The Graph Foundation Allocates Over $5M to Grants & Ecosystem Support

Since mainnet launch in December, the dedication we’ve received from The Graph community has been incredible. What started out as a small team with a mission is now over thousands of contributors strong. Whether you’re an Indexer, Delegator, or community member, everyone has a role to play in the decentralized web.

Over the last three months, the Foundation has been focusing on creating a nurturing ecosystem and funding the most critical additions to the protocol and tooling, useful dapps and subgraphs and expanding the community. The Foundation is overseen by The Graph Council who vote on protocol governance and funding distribution. We’re excited to announce that over $5M has been allocated to grants, ecosystem contributors and bounties to grow The Graph. ~$2.6M has been awarded to grantees in Wave 1 and $3M has been budgeted for Ecosystem Contributors for the year.

Wave 1 Grants

We received over 200 grant applicants from more than 10 countries. Wave 1 applications were assessed based on their relative significance and urgency, expected impact and community feedback. Interviews were taken by over 15 Domain Experts from across the ecosystem who specialize in each grant category.

All grants will be paid in GRT, distributed monthly or quarterly as milestones are met. We’re impressed with the calibre of applications and breadth of projects. If you did not receive a grant in Wave 1, don’t fret! The application is always open so you can apply anytime and learn more about the Grants Program here.

In total ~$2.6M has been allocated in Wave 1 grants, read the detailed grants list and check out highlights below:

Protocol Infrastructure ~$1.2M

• Kubernetes Automation - Chainstack ($60K)
• Kubernetes Abstraction - Easy2Stake ($60K)
• Ansible Automation - StakeMachine ($15K)
• Indexer Install Suite - Koen Verbruggen ($30K)
• Indexer-agent Improvements - Chris Wessels ($10K)
• Indexer Performance R&D - Sommelier Protocol ($1M)

Tooling ~$650K

• Python Library with Subgraphs - Keyko ($25K)
• GraphQL Schema Prototyper - The Guild ($100K)
• Query Chrome Extension - Tommy Chan ($10K)
• The Graph Network Telegram Bot - Ryabina ($10K)
• Grafana Dashboard - StakeMachine ($30K)
• Graphscan - Ryabina ($35K)
• Graphlets - StakingFacilities ($25K)
• The Graph Network Dashboard - DappQuery ($15K)
• Indexer Monitoring & Alerting Tools - Chainflow ($30K)
• The Graph Network Visualization - Aditya Kumar Verma ($5K)
• Front-end Design Tool - Private ($400K)

Dapps and Subgraphs ~$400K

• Badgeth ($75K)
• The Graph Community NFTs - POAP ($4K)
• DeepWork Dapp Design ($66K)
• Destake ($25K)
• SkyDocs ($15K)
• Coinfu ($15K)
• GoodGhosting ($12K)
• Dollar Cost Averaging Protocol ($15K)
• APY.Vision ($25K)
• SimpleFi ($8K)
• PandiFi ($5K)
• Moonlet ($30K)
• OpenSea & Cryptopunks Subgraphs ($15K)
• DeFi Subgraphs ($15K)
• NFT Subgraph ($2K)
• Anti-phishing Subgraph ($2K)
• DODO Dex Subgraph ($2K)
• MicroDAOs Subgraph ($3K)

Community Building ~$400K

• The Graph Academy ($50K)
• Online Education Academy for Subgraphs ($57K)
• Rabbit Hole ($50K)
• Graphtronauts ($10K)
• GRTIQ ($10K)
• Intro. Guides for Subgraph Developers ($5K)
• Front-end Developer Courses (Subgraphs for Web2 Devs) ($20K)
• The Graph Curriculum ($2K)
• The Index Podcast ($40K)
• Educational Videos in English & Russian ($15K)
• The Graph Educational Card Game ($20K)
• Program Development ($14K)
• Community Building: India, China, Japan, Vietnam, France, Middle East, South America, Russia ($66K)
• Coincenter Donation ($15K)
• Event Sponsorships ($53K)

We’re thrilled to announce The Graph’s first wave of grants. We can’t wait to see our grantees succeed and what’s yet to come in Wave 2!

Ecosystem Contributors

The Foundation’s role is intended as a facilitator, bringing together the best builders and resources to improve the protocol and grow the ecosystem. ~$3M has been budgeted for the year for Ecosystem Contributors who are aligned with the protocol’s long-term success.

Research ~$1.4M

The Foundation has engaged BlockScience to model the dynamics of the protocol in their open-source cadCAD library using the real-world data that has been collected on mainnet so far. They are beginning by modeling the delegation market, which is where most activity has happened in the protocol to date. This builds on the theoretical work they did formalizing some of the Indexer decision problems last year, before the launch of The Foundation.

In a similar vein, The Foundation has engaged Semiotic, a team of specialists in cryptography and machine learning, to develop agents that optimize their interactions with the protocol via reinforcement learning (RL), the same set of techniques that were recently used to beat the worlds best Go player and make major breakthroughs in the age-old protein folding problem. They are initially focusing on training agents that will interact with the query market and negotiation protocol, with a goal of informing the designs of future versions of these subsystems.

Community & Development $500K+

The Graph is nothing without its community. That’s why we’re committed to supporting all network stakeholders and subgraph developers throughout their journeys. In Wave 1 we welcome Jim Cousins, Indexer_Payne, and Slimchance as Indexer and Curator Relations and Calvin Chu, a Graph Domain Expert. We also have many community managers and unofficial meme makers who have been integral to our growth. The Foundation is also proud to be working with blockchain development shops like Protofire, LimeChain and others.

Foundation Operations $400K+

The Foundation has spent the last few months gearing up and growing the team. The goal of the Foundation is to collaborate with key contributors and lead initiatives to best meet the needs of the ecosystem. We’re excited to welcome Alex Yao (Community Development), Reem Chahrour (Ecosystem Manager - Grants) to the team. However, we’re still hiring and expanding operations! Check out our open positions if you’re interested in working closely with The Graph governance and technical product teams.

Bounties & Audits $500K+

The Graph Bounty program has been live since December and $10K has been paid out in bounties for reporting bugs. We are actively seeking developers and researchers to identify and report any other vulnerabilities, including in the network contracts, Graph Node, protocol logic and state channels. Follow our security policy for appropriate bounty disclosure: https://thegraph.com/security/.

Lastly, the Foundation continues to engage OpenZeppelin, Chainsafe, Consensys Diligence and other security firms for protocol and product audits.

What’s Next

Wave 1 just ended and we’re already ramping up for Wave 2! We’ll continue to prioritize the four categories mentioned above, however we’d also like to see more contributions around:

• Multiblockchain expansion support
• Curation and subgraph tooling
• Subgraph testing frameworks
• Subgraph static analysis tooling
• Dapp and subgraph standards
• Network Reputation
• Internationalization / Translations
• L1 blockchain node optimizations
• Educational content & curriculum development

While the grants process currently includes many Domain Experts, The Foundation is also exploring ways to decentralize further to enable greater participation in funding decision making. Look out for more news on how the community can get involved!

In the interim between applying for your next grant, there are many additional ways to get involved with The Graph Network. You can become a Delegator, Indexer, build subgraphs, vote on upcoming governance proposals, the options are limitless. If there are any projects you admire in the web3 space that are not using subgraphs, we encourage you to let them know to use subgraphs.

About The Graph

The Graph is the source of data and information for the decentralized internet. As the original decentralized data marketplace that introduced and standardized subgraphs, The Graph has become web3’s method of indexing and accessing blockchain data. Since its launch in 2018, tens of thousands of developers have built subgraphs for dapps across 40+ blockchains - including  Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Celo, Fantom, Gnosis, and Avalanche.

As demand for data in web3 continues to grow, The Graph enters a New Era with a more expansive vision including new data services and query languages, ensuring the decentralized protocol can serve any use case - now and into the future.

Discover more about how The Graph is shaping the future of decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and stay connected with the community. Follow The Graph on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Medium. Join the community on The Graph’s Telegram, join technical discussions on The Graph’s Discord.

The Graph Foundation oversees The Graph Network. The Graph Foundation is overseen by the Technical Council. Edge & Node, StreamingFast, Semiotic Labs, The Guild, Messari, GraphOps, Pinax and Geo are eight of the many organizations within The Graph ecosystem.