Bitcoin Sidechain Mintlayer Launches $4M Grants Initiative

Bitcoin sidechain Mintlayer has announced the launch of a $4 million open-source development grants initiative and the start of accepting applications. The grants program launch is the “first major ecosystem initiative in Mintlayer’s long-term development” and is reserved for projects that will directly benefit the Mintlayer ecosystem first and the Bitcoin ecosystem by extension. 

“One of our directives is to attract the best teams, projects, and ideas to the Bitcoin ecosystem via Mintlayer. These grants assure that when developers come with a bright idea, there are resources to build it,” says Enrico Rubboli, co-founder and CEO of Mintlayer.

Grants will be generated from a pool of Mintlayer’s $ML tokens that were set aside for projects that would contribute to the growth of the ecosystem but would not create their own revenue. Examples of projects encouraged to apply are wallets, Lightning Network tools, block explorers, analytics tools, developer tools, and educational resources. 

Projects that do not fall into any of these categories are encouraged to join Mintlayer’s accelerator and incubator programs. Projects under the incubator program will receive the technical assistance required to bring their ideas to actualization. The accelerator program is designed for projects at a more advanced stage or projects on another protocol. 

Applicants will be required to provide a detailed explanation of their project along with personal details and documentation that either supports the feasibility of their project or documents the progress of their project. Grants will be awarded based on how respective projects fit into Mintlayer’s roadmap. 

Mintlayer’s grant program comes at a time when institutional investment is at a low. According to data from CoinShares, the digital asset industry received a total of $433 million in investment during the year 2022, the lowest since 2018 when inflows totaled only $233 million. That translates to a 95% decrease from $9.1 billion in 2021 and a 93% drop from $6.6 billion in 2020. 

The Mintlayer sidechain allows users to build a decentralized ecosystem on the Bitcoin blockchain, opening it up to DeFi, Smart Contracts, Atomic Swaps, NFTs, and dApps. 

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Mercy Mutanya is a Tech enthusiast, Digital Marketer, Writer and IT Business Management Student.
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