that it will only be spent if bugs are found and reported. Mintings will be performed when payments are to be issued.

4/ Micro-Grants (Up to $5k in SSV)

Unlike the other grant types, Micro-Grants can be awarded in advance but more often retroactively. Micro-Grants honor those who significantly contributed to the community and the project in unforeseen ways and where those efforts don't match one of the other grant areas. A single committee member can award micro-grants up to $5k. Anyone in the community can be awarded or suggest a candidate. A good example of a Micro-Grant is the creation of smaller tools for the ecosystem or significant moderation, marketing, or support during specific periods, e.g., the incentivized testnet.

Evaluating Grant Applications

Grants will be evaluated for:

• Need/ use case
• Technical feasibility and capability of the team, team track record
• Team involvement in ssv.network thus far (participating in the testnet? Know the protocol and its core value proposition)
• Requested grant size
• Time lines, execution schedule
• In case of predefined grants, other grants will be evaluated and the best will be approved.
• Innovation and uniqueness
• Vision, why build it? Is the project in line with the network’s overall goals?
• Grant products license - who and how can make use of products originating from the grant (for example, code produced by a grant is open source? What license?)

Grant lifecycle

• All grant applications will be sent to grants@ssv.network
• Grants will be evaluated by the Grants Committee
• Voting on grants will be made public
• Accepted grant applications will be published on the ssv.network forum