GrantShares

A decentralized and transparent grants program for the Neo ecosystem

Neo is not driven by a single authority but thrives through the initiatives of many individuals. Thus, the goal of GrantShares is to encourage the individual to materialise their ideas for Neo. It does that by allowing anyone to propose a project and get funding through a decentralised and on-chain decision process.

Members

COZ
AxLabs
Red4Sec
NGD
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SPC Neo
Neo Foundation
Neo Global
Neo News Today

    Highlights

  • Who is GrantShares for?

    Accessible

    An open and agile grants program with an easily accessible web app. GrantShares extends the grants programs offered by Neo Eco Support.

    Transparent

    Proposal discussions take place in public, voting happens on-chain by well-known participants, and everyone can track all distributed grants.

  • GrantShares is a DAO

    Diverse Projects

    Financial support is not only focused on technical projects but includes work on marketing, documentation, tutorials, research, and more.

    A flexible DAO

    GrantShares is a flexible DAO, where everything is done through proposals. Proposals are intended on-chain smart contract invocations.

Funding Categories

GrantShares can support you in a whole host of different areas

  • Community Growth
    Community Growth
    • Meet-ups
    • Workshops
    • Hackathons
    • Competitions
    • Talks
    • Branding
    • UX/UI Design
    • Marketing
    • Copywriting
  • dApps & Integrations
    dApps & Integrations
    • Games
    • DAOs
    • DeFi
    • Identity
    • Wallets
    • Marketplaces
    • Insurance
    • Social
  • Developer Tooling
    Developer Tooling
    • Contract Libraries
    • Contract Templates
    • IDE Plugins
    • Editor Extensions
    • SDKs
    • Tooling Docs
    • Tooling Tutorials

Proposal Process

A successful proposal runs through the following steps
  • Create & Discuss Proposal

    Create & Discuss Proposal

    • Create a proposal on the GrantShares dApp. Give it a title, description, and add intents like "send 10 NEO to my address".
    • The dApp creates a GitHub issue on the GrantShares repository where the discussion takes place.
  • Push to chain

    Push to chain

    • When you're confident that the GrantShares members will support your proposal, you can push it on-chain through the GrantShares dApp.
    • The proposal is created on Neo via the GrantShares contract and waits for a member to endorse it.
  • Members vote on Proposal

    Members vote on Proposal

    • Once the proposal is endorsed, it is open for voting by the GrantShares members.
    • When the voting phase is over and the proposal is accepted it gets queued for a short period of time (i.e., time lock) before the proposal can be executed.
  • Execute Proposal

    Execute Proposal

    • An accepted proposal can now be executed by anyone.
    • This leads to the actions mentioned in the proposal, for example, the release of a grant.

How to apply

  • 1
    Go to the dApp page

    Go to the dApp page, log in with your GitHub account, and click on “Create Proposal”.

  • 2
    Write your proposal

    Enter a title and a detailed description of your proposal, as well as desired funding amount and receiving Neo address.

  • 3
    Submit your proposal to be discussed by the community

    Submit the form! A GitHub issue will be created where your proposal will be discussed by the community.

  • 4
    On chain voting after off-chain discussion

    Done! After the off-chain discussion and on-chain voting you can claim your grant!

Frequently Asked Questions

The big questions answered

Where is the funding coming from?

The GrantShares program was started with the Neo Foundation as a partner and the first funder. But, anyone can become a funder of the GrantShares treasury. It's imporant to note that you cannot send tokens to the GrantShares treasury without first being added as a funder.

Why is GrantShares a permissioned DAO?

The goal was to bootstrap a community-driven grants mechanism as soon as possible. The Neo Foundation agreed to supply funds to the program as its first funder, but, without claiming the decision power over where the funds are spent. Thus, whoever is deciding over the funds' distribution doesn't have a direct stake in the money. This makes it hard to establish incentives for the DAO members to spend the money wisely and in favour of Neo's growth. It was, therefore, decided that only a well known and trusted group of long-term Neo contributors should be part of the initial DAO members and have the power to vote on proposals. Those members can decide, together, if new members should be added in the future (through proposals).

What types of proposals can I create?

The dApp web page allows you to choose between a fixed set of proposals, currently restricted to "Request for Funding". In the future the dApp will support additional proposal types, e.g., adding a new member, changing DAO parameters, etc. Technically, the GrantShares smart contracts allow you to create any kind of proposals on-chain. It's a generic governance mechanism. But, directly creating a proposal on-chain bypassing the dApp web page implies that your proposal will probably not be seen by GrantShares members and, therefore, not broadly discussed and ultimately not accepted.

Who can create proposals on-chain?

The dApp web page only allows the creator of a proposal to also push it on-chain. Technically, the GrantShares contracts could be used without the dApp web page, meaning that anyone is able to create proposals directly on-chain. But, the dApp is also used to perform some coordination between the smart contracts and GitHub issues. Therefore, simply creating a proposal on-chain and, thereby, bypassing the dApp will probably leave your proposal unnoticed.

How long does it take from proposal submission to actually getting the funds?

This depends mostly on the discussion happening on GitHub and the interest of the community in your proposal. Once the proposal is on-chain and endorsed by a member it will move through the voting and time lock phases. The time period of each of these phases are configurable in the governance smart contract and depends on their current setting.

What happens if no GrantShares member endorses my on-chain proposal?

An on-chain proposal requires the endorsement of a GrantShares member to move into the voting phase. Until that happens, your proposal is idle and voting on it is not possible. If a proposal remains idle for too long, it gets automatically cancelled.

I want to become a GrantShares funder. What should I do?

Funders are added and removed via a proposal - like everything else on GrantShares. You cannot send tokens to the treasury contract without first being accepted as a funder. An “Add Funder” proposal goes through the same process as any other proposal. We will add this functionality to the dApp soon. In the meantime, contact us in the Neo Discord server if you're interested in becoming a funder.

I want to become a GrantShares member. What should I do?

Anyone can become a GrantShares member through a successful proposal. Currently, that proposal type is not enabled in the dApp page but will become available in the future. In the meantime, contact us in the Neo Discord server if you're interested in becoming a member.

Are the GrantShares' Smart Contracts secure?

Smart Contract security has been a top priority right from the start of GrantShares. The Smart Contracts have been extensively tested, and developed by experienced software engineers involved in the Neo ecosystem for 4.5+ years. However, please note that there is no 100% guarantee that the Smart Contracts are completely risk-free.

Have the Smart Contracts been audited?

Yes. The GrantShares Smart Contracts have been audited by Red4Sec. You can access the security audit report here.

Testimonials

What people are saying about Grantshares
  • Alex Walker photograph
    Alex Walker
    configwizard

    Going through the GrantShares process was straight forward. I wrote a detailed outline of what I wanted to build and how it would support the community and submitted it. I could follow the discussion around my proposal and once the committee had discussed it and voted to support it, the DAO released the grant. It's a very convenient way to get funding if you have a valid idea and I plan on using it again soon. I think GrantShares is an awesome use of a DAO. It allows the community to get involved and use their skills to benefit the Neo ecosystem. Watch this space!