Announcing Ethereum Foundation and Co-Funded Grants
Ethereum Foundation and Co-Funded Grants: A Step Towards Serenity
The Ethereum Foundation has announced over $2 million in grants aimed at furthering Serenity (Eth2.0) development as the community moves closer to the launch of the Beacon Chain. In recent months, the foundation has granted substantial awards to leading client development teams tasked with delivering long-standing multi-client testnets. Today, we're proud to announce the recipients of those grants.
Eth2.0 Client Grants
The Ethereum Foundation has awarded grants to several teams working on Eth2.0 client development. These grants will help the teams deliver high-quality clients that meet the requirements of the Eth2.0 specification.
Harmony
Harmony has been awarded $189,000 for their beacon chain development. Harmony's team is working on a high-performance and scalable beacon chain client that will enable the creation of a decentralized and consensus-driven network.
Prysmatic Labs
Prysmatic Labs has been awarded $725,000 for their Prysm client development. Prysm is a high-performance and scalable client that is designed to meet the requirements of the Eth2.0 specification. Prysmatic Labs' team is working on optimizing the client for high-performance and scalability.
Sigma Prime
Sigma Prime has been awarded $485,000 for their Lighthouse client development. Lighthouse is a high-performance and scalable client that is designed to meet the requirements of the Eth2.0 specification. Sigma Prime's team is working on optimizing the client for high-performance and scalability.
Status
Status has been awarded $500,000 for their Nimbus client development. Nimbus is a high-performance and scalable client that is designed to meet the requirements of the Eth2.0 specification. Status' team is working on optimizing the client for high-performance and scalability.
Networking
Status has also been awarded $150,000 for their nim-libp2p development. nim-libp2p is a native nim-language implementation of libp2p that is designed to enable the creation of a decentralized and consensus-driven network.
Whiteblock
Whiteblock has been awarded $184,000 for their Eth2.0 network testing and testnet/interoperability support. Whiteblock's team is working on analyzing the libp2p gossipsub implementation and refining the networking stack and specification.
Research and Development
The Ethereum Foundation has also awarded grants to researchers working on specific topics related to Eth2.0 development.
Dmitry Khovratovich
Dmitry Khovratovich has been awarded $10,000 for his research on the security of the Legendre PRF (as described by Grassi et al.) and the proof-of-custody scheme intended to be used in Phase 1 of Eth2.0.
Chainsafe
Chainsafe has been awarded $217,500 for their Lodestar light-client and javascript development. Chainsafe's team is working on Eth2.0 light-client R&D within their Lodestar javascript client and continuing to provide support to the Eth2.0 JS/web-browser ecosystem.
Bounties
The Ethereum Foundation has also announced several bounties aimed at encouraging research and development efforts for the future of Ethereum.
Phase 0 Consensus
The Ethereum Foundation is offering 5 ETH bounties (or 1000 DAI, whichever larger) for any recommendations for substantive changes (bug fixes, optimizations, etc) that make it into the Phase 0 Eth 2.0 spec prior to the Eth 2.0 genesis.
Legendre PRF
The Ethereum Foundation has set out a series of bounties related to the Legendre pseudo-random function, which is currently slated to be used in the proof of custody scheme in Phase 1 of Eth 2.0.
STARK-Friendly Hash Challenge
The Ethereum Foundation has asked StarkWare to recommend a STARK-Friendly Hash (SFH) and has proposed a public competition aimed at evaluating the security of current proposed SFH candidates.
Implications
The grants and bounties announced by the Ethereum Foundation represent a significant step towards the development of Serenity (Eth2.0). The funding will enable the creation of high-quality clients and tools that will meet the requirements of the Eth2.0 specification. The bounties will encourage research and development efforts related to specific topics, such as the Legendre PRF and the proof-of-custody scheme. The successful completion of these projects will bring the Ethereum network closer to its goal of becoming a decentralized and consensus-driven platform.
Forward-Looking Thoughts
The grants and bounties announced by the Ethereum Foundation represent a significant step towards the development of Serenity (Eth2.0). The funding will enable the creation of high-quality clients and tools that will meet the requirements of the Eth2.0 specification. The bounties will encourage research and development efforts related to specific topics, such as the Legendre PRF and the proof-of-custody scheme. The successful completion of these projects will bring the Ethereum network closer to its goal of becoming a decentralized and consensus-driven platform. As the development of Serenity (Eth2.0) continues, it is likely that we will see the creation of new tools and technologies that will enable the Ethereum network to become even more decentralized and secure.
Source: https://blog.ethereum.org/en/2019/08/26/announcing-ethereum-foundation-and-co-funded-grants
