The fund, which will be launched in March to coincide with the release of SKALE V2, will begin with a $5 million grant for blockchain gaming projects.
SKALE, a multi-chain Ethereum scaling solution, announced today a $100 million ecosystem program to encourage developers to build on its platform. SKALE, which was launched in 2018, is a decentralized network of blockchains built natively on Ethereum, with a focus on running decentralized applications quickly and cheaply.
“We’re fortunate to be able to raise a $100 million financing round right now,” SKALE co-founder Jack O’Holleran said during an interview at the Ethereum Denver conference. “We could have hired hundreds of people with the money.” We decided it would be best to distribute it to teams working on SKALE.”
Ecosystem funds, which frequently reach the nine-figure mark, play an important role in luring engineers to work on a specific blockchain project. Grants are available to businesses ranging from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). The funds are typically awarded in both cryptocurrency and/or fiat currency, with vesting periods.
The first $5 million in grants from SKALE will go to projects in the rapidly growing blockchain gaming sector, such as play-to-earn (P2E) games and the metaverse. SKALE is collaborating with the Network of Decentralized Economics, a Liechtenstein-based foundation, for the launch program (NODE).
Instead of a single entity awarding the $100 million in funds, SKALE says it will involve a number of different groups working together on the issuance process, including prominent corporations, DAOs, and nonprofits.
“It’s a very modern, crypto-native grant-making model,” O’Holleran explained.
The new ecosystem initiative will begin in March, coinciding with the release of SKALE V2, the company’s latest upgrade. According to O’Holleran, V2 will allow users to jump between SKALE chains in under a minute and without paying high gas fees. He also estimates that hundreds of applications are currently waiting to go live on the network following the upgrade’s rollout.
“We’re at a real tipping point across the entire industry,” O’Holleran says. “There is a great deal of demand for developers to deploy web3 products.” Our team has never been busier than it is right now.”
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
