Cardano Catalyst Fund 12

Cardano continues to lead the blockchain space with its focus on research, scalability, and sustainability. At the core of its progress is Project Catalyst, a groundbreaking initiative that empowers the community to shape the platform’s development. Project Catalyst Fund 12 was launched on April 26, 2024. With decentralized voting starting on June 27, 2024, Cardano is taking another bold step towards a decentralized future. Let’s dive into the details of Catalyst Fund 12 and see how this initiative is set to drive Cardano’s innovation through community-driven voting.

What is Project Catalyst?

Project Catalyst is Cardano’s revolutionary innovation engine and one of the world’s largest decentralized grant funds. It transforms economic power into innovation by using the Cardano treasury to fund community-approved projects, functioning essentially as a community venture capital fund. This enables collaborative innovation, connecting people with groundbreaking ideas to a funding source, with projects voted on and prioritized by the Cardano community.

Funding rounds occur every few months, with a set amount of ADA allocated to support new ideas. At the start of each funding round, the community has three weeks to submit proposals addressing challenges set in the previous round. Proposals are then selected by community vote, and funding is allocated to bring these projects to life. Since its inception, Project Catalyst has funded over 800 proposals, enabling the Cardano community to grow and thrive into one of the most diverse and rich ecosystems within the blockchain and web3 industry.

Fund 12 Challenges

We’ll now delve into the various Challenges featured within Project Catalyst Fund 12 as well as how much is allocated for each.

Cardano Open: Developers — This challenge is meant to help developers support developers and engineers within the ecosystem by contributing to and developing open-source technology aimed at enhancing the Cardano developer experience. The fund, allocated 10,500,000 ADA, aims to create developer-friendly tools and approaches that streamline an integrated development environment for Cardano.

Cardano Open: Ecosystem — Allocated 5,500,000 ADA, this challenge is meant to help grow the ecosystem by driving growth, fostering education, and supporting community initiatives. It aims to expand Cardano’s global footprint and onboard more users. Submissions are accepted for a broad range of initiatives that support these goals through marketing, education, Cardano governance, and regional community building.

Cardano Partners and Real World Integrations — Allocated 8,000,000 ADA, Cardano Partners will act as a turbo charger for innovation and growth by igniting premium partnerships with well-recognized industry leaders. This category accepts proposals from or involving Tier-1 partners to address one or more of the following objectives: piloting Cardano blockchain technology, advertising, media, and marketing collaborations, and accelerating high-potential early-stage and startup businesses.

Cardano Use Cases: Concept — With 7,500,000 ADA allocated, this fund will accept early-stage ideas to deliver proof of concept, design research, and basic prototyping for innovative Cardano-based products, services, and business models. Such funding is crucial as it enables the exploration and validation of new concepts, fostering innovation and laying the groundwork for more advanced development stages within the Cardano ecosystem.

Cardano Use Cases: MVP — Also allocated 7.5 million ADA, this fund is designed for projects seeking to develop and test the technical feasibility of solutions and prepare early prototypes to a minimum viable product (MVP) stage. This type of funding is crucial for the Cardano ecosystem as it supports the foundational stages of innovation, allowing for the development of practical and tested solutions. This helps drive the creation of fully functional products, fostering ecosystem growth and broader adoption.

Cardano Use Cases: Product — Allocated 7,500,000 ADA, this fund is designed for blockchain projects and teams aiming to enhance established products, services, or innovative propositions by significantly extending existing features and capabilities for the benefit of the Cardano ecosystem. Applications must include evidence of a mature, working product that is either already deployed on Cardano or will be as a result of the proposal. This funding is crucial for expanding use cases on Cardano, making it a more attractive blockchain for development and participation, thus driving further innovation and strengthening the overall ecosystem.

Timeline

Fund 12 of Project Catalyst launched on April 26th, 2024, at 14:30 UTC / 16:30 CET during Town Hall #159. Proposal submissions opened on April 29th, giving proposers two weeks to submit draft ideas. The Community Reviewers’ registration started on May 2nd and ended on May 19th. The deadline for proposal submission was May 13th at 11:00 UTC, followed by a three-day period to finalize proposals based on community feedback, ending on May 16th at 11:00 UTC.

Currently, the Community Review stage is ongoing, having started on May 23rd and continuing until June 6th. The deadline to submit Cardano Partners proposals is June 6th at 11:00 UTC. Voter registration will close on June 18th at 21:45 UTC (epoch boundary 491/492). Voting for Fund 12 will begin on June 27th at 12:00 UTC and end on July 11th at 11:00 UTC. Selected proposals will be announced the week of July 15th, with onboarding of funded proposals starting in July and August.

How can I get involved?

The deadline for submitting proposals and for becoming a proposal assessor have passed, however you can still get involved with Project Catalyst by examining proposals here: https://cardano.ideascale.com which will help you make more informed voting decisions when the voting portion of the process starts. You can register to vote by downloading the Catalyst Voting App via Apple App Store and Google Play to get ready for the upcoming Catalyst voting round.

The deadline for submitting proposals and for becoming a proposal assessor has passed, however, you can still get involved with Project Catalyst by examining proposals here: which will help you make more informed voting decisions when the voting portion of the process starts. You can register to vote by downloading the Catalyst Voting App via the Apple App Store and Google Play to get ready for the upcoming Catalyst voting round.

Conclusion

Cardano’s commitment to innovation is evident through Project Catalyst, which empowers the community to shape the platform’s development. With Fund 12 now underway, the initiative continues to drive growth through various challenges, from supporting developers to enhancing ecosystem and real-world integrations. By fostering these diverse projects, Cardano is furthering its vision of a decentralized future. It will be interesting to see how Fund 12 impacts the Cardano ecosystem and which great projects emerge from it. You can find out more about Project Catalyst at the following link: https://projectcatalyst.io/