Community

Announcing zkIgnite Cohort 2 Funded Projects & Registration for Cohort 3

24 zkApp projects from zkIgnite Cohort 2 have secured funding after a community-led evaluation process. These diverse projects will now embark on a three-month development journey.

171 forum posts, 86 proposals, and 1,980 comments later — community electors have voted on 24 zkIgnite Cohort 2 projects to receive funding. 

After 12 weeks of workshops, office hours, and building teams and proposals, zkIgnite has successfully onboarded its second cohort of projects. These selected teams will now embark on three more months to build out their zkApp and developer tooling proposals while benefiting from the program’s funding and mentorship support.

Judging Criteria

A diverse panel of community Electors diligently evaluated all the submitted proposals and cast their votes to determine which projects will receive funding from the 500k USDC and 500k MINA tokens grant pool. Electors used a rubric as a guiding framework for their assessments.

Judging Criteria
Impact Does the zkApp have the potential to benefit and deliver real value to users? 

Does the proposal bring new and innovative ideas to solving their problem(s)?

Scalability & Growth Potential Does the zkApp have the potential to bring the next million users onto Mina Protocol? 
Architecture Does the proposed architecture design demonstrate a good understanding of Mina Protocol & o1js (formerly SnarkyJS)? 

Will the proposed architecture support the application’s desired impact and scalability?

Feasibility Are the proposed milestones feasible to achieve with current o1js functionality? 

Did the proposer identify key risks and articulate how to work around them? 

Team Based on the information provided, does the proposing team have relevant experience to help them deliver on their milestones?

Electors were responsible for providing feedback over the course of 5 weeks. Each project received 3 elector scores on a 1-5 scale based on the above criteria. These scores were then used as a reference during the voting period, where each elector had a proxy 16.67k USDC to allocate on the platform. You can find the detailed process and list of all funded projects here.

Funded zkApp Projects

Electors have selected 10 zkApp proposals for a total of over 245K USDC and 147K MINA in funding. 

The projects cover a wide range of use cases, including but not limited to DeFi, identity, NFTs, privacy, social media, staking, and voting. Here are the grantees. 

Mina Liquid Staking: 59,999 USDC and 35,999 MINA

The team has proposed to develop liquid staking on Mina by wrapping staked Mina received from delegators into derivative SsMina, along with a value-accruing no-claim model. In addition, they plan to be the entry point for Ethereum liquidity to flow into Mina by leveraging the zkBridge.  

Team: Staketab

On-Chain Funding Platform: 32,500 USDC and 19,500 MINA

The project seeks to bring workflows on-chain, such as investments, grants, and accelerators, utilizing ZKPs and the Mina blockchain to do so in a way that preserves investors’ privacy during funding and voting. The vision is to encourage open and transparent interactions between startups and investors and foster trust and effective decision-making.

Team: phn2211#9875 and team

 

Other zkApp funded projects include: 

zkApp Project  Grant
ZkSnap – Verifiable on/off-chain DAO voting with ballot privacy 25,000 USDC & 15,000 MINA
MinaNFT – Redefine the NFT game 25,000 USDC & 15,000 MINA
zkLocus – ZK-SNARKs Powered Geolocation Privacy Service 22,000 USDC & 13,200 MINA
iZiSwap – Bring Mina with on-chain order book and concentrated liquidity DEX 20,000 USDC & 12,000 MINA
Sealed Bid Auctions 16,000 USDC & 9,600 MINA
zkSmart-ID – Personal Identification Data and ZK Smart Contracts Join Forces 15,500 USDC & 9,300 MINA
Auditable Social Media Platform 15,000 USDC & 9,000 MINA
MAC! (Mina Arbitrated Contracts) – simple escrow smart contracts to secure interactions with MINA security deposits 14,400 USDC & 8,640 MINA

 

Funded Developer Tooling Projects

Electors also selected 14 developer tooling proposals for a total of 243K USDC and 145K MINA in funding. 

These projects aim to enhance the development experience, so that building privacy-first decentralized apps becomes more secure and streamlined. As a result, developers can channel their efforts toward nurturing their creative ideas instead of grappling with the intricacies of data storage, administration, and infrastructure management. Here are the grantees.

