Introduction
The Grants Program Sprint #1 was focused on dapp builders aiming to contribute to innovative NFT use cases. The applications were opened on March, 11, 2024 and lasted for a month. Afterwards the Committee started to select projects, conduct interviews and led negotiations with projects. Based on the received information, the Committee made their preferences and started KYC and agreements with selected candidates end of May. The first demo presentations to DAO happened on July, 18, 2024.
Ecosystem Grants Committee consists of 4 members: 2 from Foundation and 2 from the DAO. One of the members took a role of Grants Lead to streamline operations process and negotiations.
The timeline to execute the first sprint was longer than Committee initially scoped for. The most time-consuming.
Grants Sprint #1 in numbers
We have received 64 applications during Sprint #1 Grants application process.
Committee selected 5 successful candidates.
77,000 RARI will be allocated.
Selection Criteria
For projects to qualify for a grant, they must have demonstrated:
- Mission alignment (growing the NFT space introducing innovative use cases)
- Qualified team
- Proven track record of commitment to building (e.g sustained reputable public presence, successfully shipped past projects or features)
- Proposal content:
- Can the team deliver on the proposal?
- Is the proposal technically sound/sufficiently thought through
- Does the project’s success drive ecosystem growth?
- Does this project build a new NFT use case or improve existing products?
- Is this project uniquely enabled by the ecosystems projects?
- Accountability:
- Is the funding ask laid out transparently?
- Is the project willing to report on progress and be held responsible for laid out KPIs?
- Does the project demonstrate a collaborative attitude toward RARI community?
- Willingness to KYC and sign formal agreements
How do we track grants’ success?
Reporting
- During development phase, at the end of each month grantees need to provide update on the progress in development.
- After development phase is complete the grantees are required to provide metrics on their dApp usage with regards to RARI Chain and Rarible API.
- Usage KPIs:
- RARI Chain:
- Transactions count
- MAUs attracted
- Number of unique wallet addresses
- Rarible API: Number of API calls
- RARI Chain:
- DAO Revenue from RARI Chain and protocol API
- Brand/Awareness KPIs:
- Co-marketing activities key results (X spaces, social media posts engagement)
- Opportunities for further ecosystem growth (i.e. for infrastructure project - how many projects the infrastructure attracted, for consumer application - community engagement)
Who are the next RARI Builders?
Meet the finalists: CryptoRank, Floor, Mintpad, Dropframe, DAOSpace
CryptoRank is a well-established crypto analytics company that provides professionally curated research, price analysis, and crypto market news to help make informed trading decisions.
With the grant, the company will develop an NFT tracker page to represent most traded NFT collections using Rarible protocol and a cross-bridge to move NFTs minted on other chains to RARI Chain.
The latter allows users to cross-mint their NFTs from any chain support in the dApp to RARI Chain.
Dropframe will bring Farcaster Frames to RARI Chain and allow no code NFT drops on Frames. The mechanics are simple: add an image, choose a chain, choose parameters, add gas, paste in your link to Farcaster!
This integration will allow a simplified creator experience for minting as well as collecting NFTs on RARI Chain straight from Farcaster.
DAOSpace builds an on-chain reputation and identity protocol for DAO contributors using NFTs as proof of work that will appear on RARI Chain.
Their mission is to make DAO contribution more fun and enjoyable by creating a gamified system that incentivizes active participation in a DAO through Contributor Cards that are dynamic based on DAO participation. These cards, built on RARI Chain, embed royalties at the node level, ensuring contributors earn from card sales. Higher reputation, based on forum activity, increases card rarity and grants free platform promotion. Owning a Contributor Card is required to pay for ad space on DAOSpace.
The grant from RARI Foundation will support a pilot program for RARI DAO contributors to explore innovative NFT use cases, including a reputation system for SocialFi.
Mintpad, a no-code creator tooling platform, will launch NFT collections on RARI Chain. To date, Mintpad supports 30+ chains, with over 90k collections created on the platform.
Mintpad, your go-to free NFT launchpad, simplifies the process of introducing your unique collection to the digital world. With just your artwork and a cryptocurrency wallet, you’re ready to go. The platform handles all the intricacies, offering an NFT creator tool that supports multiple chains and features a user-friendly, no-code solution. Their primary aim is to empower creators by seamlessly bringing their artwork, passes, tickets, and more onto the blockchain.
The first goal with the funding would be to get Mintpad working flawlessly with the RARI chain. This would give Rarible and RARI chain users access to all of the current creator tools as well as on-going support from Mintpad team.
Floor is the onchain everything app! Floor helps people discover new platforms, creators, and blockchains and stay connected to the onchain assets that they currently own.
This integration aims to help collectors discover RARI Chain NFTs and mint them directly through the app using in-app purchases.
Floor’s Mobile Minting abstracts away the need to bridge across chains, simplifying the process to collect art, whether it is someone new to web3, or the most experienced web3 collector!
Additionally, Floor will provide NFT tracking support for the Rarible marketplace for both Ethereum and RARI Chain NFTs, enhancing the discoverability of current collections on the marketplace.
What happens next?
At the moment, Grants Committee is finalizing agreements and KYC with a few finalists. Most projects stated that their timeline for project delivery is within 3 months, some are already in the integration stage.
Going forward, expect reports coming at the end of every month on the progress of grant finalists.
In the meantime, RARI Foundation is accepting applications to support new projects via Open Call. Nominate the next RARI builder or apply yourself via this form!
More info on Grants is available in these docs.
