Should The Grants Program Become a DAO?
by Will Corcoran on January 28, 2022
We're exploring paths for the next evolution of the Stacks Foundation Grants Program and need community leaders to help drive the process. This is the first of several posts detailing these explorations.
⚡A Brief Review of Grants to Date
Since its launch in August of 2020, the Stacks Foundation Grants Program’s mission has been consistent:
Fund infrastructure, development, community resources, tools, research, and education that serve our mission of a user-owned internet, powered by the Stacks blockchain and built on Bitcoin.
In the 16 months since its inception, the Grants Program has aimed to create an open, efficient, and transparent process that creates a path for ‘builders’ (passionate individuals with a technical, design, and/or community growth skillset) around the world to contribute to this mission.

Highlighted data:
  • We’ve awarded approximately 100 grants to builders and teams
  • Of these grants, approximately 30 have supported 6 amazing Stacks Chapters with their work in local communities across the globe
  • The remaining 70 or so grants have been awarded to projects led by builders and teams including (but not limited to): ALEX, Arkadiko, Ryder, daoOS, StackerDAO, Stacking.club, Pravica, Friedger, Asteria, and Pseudozach
  • In total, the Grants Program has awarded approximately 300,000 STX and $440,000 USD to grantees to date
✨Decentralizing the Grants Program
The grants review committee is always very thoughtful about what projects the network needs, but there will inevitably be needs that emerge that we won’t be aware of. As such, we are contemplating ways to decentralize the grant review process to include more people to help with the speed of the review process and represent more points of view.

There are a number of ways this transformation could take shape, becoming a DAO certainly being one of them. It's an option we’ve been casually discussing as a team and with the community that consistently comes up. Given the model of the grant program, it seems like a natural fit and for that reason, we will be pointing our initial explorations in that direction. However, we are only beginning this process and we need help from the community to ensure we not only arrive at the right structure but the right implementation of said structure as well.
✊Ambassadors and the Working Group
The first step in this exploratory process is to assemble a small team of Grants Ambassadors. The Ambassadors will work with Stacks Foundation staff and together they will form a Working Group. The success of this next phase in the Grants Program and any moves towards decentralization will largely be driven by the Ambassadors.

We are looking for 6-12 Ambassadors for this program. Applicants should be:

  • Representatives from the Stacks and/or Bitcoin community.
  • Proficient in one of the three areas: Technical, Design, and Community.
  • Incredibly knowledgeable about Web 3 and Crypto.

Please see this detailed overview of the Grants Ambassador role. We invite you to apply or refer an amazing candidate. And yes, there is a referral bonus!

If you have questions or would like to learn more, please tune into this Twitter Spaces on Monday, January 31st at 5pm EST.

Will manages the grants program at the Stacks Foundation. He's spent the last 15 years serving as a team and project management lead in the architectural design industry. Will is a licensed architect and has successfully facilitated collaborative processes as both an architect and construction manager.

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