The IPFS Adoption Microgrants are intended to encourage experimentation with, and adoption of IPFS across a range of fields. They are offered with the understanding that decentralized technologies are a rapidly developing field with many unknowns, and do not make complete technical success of the proposal a prerequisite for the award.
These grants are intended for independent developers, small studios, non-profits, activists, and researchers. The ideal candidate is a domain expert exploring integrating decentralized technologies into their work, particularly broadly used tools or frameworks. Open Source work is preferred, but exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis.
Additionally, each quarter we may announce a theme (such as offline use, GIS, digital democracy, etc). Projects in this field will be given first consideration.
The grants are awarded in the amount of $1000. Approximately 10 grants are awarded every quarter.
The microgrants are intended to be easy to apply for, evaluate, and administer. The application consists of a brief description of your current practice and the intended IPFS integration project, plus some biographical info.
The principal condition of receiving the award is that the entire amount be used to support work related to integrating or improving IPFS, such as developer time, hosting services, relevant hardware such as a raspberry pi, etc. We may ask for documentation of how the money was spent.
One month after the grant is awarded, or once your project is complete (whichever comes first), you'll be asked to provide a report describing your experience building on IPFS, including details of any technical or documentation shortcomings encountered. If your project is successful, we may contact you about promoting the resulting work, including coverage on the IPFS Blog or social media.
The grants are currently awarded on a rolling basis, though we may switch to fixed quarterly cohorts in the future.
The grant fund is contributed by Protocol Labs on a quarterly basis.