Developer Experience 2 of 2 scorched earth A decentralized system for peer-to-peer content suggestion utilizing a “Two Of Two Scorched Earth” reward/punishment scheme proposed by Vitalik Buterin to incentivize quality content sharing. The goal of the project is to deliver a proof-of-concept implementation on mainnet to demonstrate the usefulness of this scheme for a variety of applications. Developer Experience EthWorks Maintenance and improvements on Waffle, a library for writing and testing smart contracts. Grant objectives include ENS integration, expanded documentation and addition of dynamic mocking. https://github.com/EthWorks/Waffle Developer Experience POA Network The Arbitrary Message Bridge can not only transfer tokens between any two EVM-based chains, but can relay any data or call contracts – for example, calling a method on the Ethereum mainnet from POA network or a Quorum Chain. The grant to POA Network will be used toward expanding AMB’s capabilities, creating demos and preparing for 2.0 support. https://www.poa.network/ Ethereum 1.0 Nethermind Renewed funding to Nethermind for battle-testing the Nethermind 1.x client, launch of beam sync, and improving performance to increase miner adoption. https://nethermind.io/ Ethereum 1.0 Tasit SDK The Tasit SDK is a JavaScript framework for building native Ethereum mobile dapps using React Native, with a focus on user experience and easy onboarding. https://github.com/tasitlabs/tasitsdk Ethereum 2.0 Fast Binary Field FFT Implementing a fast binary field FFT which is necessary in order to estimate the difficulty of computing data availability roots; with additional exploration into whether it’s better to use 16 vs 64 bit fields in the light of special CPU support for the latter. Ethereum 2.0 Lighthouse Continued funding for Sigma Prime in developing the Lighthouse staking client, written in Rust, for the Ethereum 2.0 network. Lighthouse v0.11.1 testnets are up and running, with user-facing testnets coming soon. https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse Ethereum 2.0 Lodestar Continued funding for Chainsafe’s work on Eth2 light-client R&D within their Lodestar javascript client, as well as further development of libraries, tooling, and educational resources supporting the Eth2 JS/web-browser ecosystem. Results from an audit of a number of Lodestar’s key components were recently published. https://chainsafe.io/ Ethereum 2.0 Nimbus Continued funding to Status for development of the Nimbus client for Ethereum 2.0. Nimbus is designed to perform well on embedded systems and personal mobile devices, including older smartphones with resource-restricted hardware. Nimbus is nearing a v0.11.1 testnet release. https://nimbus.team/ Ethereum 2.0 VDF Continuation Funding Research led by renowned complexity theorist Ryan Williams into the sequentiality assumption of RSA-based VDFs, i.e. seeking a better understanding the “delay” part of VDFs (verifiable delay functions), which are the basis for unbiasable randomness in Eth2. The work funded by this grant is specifically aimed at proving information-theoretic lower bounds for modular exponentiations. Indirect Funding Gitcoin bounties Funds for community-administered bounties contributing to Ethereum ecosystem development. https://gitcoin.co Layer 2 Plasma Chamber Cryptoeconomics Labs is working toward a production-ready implementation of Plasma Chamber based on OVM. Expected grant outcomes include testnet deployment of the OVM contract, a Plasma wallet, and a developer portal with tooling and documentation. https://www.cryptoeconomicslab.com/ User Experience ENS Continuation Funding Continued development of Ethereum Name Service, including full DNS namespace integration, using ENS and IPFS to store and serve DNS names; multi-coin support; improvements to the ENS website and Manager; advocacy and outreach. https://ens.domains/

Community & education Appcon Slice Event designed to introduce Ethereum applications and experiences to a non-crypto audience, hosted during Milan Design Week in Italy. Community & education Bhutan Dev Fest GovTech Agency Hackathon in Paro, Bhutan uniting local and global innovators to develop solutions leveraging decentralized technology, including Bhutan’s self-sovereign National Digital Identity (NDI) that empowers citizens to control and selectively share personal data. Community & education Blockchain Days ODTÜ Blockchain Student-run conference organized in Ankara, Türkiye, covering topics such as cryptography, governance, and DeFi. Community & education Blockfuse Labs IRL Bootcamp Cohort 3 Blockchain developer training program in Jos, Nigeria designed to transition web2 developers to web3 builders through deep technical instruction in Solidity and blockchain fundamentals with hands-on learning, hackathons, and project showcases. Twitter Community & education Code Africa Hackathon One Dev Hybrid hackathon held in Nairobi, Kenya, focused on building projects to bring Africa onchain, with themes including infrastructure and tooling, healthcare, and education. Community & education Copenhagen Ethereum Meetup 10 Years Anniversary Meetup celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Copenhagen Ethereum Meetup community group. Community & education Cornell Blockchain Conference Cornell Blockchain Club Conference hosted in New York City, USA, revolving around topics such as bridging web2 with web3, DeFi, and regulation. Community & education Crecimiento Ethereum ecosystem development initiatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina from May to November 2025, including Ethereum-aligned pop up cities, summits, hackathons, bootcamps, and other collaborative events. Community & education Deep Dive into Blockchain Summer School UZH Blockchain Center Summer school offering a multidisciplinary exploration of blockchain technology, covering its technological, economic, and legal pillars through a highly interactive 3-week course that blends theory with hands-on experience. Community & education Destino Devconnect Grants round focused on supporting community-led events and initiatives that help bring Argentina and the broader Latin America region onchain. Community & education Edge City Supporting Edge City’s popup villages of 2025, which convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and social innovation to run real experiments on new ideas and collaborations. Twitter, Email Community & education eSatya Community Meetups Community meetups organized in Kathmandu, Nepal exploring topics such as the intersections between blockchain, AI, and social impact. Community & education ETH Beijing Hackathon PKU Blockchain DAO & WTF Academy Student-run hackathon organized in Beijing, China with tracks focusing on public goods and AI x Crypto. Community & education ETH Belgrade Conference and hackathon with themes such as infrastructure and scaling, privacy, and developer tooling, hosted in Belgrade, Serbia. Community & education EthCC[8] Ethereum France Conference hosted in Cannes, Paris revolving around themes such as core protocol & research, zero knowledge & cryptography, and security. Community & education ETH Cinco de Mayo Beginner-friendly conference and hackathon hosted in Mexico City, Mexico that includes a 1-month university onboarding program. Community & education ETHCluj 2025: Ethereum for Everyone Conference hosted in Cluj-Napoca, Romania exploring tracks such as the Ethereum roadmap, developer onboarding, and AI. Community & education ETH Dublin Conference and hackathon hosted in Dublin, Ireland focusing on themes such as public goods, privacy and security, and DeFi. Community & education Ethereum México Supporting Ethereum México’s 2025 initiatives to develop the Ethereum ecosystem in Mexico through education and community-driven programs. Community & education Ethereum Novi Sad Encouraging the growth of a student-led Ethereum community in Novi Sad, Serbia with guidance from professors and assistants from the local technical university who will help students self-organize, host events, and build a sustainable local ecosystem. Community & education Ethereum Research-a-thon TUM Blockchain Club Event hosted in Munich, Germany bringing together participants to ideate on high-impact research challenges, forming teams to explore theoretical concepts, build simulation models, or propose new mechanisms with mentorship from leading researchers. Community & education ETHKL Supporting ETHKL’s development and self-sustainability exploration through a series of programs featuring meetups, a hacker house, conference, and hackathon. Community & education ETHWarsaw Supporting ETHWarsaw’s 2025 initiatives including their annual conference and hackathon, regular monthly Ethereum meetups, blockchain bootcamps, workshops, a legal conference, podcast episodes, and a newsletter. Community & education magma3 Borderless Africa Residency organized in Kenya for African builders and founders comprising office hour sessions, peer-to-peer coordination, and workshops. Community & education Mozilla Festival Mozilla Foundation Global open source gathering bringing together activists, technologists, and artists to collaborate on building a more open, inclusive, and trustworthy internet. Community & education Onchain Bootcamp Chula Blockchain Society Ethereum-focused bootcamp hosted at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand that teaches participants practical skills in smart contracts, L2s, dapps, real-world use cases, and career opportunities. Community & education Pectra Staking Manager Pier Two Open-source platform that empowers Ethereum validator users to easily manage their validators post-Pectra, providing a user-friendly tool for consolidating, withdrawing, and topping up their validators. Community & education Pop-X Hong Kong ETHDimsum Research house and meetup focused on interoperability, UX, and programmable cryptography, hosted in Hong Kong. Community & education ProgCryptoSG Meetup #5 Meetup with talks on the Sumcheck Protocol and verifiable AI in DeFi, hosted in Singapore. Community & education Project Glitch Monthly educational events in Washington, DC targeted at policymakers and policy experts focused on crypto and privacy, among other relevant topics. Community & education RareWeek RareSkills Educational ZK bootcamp and coworking event targeting engineers and security researchers hosted in Bali, Indonesia. Community & education Science of Blockchain Conference (SBC) 2025 IC3, Stanford Center for Blockchain Research, & UC Berkeley RDI Academic conference revolving around blockchain protocols, cryptography, distributed systems, secure computing, and cryptoeconomics in Berkeley, USA. Community & education Unphishable DeFiHackLabs Web3 anti-phishing training platform to enhance security awareness in the blockchain community. Community & education Urbe Village urbe.eth Pop-up village in Rome, Italy revolving around themes of privacy, finance, and AI through activations such as the Urbe Campus bootcamp, workshops, and the ETHRome hackathon. Community & education Web 3.0 Summer School & Hackathon Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Sri City Summer school equipping undergraduate students with fundamental and advanced concepts in web3 and dapps, followed by a nationwide hackathon. Community & education ZK Core Program in Argentina, Brazil, & Ecuador ArgCryptoHub, ERC55, & ETH Ecuador Supporting the local ZK community in Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador, kickstarting its growth through a 6-week educational program and weekly meetups that are targeted towards students and early-career developers. Community & education Zuitzerland Residency hosted in Switzerland, delving into themes such as Swiss governance and democracy, d/acc, and Ethereum and cypherpunk. Twitter, Telegram, Email Community & education 10 Years of Ethereum Meetups Grants round supporting local community organizers in running a series of global meetups to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Genesis block. Consensus layer EIP-7917: Deterministic Proposer Lookahead Lin Oshitani Championing EIP-7917, which involves writing explanatory documents and unit tests, participating in the All Core Devs calls, and advocating for its inclusion on mainnet. Consensus layer GossipSub Analytics Towards PeerDAS ProbeLab Developing or extending the current set of tools to measure the performance of the network and the GossipSub protocol in the Ethereum network as it gears up to the PeerDAS transition. Consensus layer PeerDAS Roadmap Support ProbeLab Supporting the PeerDAS roadmap by analyzing the effectiveness of distributed blob publishing, getBlobs hit rate, and creating a tool to help verify node custody checks. Consensus layer ream Ream Labs Modular, contributor-friendly, and fast implementation of the Beam Chain specification written in Rust. Consensus layer Recursive zkVM for Signature Aggregation Tom Wambsgans Implementing a simple, performant recursive zkVM for signature aggregation in Rust, and writing its specification in Python. Consensus layer ROP-9.4: FOCIL Implementation, Tests, & Devnets Jihoon Song FOCIL interoperability between clients, developing test suites for both consensus and execution layers, and coordinating with core developers. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs ArkLib Quang Dao Establishing a Lean library for formally verified cryptographic proof systems based on Interactive Oracle Proofs (IOPs). Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Binius in Lean Adding a formalization of Binius-related work to ArkLib, Lean’s library of formally verified SNARKs, including construction codes over the binary tower field (BTF), as well as several constructions on top of BTF (Binary FRI, Binary BaseFold, Ligero-Binius, FRI-Binius) and soundness/completeness proofs. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Clustering Differential Trails in Algebraic-Oriented (AO) Primitives Clustering differential trails into differentials or truncated differentials by researching and identifying target primitives or related toy hash/ciphers, studying the clustering of trails into differentials in AO using Matsui search or similar tools, researching truncated trails, and analyzing potential malicious designs. Part of the Poseidon Grants Round. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Cryptanalysis of Poseidon-Based Fiat-Shamir Protocols Hayk Hovhannisyan, Nerses Asaturyan, & Gohar Hovhannisyan Analyzing the security of the reduced-round Poseidon hash function when employed within non-interactive ZK protocols that generate public randomness using the Fiat-Shamir heuristic, as part of the Poseidon Grants Round. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Ethproofs Contribution Fara Woolf Contributing to Ethproofs’ ongoing development by enhancing its core functionality and user experience, focusing on areas such as refining the block proof explorer interface and UX, improving data visualization capabilities for proof metrics, and optimizing proof comparison functionality. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Groebner Basis Attack Research Ludovic Perret Conducting a long series of experiments with the Groebner basis attack to assess the security of Poseidon and its suitability as a component within the Ethereum protocol, as part of the Poseidon Grants Round. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Integral Cryptanalysis & Security Arguments Against Statistical Attacks for Arithmetization-Oriented Primitives Tim Beyne & Michiel Verbauwhede Providing stronger security arguments against linear and differential cryptanalysis for primitives defined over large fields and extending (ultrametric) integral cryptanalysis to finite fields of any characteristic, as part of the Poseidon Grants Round. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Plonky3 in Rocq Formal Land Establishing an extraction from Plonky3 to Rocq and demonstrating its use by verifying relevant components of Plonky3-based zkVMs. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Privote Shashank Trivedi Decentralized private voting platform that enables users to conduct and participate in polls while preserving voter anonymity and integrity through MACI with seamless UX. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Proof Generation & Orchestration Optimization ZkCloud Generating block proofs and uploading them to Ethproofs, as well as developing an open-source, optimized orchestrator to accelerate proof generation. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Quantum Computer Canary p51lee Investigating the potential threats that quantum computers pose to the Ethereum cryptosystem, providing a good introduction to the math and notation around quantum algorithms, and mechanical descriptions of how they work. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs ZKarnage ProofLab Deploying and testing “prover killer” transactions on Ethereum mainnet, aimed at stress-testing proving systems like Ethproofs and generating visibility for it. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs zk-FOCIL R&D Shreyas Londhe & Suyash Bagad Designing, implementing, and benchmarking the SNARK-based instantiation of the Linkable Ring Signature scheme as described in the zk-FOCIL proposal. Developer experience & tooling BuidlGuidl Builder community dedicated to Ethereum developer education, with a focus on expanding SpeedRunEthereum, making it easier to build on Ethereum with tools like Scaffold-ETH 2, and bringing education to university students globally through Ethereum on Tour. Developer experience & tooling Decentralized Verifiable Frontends Interplanetary Shipyard Project enabling users to fetch and verify frontend data directly from decentralized networks like IPFS, reducing reliance on centralized infrastructure and mitigating risks such as censorship, outage, and supply chain attacks. Developer experience & tooling EIPsInsight Avarch Enhancing the visibility and usability of the EIP process by introducing real-time upgrade tracking, lifecycle analytics, and contributor education, while also delivering new tools for community engagement such as a trends dashboard, guided submission builder, and customizable EIP status notifications. Developer experience & tooling eRPC Updating and maintaining eRPC, a fault-tolerant EVM RPC proxy and re-org aware permanent caching solution. Developer experience & tooling Glider Query Database Contest Hexens Contributing to the prize pool for security community submissions of Glider queries into an open-source query database, to protect onchain mainnet contracts and projects from exploits, crowdsourcing vulnerability queries from the broader Ethereum security community. Developer experience & tooling Kurtosis Tedi Mitiku Updating and maintaining Kurtosis, an open-source platform for packaging and launching ephemeral backend stacks with a focus on approachability for the average developer. Developer experience & tooling Lean Backend for Hax Cryspen Developing a Lean backend for Hax, a tool for high assurance translations of a large subset of Rust into proof of language (currently Rocq and F*) that can then be used to prove its correctness. Zulip Developer experience & tooling Paymaster Management App Patterns Open-source tool that enables developers to easily define, manage and measure gas sponsorship policies for ERC-4337 account abstraction wallets. Developer experience & tooling Simbolik Runtime Verification Solidity debugger that integrates with Visual Studio Code and works by simulating and inspecting contract execution at both the Solidity and EVM levels, with support for breakpoints, variable inspection, and symbolic execution. Developer experience & tooling sol-dbg Dimitar Bounov Solidity debugger with an experimental interpreter approach that works for optimized EVM bytecode generated by any Solidity compiler. It will be developed in the form of a TypeScript library so it is small, modular, and easily embeddable in a variety of projects. Developer experience & tooling Tycho Indexer PropellerHeads Designing and implementing an open-source routing algorithm that anyone can use to trade, build on, and adapt. Execution layer Gas Limit Performance Testing Nethermind Setting up infrastructure to test the various execution layer clients at higher gas limits, identifying bottlenecks, and building tooling to mimic mainnet conditions. General research Preconfirmation Systemization of Knowledge Conor McMenamin & Lin Oshitani Producing an open Systematization of Knowledge on preconfirmations in Ethereum, covering theory, implementations, critiques, and open questions. General growth & support Brazil Community Currency Evolution Plexos Institute Transitioning a community currency platform from web2 to web3 by testing the migration process and assessing the viability to scale to its 170 municipality partners in Brazil and then beyond. General growth & support Ethereum House Initial support for Ethereum House in San Francisco’s Frontier Tower, a physical nexus for the Ethereum community in Silicon Valley that will foster crypto innovation, cross-industry collaboration, and community engagement. General research Academic Grants Round Grants round funding formal research that aims to create more knowledge about Ethereum, blockchain technology, and related domains. General research DAOStar Research Fellowship DAOStar Program taking place over the course of 3 months, aiming to produce actionable research on the state of regional DAOs, digital governance, and more. Layer 2 Unstoppable Rollups Facet Advancing governance-minimized, censorship-resistant rollups by collaborating with Ethereum Foundation researchers on embedding rollup validation directly into Ethereum and maintaining Facet, a production-ready, governance-minimized rollup. Twitter Other BundleBear Kofi Introducing detailed tracking and metrics for EIP-7702 and its relationship with ERC-4337 by indexing EIP-7702 activity, surfacing wallet usage trends, analyzing authorized contract patterns, and measuring how EIP-7702 wallets interact with ERC-4337 infrastructure. Other Decentralization Research Center Non-profit that advocates for decentralization as a fundamental characteristic of emerging technologies. This includes the development of blockchain protocols and applications that are immutable, censorship resistant, transparent, secure, and enable data self-sovereignty. Other Ethereum Privacy Ecosystem Mapping Web3Privacy Now Researching and creating an Ethereum privacy ecosystem map, for highlighting and easy reference of existing actors, creating connections and fostering the ecosystem towards delivering practical daily privacy within Ethereum. Other Hardware Wallets Blind Signing Solution Kampela Exploring a proof-of-concept solution to the blind signing problem in hardware wallets. This involves a “bundle” of transactions, with a custom one-off smart contract (for onchain verification of certain actions) and the actual onchain verification/assertion of state changes, sandwiching the intended transaction. Other Security Alliance (SEAL) Common good infrastructure for coordination between security professionals, protocols, and the community to collaborate on impactful security initiatives such as SEAL 911, SEAL Wargames, and SEAL-ISAC. Protocol growth & support Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF): Cohort 6 Stipends for cohort members of the EPF, a program designed to onboard developers to the process through which protocol development happens. Protocol growth & support Pectra Proactive Grant Round Grants round to support the Ethereum ecosystem in preparation for the Pectra network upgrade. Protocol growth & support Summer of Protocols Program and research effort aiming to catalyze broad interest in the study of protocols as a first-class concept for thinking about the world.

Community and Education Akomba Education Initiative On-chain certification framework, and development of modular learning resources and accredited courses using this framework. akomba.com/ Community and Education Couger Educational initiative creating working groups and corporate meetups/workshops to discuss and develop open standards and proofs of concept. Community and Education FOSS Responders Event organized by Open Software Foundation to help connect open source projects and teams affected by COVID-19 with funding opportunities in various open source ecosystems. fossresponders.com Cryptography and ZKP STARK-related explorations Research and development on Distaff, a zero-knowledge virtual machine written in Rust which automatically generates a STARK-based proofs of execution, including progress toward Turing-completeness. github.com/GuildOfWeavers/distaff Cryptography and ZKP zk-SUMMER Program for students to learn about and build on Ethereum, with zero knowledge proofs as a key focus area. Cryptography and ZKP Hubble Optimistic rollup hub which enables creation of optimistic rollup chains within the same interface, removing the need to ever “exit” the ecosystem by allowing users to move between chains instantly and at negligible cost once they have entered the rollup space. The goal of Hubble is to allow the creation of any rollup chain simply by writing a solidity function. thehubbleproject.github.io/docs/ Cryptography and ZKP Peek-A-Book Private order matching system that allows users to advertise trading orders without leaking the amount or price. Cryptography and ZKP UniRep Private and nonrepudiable reputation system which uses zero knowledge proofs and Ethereum contracts. Cryptography and ZKP zkzkrollup Improving Fawkes-Crypto to support a PLONK-based recursive solution for cheaper Layer 1 verification. github.com/zeropoolnetwork/fawkes-crypto Cryptography and ZKP Analysis of Arithmetization-Oriented Ciphers Research to optimize the advanced cryptographic protocols that make use of symmetric ciphers. Cryptography and ZKP MACI User Interface Web-based user interface for Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure. Developer Experience Meson: A Mixnet To Rule Them All Research into network level privacy based on Katzenpost, including decentralising the public key infrastructure, incentives, and dynamic tuning of mixnet parameters. github.com/hashcloak/Meson Developer Experience SWARM Research and development on Swarm, a decentralized storage solution. ethswarm.org Developer Experience ChainSafe Grant to ChainSafe for maintenance and improvements on the Web3JS library. github.com/ethereum/web3.js/, chainsafe.io/ Ethereum 1.0 OpenEthereum Maintenance on the OpenEthereum client and repository. Ethereum 1.0/Ethereum 2.0 DataHop Large-scale simulation of the proposed DiscV5 service discovery protocol for eth2 in order to evaluate and improve performance and provide Sybil resistance. datahop.network Ethereum 2.0 RSA MPC review Audit of the RSA MPC (multi-party computation) paper and code by the KZen team. eprint.iacr.org/2020/374.pdf, github.com/ligeroinc/LigeroRSA, Diogenes Octopus Playing Red Team for Eth2 Ethereum 2.0 Schlesi An initiative to create a number of multi-client eth2 testnets in preparation for mainnet. This work led to the current Medalla testnet, composed of 20k+ validators and 600+ nodes with the majority run by the community github.com/goerli/medalla Ethereum 2.0 BSC Eth2 Network Evaluation Collaboration between a professor and master’s student to evaluate libp2p gossipsub simulations using the Barcelona Super Computer (BSC), investigate ways of hardening gossip networks against attacks, and develop a monitoring tool. bsc.es Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Fuzz Continued maintenance and infrastructure upgrades by Sigma Prime on Beacon Fuzz, a differential fuzzer for finding crash-causing and consensus bugs in eth2 clients. github.com/sigp/beacon-fuzz Ethereum 2.0 Lighthouse Continued development of Sigma Prime’s Lighthouse staking client, written in Rust, for the Ethereum 2.0 network. github.com/sigp/lighthouse Ethereum 2.0 Prysm Client Continued development of Prysmatic Labs’s Prysm staking client for the Ethereum 2.0 network written in Go. github.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm Third Party Funding UNICEF Cryptofund Cryptocurrency-denominated investment fund targeting startups that use blockchain technology for social impact. unicef.org/innovation/blockchain Third Party Funding CLR.FUND Open quadratic funding protocol using Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure (MACI). clr.fund Layer 2 Perun Go-based implementation of state channels hub and node client. perun.network Layer 2 Fuel Labs Research and development of optimistic rollup for building scalable, permissionless, trust-minimized rollup. fuel.sh/ Layer 2 Unified State Channels Continued work on getting State Channels production-ready, including launch of Web3Torrent, a demo app which uses state channels to enable micropayments for torrented data. statechannels.org/ User Experience Gas Station Network Productionizing GSN2, testnet dapp integrations, and educational materials. opengsn.org/

Community & education BlockchainsForSchools Sponsorship of BlockchainsForHacks, an ideation challenge for high school and college students to create innovative projects using blockchain technology. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Hubble Continued funding for work on an optimistic rollup hub allowing creation of any rollup chain simply by writing a solidity function. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Zkopru (zk-optimistic-rollup) Layer-2 scaling solution for private transactions using zk-SNARKs and optimistic rollup. Github: https://github.com/zkopru-network/zkopru Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Dark Forest Game theorietic research completed by a group of Stanford students on using zk-SNARKs to construct “incomplete information” environments where users can keep a private state while publicly submitting verifiably valid actions. Dark Forest was created to demonstrate the capability of this framework to create complex environmental and strategic dynamics in decentralized gaming. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Semaphore RLN Method for preventing spam when using Semaphore, a zero-knowledge gadget for anonymous proof of membership. RLN (Rate Limiting Nullifier)reveals the private key of an account signaling above an acceptable rate, which another member can use to remove them from the group. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs ETH Summer Program for students to learn about and build on Ethereum, including contributions to 4byte.directory. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Aztec Continued work on PLONK, including delivery of Ultra-PLONK, which adds PLOOKUP gates; development of a domain-specific language and compiler; and prover upgrades. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Blind Find v1 Peer-to-peer network allowing private peer search: one user can locate another via provable pathways between multiple peers without revealing any information about the connection. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Quadratic Dollar Homepage Smart contracts and web UI for a Quadratic Dollar Homepage, inspired by the Million Dollar Homepage. Users determine the prominence of images on a web page via quadratic voting, using Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure (MACI) for collusion resistance. Developer experience & tooling Hardhat Improvements to Hardhat (formerly known as Buildler), a development environment for compiling, deploying, testing, and debugging Ethereum software, built and maintained by Nomic Labs. Developer experience & tooling formalize.eth Verified compiler from a subset of Vyper to YUL, written in Coq. Developer experience & tooling IPLD, Object Signing and Encryption Joint funded with Protocol Labs: research by Textile and 3box into cryptographically securing data in IPLD, the linked data framework used by IPFS, to enable scalable and interactive dapps using both IPFS and Ethereum. Ethereum 1.x Web3 Labs Continued maintenance and improvements to the Web3j library including Solidity library dependency management, smart contract migration support, Web3j Solidity debugger enhancements amd integration for IntelliJ/Android Studio, and Eth2 support. Ethereum 1.x Whiteblock Testnet and experimentation to understand the impact, including uncle rates and block propagation times, of larger block sizes resulting from implementation of EIP-1559, reduction in calldata gas cost, and/or increase in gas limit. Ethereum 1.x OpenEthereum Maintenance and development on OpenEthereum, a takeover of the Parity client spearheaded by Gnosis. Ethereum 1.x Imapp Testing, including creation and deployment of a set of sample programs on various machines, operating systems and EVMs, to estimate gas costs and dependencies for EVM computation, with the goal of addressing imbalanced gas costs for EVM instructions. Ethereum 2.0 bitfly Continued work on beaconcha.in, an open-source eth2 block explorer providing support for eth2 testnets. Github: https://github.com/gobitfly/eth2-beaconchain-explorer Indirect funding MetaCartel DAO Contribution to a DAO funding microgrants and mentoring for post-hackathon and early stage teams. Indirect funding Gitcoin CLR CLR matching for rounds 6-8. Layer 2 Burn Auction Censorship-resistant block creation mechanism for Optimistic Rollups wherein the right to create a new block to is auctioned to the person willing to burn the most ETH. Layer 2 State Channels Continued development of State Channels including audit, server wallet, SDK, improved documentation and mainnet implementation. Layer 2 Fuel Labs Further development of the Fuel optimistic rollup. Layer 2 Connext Framework enabling cross-chain communication using state channels. User experience Least Authority Audit of GSN v2 contracts. User experience EIP 1559 R&D Dual grant to the EIP-1559 multisig to support community-wide efforts, and ConsenSys for coordination of research and development.

Community & education ETHTerakoya Educational initiative by Couger organizing public meetings, workshops, and working groups producing prototypes and standards. Community & education EthereumCN Chinese language resources and community building, including eth2 resources and a program for university students. Community & education Truffle Sponsorship of the TruffleCon 2020 virtual developer conference. Community & education Creacion de Contratos Inteligentes con Ethereum Scholarship for 11 independent developers to attend the National University of Bogota smart contract development course “Creacion de Contratos Inteligentes con Ethereum.” Community & education Descubriendo Blockchain Spanish-language Ethereum education course with each lecture given by a different speaker, primarily featuring experts from LATAM communities. Community & education India Ecosystem Development Events Organization of virtual developer events targeting students from top engineering colleges in India. Community & education Devfolio Fellowship 8-week mentorship and education program with separate tracks for seasoned Ethereum developers, and web developers with no experience in Ethereum. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs 4byte.directory Support for students from the ETH Summer program to continue work on 4byte.directory, a tool for mapping the 4-byte function selectors used by the EVM back to a list of known canonical function signatures. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Scaffold.eth Projects Support for students from the ETH Summer program to continue various projects on scaffold.eth. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Blaine Bublitz, Ivan Chub, Jacob Rosenthal for Dark Forest and ZK Tooling Improvements to zero knowledge tooling and infrastructure based on learnings from continued development of Dark Forest. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Kautuk Kundan for BLS Hubble Frontend Creation of a frontend allowing users to create accounts and interact with Hubble and other applications which use BLS signatures. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Geoff Lamperd for MPC Phase 2 UI Website and other components for browser-based trusted setup ceremonies, including server application, browser-based client and Firebase backend for core fuctions. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Riya Singh for Anonymous Login with Semaphore A proof of concept using Semaphore for anonymous login, allowing a user to prove they belong to the list of KYC’ed users without revealing their validated properties (eg. phone number) or notifying the KYC provider of the login purpose. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Cory Dickson for MACI 1.0 Continued development of the Minimal Anti-Collusion Infrastructure MVP toward the specified v1.0 implementation. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Igor Gulamov for Hubble Audit Security audit of Hubble, an optimistic rollup hub allowing creation of multiple chains with the same interface for increased interoperability between ORU chains. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Chance Hudson for Zkopru Infrastructure Improvements to Zero Knowledge Optimistic Rollup tooling and developer ecosystem, including a testnet to analyze zkopru’s performance under realistic conditions, with multiple coordinators competing for batch creation via burn auction mechanism developed by Iden3 for the Hermez network. Developer experience & tooling Umbra Protocol for Bitcoin-style “stealth addresses” on Ethereum, allowing a payer to send to a public identifier (e.g. an ENS name or public Ethereum address) while creating a fresh address, controlled by the recipient, each time funds are sent. Developer experience & tooling Obsidian on Ethereum Research and proof of concept by a group of students and professors from the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science to demonstrate that key features of the Obsidian smart contract language can translate successfully to Ethereum. Developer experience & tooling Yul-Isabelle Writing of Yul’s formal semantics in the Isabelle theorem prover, with the goal of verifying compiler transformations. Developer experience & tooling ETH Learning Continuation of ETH Summer, a program for students to learn about and build on Ethereum. Developer experience & tooling Chainsafe Audit of GSN v2 contracts. Ethereum 1.x Nethermind Continued support to Nethermind for work on eth1 and .NET client hardening. Ethereum 2.0 Nimbus Continuation funding to Status for development of the Nimbus eth2 client. Ethereum 2.0 ConsenSys Automated Verification Team Continued work on formal modeling and verification of components of the eth2 specs. Ethereum 2.0 ethereum2-docker-compose Work by Rock Logic to extend the ethereum2-docker-compose staking node toolbox, including support for the Teku and Lighthouse clients as well as additional features, articles, and documentation. Ethereum 2.0 Lighthouse Continued development of Sigma Prime’s Lighthouse staking client, written in Rust, for the Ethereum 2.0 network. Ethereum 2.0 Staking Community Grants Special grants round focused on tools for improving the staking and validator experience. Ethereum 2.0 Medalla Data Challenge Hackathon-style competition for blog posts focused on data tools, visualizations, analyses or other ways of making data from the Medalla testnet. User experience ENS on L2 with general approach Standard for securely retrieving verified information from off chain, including subdomain records from ENS domains stored on L2 but generalized for use with any data outside the Ethereum mainnet. User experience Etherisc Support for the integration assessment phase of a pilot project led by Etherisc and Acre Africa to provide blockchain-based agricultural microinsurance for smallholder farmers in Kenya.

Community & education China ecosystem development ETHPlanet Support for ETHPlanet’s ecosystem building initiatives in China, including working with students and universities, events, community organization, and educational resources. Community & education DE-FERENCE Decipher Research and discussion-focused blockchain conference run by Decipher, a blockchain society at Seoul National University. Community & education Devspace Virtual Hackathon Computer Society of India Student-run hackathon organized by the Computer Society of India, targeting developers, researchers and students. Community & education ETHGlobal Virtual and in-person hackathons focused on building the Ethereum developer community through learning opportunities and hands-on support for hackers. Community & education Informational websites Deployment of a series of easily digestible, informational and educational websites about the Ethereum ecosystem Community & education Russian-speaking ecosystem development Sponsorship of a series of Russian-language virtual Ethereum meetups Community & education Web3 Teacher Training Program Blockchain Acceleration Foundation Development of a curriculum and course to train university students and professors to become educators in Ethereum development, aiming to provide them with a foundation to lead educational initiatives at their respective universities. Consensus Layer Beacon Chain Network Topological Analysis Shreyas Samaga Applying topological data analysis techniques to aspects of the beacon chain network including visualization of validator behavior, insights into the structure and health of the p2p network, and inspection of key consensus metrics. Consensus Layer Beacon Chain Ransom Attack DeMontfort University Proof of concept of a ransomware attack on Ethereum validators, illustrating the need for more secure infrastructure for large providers. Consensus Layer ChainGuardian NodeFactory Application and graphical interface for managing multiple validators and beacon nodes with statistics and monitoring. Consensus Layer Lodestar ChainSafe Continued development the Lodestar JS beacon chain client, with goals including light client R&D, improved tooling and documentation, and preparation for the Altair hardfork. Consensus Layer Prysm Prysmatic Labs Continued development of the Prysm client, focusing on beacon chain production support and refinement, as well as R&D on Altair, the Merge, and Sharding. Consensus Layer Shard Data Proof of Custody MPC Platon Continued research and development on multi-party computation for setting up ethereum validators and decentralized staking pools. Consensus Layer ssz.dev Website resources documenting and demonstrating the SSZ serialization standard, including a visualization playground and React-based SSZ implementation. Consensus Layer tPlonk Christian Rechberger Research and development on tPlonk, a SNARK-friendly lookup based hash function. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Dark Forest Infrastructure and Tooling Blaine Bublitz and Jacob Rosenthal Continued work on zero knowledge tooling, infrastructure and community developer support in connection with Dark Forest. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs BLS Global Wallet James Zaki L2 wallet contract replacing ECDSA signatures with compressed BLS signatures in optimistic rollups. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs C.R.E.A.M. Couger Development of a protocol for secure, anonymous, and verifiable voting technology, as well as additional zero knowledge R&D and enterprise adoption efforts. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs CLR.fund UI Spencer Graham Enhancements to the CLR.fnd user interface, aiming to create an application that can be deployed by anyone to run their own CLR funding round. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Dark Forest Continued work on Dark Forest, a decentralized and persistent RTS (real-time strategy) game, demonstrating use of zk-snarks to construct “incomplete information” environments where users can keep a private state while publicly submitting verifiably valid actions. Dark Forest was created to demonstrate the capability of this framework to create complex environmental and strategic dynamics in decentralized gaming. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Forum Moderation with Prediction Markets Smart contracts and automoderator bots for using prediction markets to mitigate spam in online forums. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs MicroMix v2 Aitivity Extensions to MicroMix, an ETH and ERC-20 mixer built on Semaphore, including the ability to deploy a new contract for any denomination, a mixer registry to avoid splitting liquidity, enablig layer 2 deployment, and a fully open-source and non-minified user interface. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs MPC Phase 2 Geoff Lamperd Productionizing a suite of components for browser-based trusted setup ceremonies. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Optimism Security Assessment Kyle Charbonnet Security assessment of the Optimism codebase, resulting in a report detailling Optimism’s design and code structure and pointing out security vulnerabilites. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Reputation Proving Service: Design and Specification Jay Graber Design and specification for a reputation proving service that exports cryptographic proofs of user attributes from existing sites where users have accrued reputation such as Github or Twitter, which can be verified by sites or decentralized applications. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Reputation Proving Service: Development Raphael Roullet Development of a reputation proving service that exports cryptographic proofs of user attributes from existing sites (such as Github or Twitter) to be verified by sites or decentralized applications. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Rollup Block Explorer Site Design Rachel Akerley UX strategy and UI design for a rollup block explorer dashboard, including research-informed information architecture and visual identity. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Rollup Diff Compression Blagoj Dimovsk Research paper and proof of concept for efficiently storing data on the blockchain while using rollups for the airdrop use case. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Unirep Social Design a smart contract requiring users on a Unirep-based private and decentralized social media platform to risk reputation in order to post, with any post resulting in a reduction or addition of their total reputation score. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs zk Data Marketplace Jacksoom Liu Design for a trustless data market using a smart contract to allow encrypted data to be published for sale, while buyers can confirm authenticity using a segment of exposed data and a ZKP issued by the seller. Cryptography & zero knowledge proofs Zkopru Stress Testing Stress testing, monitoring tools, CI setup and cluster testing scripts for Zkopru, a layer-2 scaling solution for private transactions using zk-SNARK and optimistic rollup. Developer experience & tooling ETH Winter Education Resources Nick Ulven Conversion of resources from the ETH Winter program, including Intro to Eth documents, mentor reading lists and quests, into a publicly consumable format. Developer experience & tooling GASOL: Gas Analysis and Optimization Toolkit Universidad Complutense Madrid Development of a super-optimizer for Ethereum smart contracts that optimizes block-by-block by searching for instruction sequences that are semantically equivalent to the original sequence in the block but consume less gas, aiming to reduce overall transaction costs and increase transaction capacity. Developer experience & tooling Software Engine for Game Theoretical Modeling University of St. Gallen and Statebox Software engine for game theoretic modelling of compositional games, e.g. auction mechanisms or governance structures, using Compositional Game Theory. Developer experience & tooling web3swift Universal library providing web3 functionalities in the Swift language, to enable building of full-featured native dApps in the Mac/iOS ecosystem. Developer experience & tooling Zkopru Ceremony Site Design Rachel Akerley User-friendly website design for the zkopru rollup trusted setup ceremony. Execution Layer EIP 1559 R&D Besu Coordination of efforts to prepare EIP 1559 for adoption by core devs and clients. Execution Layer Besu Maintenance and development on the Besu eth1 client. Execution Layer Nethermind Maintenance and development on the Nethermind eth1 client. Execution Layer Nimbus Maintenance and development on the Nimbus eth1 client. Execution Layer OpenEthereum Maintenance and development on the Erigon (fka TurboGeth) eth1 client. Execution Layer Erigon Maintenance and development on OpenEthereum, a takeover of the Parity client. Indirect funding Baseline Protocol Funding for Baseline Grants supporting research, development and adoption of the Baseline protocol, which allows businesses to synchronize their systems of record and reduce costly errors in B2B transactions. Indirect Funding CLR Matching Gitcoin Matching funds to rounds 9 and 10 of Gitcoin’s CLR grants, funding public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem. Indirect funding CLR.FND Development of a production-ready version of clr.fund, a decentralized quadratic funding protocol using BrightID and MACI to to enable permissionless, pseudonymous, and minimally-trustful protocol-level funding for Ethereum. Layer 2 StablePay Layer 2 SDK SDK for accepting payments and optionally converting them to stablecoins via multiple L2s with one API. Verifiable Delay Functions Biprimality research paper review Benjamin Wesolowski Deep review of a research paper titled “Big primes make me high: New results on biprimality testing” by Dmitry Khovratovich and Mary Maller, to validate a breakthrough result in biprimality testing which could facilitate large scale RSA MPCs.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants Pakistan to urgently clarify its plans for allocating power to Bitcoin mining amid the country’s electricity shortages and fiscal problems, according to a local news report. The IMF delegation is expected to hold a separate virtual session with Pakistan’s Finance Ministry to specifically discuss the electricity allocation.

Last week, Pakistan announced that it will allocate 2,000 megawatts of power towards the operation of Bitcoin mines and artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.

The IMF, which has repeatedly warned countries against the risks of governments buying Bitcoin, sanctioned a $2.4 billion loan for Pakistan earlier this month, and is currently in talks with the country about its budgetary plans.

According to Finance Ministry sources, Pakistan did not loop in the IMF in its plans for power allocation to Bitcoin mining. Citing sources familiar with the matter, however, the local news report stated that the IMF has reiterated its demand that countries receiving aid from the organization under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) consult on all policy changes.

An official involved in the budget negotiations with the IMF told local news outlet Samaa:

“There is a fear of further tough talks from the IMF on this initiative [of allocating electricity to Bitcoin mining]. The economic team is already facing stiff questions, and this move has only added to the complexities of the ongoing talks.”

Pakistan plans to repurpose three underutilized coal power plants to provide electricity to Bitcoin mines and AI data centers. However, the IMF is concerned about how the initiative will impact electricity tariffs and distribution.

In April, Pakistan’s National Electric Power Regulatory Authority announced cuts to electricity prices for a range of consumers. The cuts, however, followed an increase in base power tariffs announced last year.

Pakistan is taking rapid strides to embrace crypto

Over the past few months, