Polkadot treasury established to fund projects 'that give traction to the network'

Blockchain platform Polkadot (DOT) is the latest to invest back into its developer community with the launch of the Polkadot treasury. Run by community-elected council members, the pool will fund as many new community projects as possible.

The treasury has already received multiple proposals related to infrastructure development, operations projects, and software development, by teams from Redspot, Centrifuge, Polkascan, and Encointer.

The proposals to receive Treasury funding can be submitted by any holders of Polkadot’s native token DOT and will be approved based on their ability to “give traction to the network.” Proposals may relate to infrastructure deployment, network security operations, ecosystem provisions, software development, marketing activities, and community and outreach events.

In addition to proposal funding, the treasury will also support community efforts such as document translation, Polkadot-related content creation, educational videos, and general community support.

The proposals must be submitted on the Polkadot blockchain, however, in order to minimize on-chain storage, they will not contain any contextual information. Proposers will need to take advantage of off-chain avenues to explain the bulk of the project.

A deposit of 100 DOT or 5% of the total submission is required for each proposal submission in order to avoid low quality or spam proposals. Deposits will be returned to users when their proposal is approved mor burned if rejected.

Should the Treasury not spend all funds within a budget period, currently set at 24 days, 1% of the funds will be burned. The Treasury is funded from slashing, transaction fees, staking inefficiencies, and parathreads.

Polkadot is not the only project focusing on supporting its developer community through direct financial support. Gitcoin Grants is a platform for Ethereum projects to seek funding through matching contributions from Gitcoin’s QF sponsored donors and the wider public. Popular DeFi project Yearn Finance surpassed the Ethereum Foundation this week as the lead contributor in the most recent Round 7 of the Gitcoin Grants with $155,000 committed — bringing the total matching pool to $410,000.

Inspired by the move, Synthetix went one better by contributing an undisclosed amount that reportedly surpasses both the Ethereum Foundation and Yearn Finance’s contributions to mark a new all time high.