The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has overhauled its funding program, moving from an open application model to a brand new funding approach as a part of its Ecosystem Support Program.
According to a blog post on Monday, grants will now be distributed through two fundamental channels: a wish list that outlines the main target areas identified by the inspiration, and requests for proposals (RFPs) that concentrate on specific needs inside the Ethereum ecosystem.
The previous open funding program, which was suspended earlier this 12 months, had overstretched the inspiration's resources, it said. The latest model will take a more selective approach by coordinating with internal teams to allocate funding to defined ecosystem priorities.
“The previous open grant program successfully supported tons of of projects that contributed essential constructing blocks to Ethereum,” the inspiration said, adding that the growing volume of applications limited its ability to pursue “strategic opportunities.”
The first round of wishlists and RFPs at the moment are live, covering areas akin to cryptography, privacy, security, community growth and more.
The EF first launched its grant program in 2018 to support builders contributing to the ecosystem. According to the inspiration, 105 projects and initiatives received roughly $3 million in support in 2024.
Ethereum is evolving
News of the revised funding program comes lower than every week after the Fusaka upgrade went live to tell the tale Ethereum's last testnet, Hoodi.
The Fusaka upgrade introduces several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), including EIP-7594 or PeerDAS, which allows validators to access smaller data segments from Layer 2 networks quite than entire blobs, improving node performance and scalability.
This also includes EIPs 7825 and 7935, which aim to extend the gas limit and improve performance as Ethereum moves toward parallel execution, a critical a part of the blockchain's roadmap that enables multiple transactions to be executed concurrently.
The fork previously went live to tell the tale the Holesky and Sepolia testnets and is anticipated to launch on the mainnet on December third.
Ethereum's last major upgrade, Pectra, which increased staking efficiency and introduced wallet improvements to the user experience, was successfully launched on May seventh.
