Web3 Foundation, whose flagship project is the Polkadot blockchain protocol, announces the latest grantee under the Decentralized Futures Program. The funding is part of the Foundation’s Decentralized Futures Funding Program, backed by $20M USD and 5M DOT that is designed to kickstart teams and individuals building ambitious projects that contribute to the growth of the Polkadot ecosystem. The funding will support Ideal Labs in the creation of the Encryption to the Future (ETF) network.
The ETF Network is a cutting-edge substrate-based blockchain leveraging a unique consensus mechanism focused on publicly variable on-chain randomness and timelock encryption. The initiative represents a crucial step towards addressing the challenges of secure delayed transactions, offering a robust solution to front-running resistance and enabling trustless multiparty interactions on the blockchain.
Speaking on the grant funding to Ideal Labs, David Hawig, Director of Ecosystem Development at Web3 Foundation, said, “The Decentralized Futures Program seeks to empower self-sustaining teams building ambitious projects. The Ideal Labs vision for a cross-chain compatible tool for publicly verifiable on-chain randomness holds exciting potential to fully leverage the flexibility of Polkadot and ultimately enable all kinds of decentralized solutions.”
Speaking on the development of the ETF Protocol, Tony Riemer, Founder of Ideal Labs said “Publicly verifiable on-chain randomness can provide capabilities and benefits for voting and auctions, trustless asset swaps, and front-running resistance. With this funding, we are looking forward to engaging with the Polkadot community by seeking their feedback on our early-stage tools that will guide future development.”
Decentralized Futures Program
The Decentralized Futures Program is part of Web3 Foundation’s mission to empower the Polkadot community to lead the decentralized development of the Polkadot ecosystem. Individuals and teams interested in driving, enabling, and enhancing the next generation of innovation in web3 are encouraged to learn more at https://futures.web3.foundation/ and post their ideas on the Polkadot Forum.
About Web3 Foundation
Web3 Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that supports Web3 teams and open-source projects through funding, advocacy, research and collaboration. It was founded in 2017 by Ethereum co-founder and former chief technology officer Dr. Gavin Wood. Polkadot is the Foundation’s flagship project. For more information, visit web3.foundation.
About Polkadot
Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. It enables web3’s biggest innovators to get their ideas to market fast. By making blockchain technology secure, composable, flexible, efficient, and cost-effective, Polkadot is powering the movement for a better web.