Decentralized Credit Protocol: 35,000 USDC and 21,000 MINA

This project seeks to build a decentralized credit protocol using the Interactive Zero Knowledge (IZK) technique and Mina’s zkApp toolkit. Leveraging these technologies, the project will attest to the data authenticity and integrity of users’ web data while protecting their privacy, in order to create a flexible and scalable user credit system for different use cases.

Team: xiang7670 and team

 

zkApp Umstad – AI Agent for zkApp Builders: 33,300 USDC and 19,980 MINA

zkApp Umstad is a project to build an AI Agent powered by the Open AI GPT language model. It will be extensively trained on Mina’s protocol, zkApps, smart contracts, o1js, as well as zero knowledge proofs.

Team: berkingurcan#3633

Developer Tooling Project  Grant
zkApps / Ecosystem Hub and zkApp Testing Groups 26,600 USDC & 15,960 MINA
MinAuth – zkProof based auth 24,950 USDC & 14,970 MINA
EasyMina 2.0 – Gear up for the bull market 22,000 USDC & 13,200 MINA
Doot(दूत) – Enhanced oracle model to bring trustworthy, verifiable and o1js-compatible data feeds on-chain 20,000 USDC & 12,000 MINA
zkCredential – ZK Verifiable Credentials 18,000 USDC & 10,800 MINA
zkNotary – a zkOracle for Mina powered by TLSNotary 15,000 USDC & 9,000 MINA
zkApp.store – A zkApp marketplace for Mina Protocol 15,000 USDC & 9,000 MINA
Mina Playground – Improvements & New Features 10,000 USDC & 6,000 MINA
Snarky-ML – Enable SnarkyJS with machine learning capabilities 10,000 USDC & 6,000 MINA
Mina Ecosystem 101 10,000 USDC & 6,000 MINA
Privacy Token on Mina 7,000 USDC & 4,200 MINA
Educational Video Series And Podcast For Community 2,500 USDC & 1,500 MINA

What’s Next for Cohort 2

Thank you to everyone who participated in this program. The amount of remarkable project proposals and skills demonstrates the excellence and creativity within the community. Although there were many proposals and not every project could receive funding in this round, quality was never in question — every proposal showcased impressive, thoughtful work.

Over the next three months, funded projects will be using their grants to bootstrap their proposals and start building. While zkIgnite grants are meant to kickstart projects in the ecosystem, they are not intended to cover their entire scope, and additional support will be provided to zkIgnite builders beyond the cohorts. This has proven to be a successful trust and accountability model for Mina builders after over 80% of cohort 1 projects successfully delivered on their 3-month milestones. 

Now, grantees will be able to work with their teams to build out and achieve the milestones they’ve proposed while participating in workshops, learning fundraising strategies, and establishing their own crypto ventures. 

This next phase will also bring on a fresh cohort of mentors to join forces with these projects. If you’re interested in being a mentor for cohort 2, applications close on September 15, 2023.  You’ll need to log in to or create a zkIgnite account first.

Register for zkIgnite, Cohort 3

If your project did not get funded or you missed out on the opportunity to participate in Cohort 2, we encourage you to join zkIgnite Cohort 3.

While a date has not been confirmed yet, register your interest to be notified as soon as spots open up. 

More funding will be available, along with improved workshops, technical support, and new opportunities for non-technical contributors. If you’re interested in co-building the future of zero knowledge and becoming part of a talented community of developers and entrepreneurs, you’re invited to sign up. Get a glimpse of what some weekly gatherings are like here.

Sign up to be notified for Cohort 3.

추가 블로그 글

모든 포스팅 확인
Announcement / 2023-12-22 / Mina Foundation
zkIgnite, Cohort 3 – What Will You Build?
zkIgnite is a cohort-based, community-governed innovation fund for experienced zero knowledge (ZK) builders and entrepreneurs in the Mina ecosystem.
추가 자료
Community / 2023-12-22 / Mina Foundation
Exploring Three Grant Programs for Mina Developers
추가 자료
Announcement / 2023-12-19 / Mina Foundation
Letter to the Community
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Announcement / 2023-12-19 / Mina Foundation
Mina Foundation Appoints Kurt Hemecker as CEO to Spearhead Ecosystem Growth
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