faqs.md

Aragon Nest Frequently Asked Questions

For people looking to get funding for their project

To those working or who want to work on something that may be of interest for providing a grant

How do I find out if my project could be eligible for a grant?

1. Check the Proposals for grants for existing proposals
2. If you don’t find anything close to what you’re working on, submit a new proposal for a grant and discuss if we should consider it for a grant
3. See the Guide for submitting a new request for funding and follow these steps:
   • Fork the Aragon Nest GitHub repository
   • Create a new directory with your project’s name inside the grants/ folder. 
   • Inside that, create two files, team.md and roadmap.md, where you present your team and suggested roadmap
   • Create a Pull Request to merge your submission into the Nest repository. In that Pull Request, be sure to fill in all the relevant info described in the Guide for submitting a new request for funding

Proposals should abstractly describe problems or products, not their implementations

I’m working on something that already has an existing proposal

If there’s already an existing proposal for grants that fits into what you’re building, follow the steps mentioned in the Guide for submitting a new request for funding

For people who have an idea that could benefit the ecosystem

How to submit a proposal for a grant?

• Make sure the Proposals for grants doesn’t have an existing proposals for something similar to your proposal. If there is an existing one that is close to your idea, join in the discussion of that Proposal to see if yours could be integrated into the existing one, or if you should create a new proposal
• If nothing similar exists, create a new Proposal for grants at the Nest Repository and fill it out in detail following the Guide for submitting a proposal for grants

How does the application process works?

The application process has two stages:

1. The proposal stage (see above). The main focus in this stage is the discussion about the idea/project and whether it should be considered for a grant. Once the proposal is approved we move to the second stage.

2. The request for funding stage (see above). The main focus in this stage is the discussion about the team, timeline/roadmap, milestones and deliverables. Here we take the final decision on whether to fund the team.

There are no deadlines for applications. The whole application process can take from 2 weeks up to a month but the length of the process depends on a case by case basis.

Who will be deciding on how the grants are distributed?

The funding will be described in the proposal and request for funding stages of the grant. The total amount, how many portions will it be divided into, timetable and milestones will be up for discussion with the relevant team.

How will the funds be released to the grantees?

All payments will be made in cryptocurrencies. The grants will be paid in ETH and released in portions according to the agreed roadmap (and deliverables) which the team has submitted in their proposal. A possible reward depending on milestone completion will be given in ANT to reward value created for the Aragon Network.

What will the Nest program provide to grantees besides financial backing?

Aragon is a very reputable name in the community. We have always stood by our values and the interests of the community. We have developed a lot of best practices of how crypto projects should be ran, and we want to help expand those as much as possible.

Placeholder has years of experience in evaluating crypto projects and teams. They’ve seen many different instances of what works, and what doesn’t. They will help the projects on avoiding common mistakes and on building an open source project on a sustainable premise.

We’re in a privileged position to push forward and raise awareness about great, undervalued projects in the space, such as the ones we want to fund with the Nest program.

Who will be participating on deciding the grantees?

Aragon

Maria Gomez — Grants Lead

Luis Cuende — Co-Founder & Project Lead

Jorge Izquierdo — Co-Founder & Tech Lead

Placeholder

Joel Monegro

Partner at Placeholder, a venture capital partnership based in New York City that invests in decentralized information networks. Prior to Placeholder, Joel led Union Square Ventures’ crypto practice and investment efforts. Before joining USV, Joel started and managed the Digital Economy Department within the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Dominican Republic, a government office focused on Latin American tech policy and payment system reform.

Chris Burniske

Chris Burniske is a partner at Placeholder, a venture capital firm based in New York City that invests in decentralized information networks. Prior to Placeholder, he pioneered ARK Invest’s crypto efforts, leading the firm to become the first public fund manager to invest in bitcoin in 2015, and co-authored the best selling book, Cryptoassets. His commentary has been featured on national media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune, and Forbes. Chris graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BS from Stanford.

Community

We are working on transitioning Aragon’s governance from a highly centralized model to a more decentralized one and we will be experimenting with community participation in the Nest program.

What do Placeholder and Aragon get for supporting projects via the Nest program? Do they get tokens/equity from the grantees?

No! We ask for nothing in return from the grantees outside of delivering the promised solution!

Placeholder and Aragon are both invested into the Aragon ecosystem via ANT and the help from Placeholder is an indication of their involvement as well as a signal of the value they’ll add to the ecosystem.

How do I find more information about Nest? Is there a website?

Right now the GitHub repository serves as the main knowledge base about the Nest program.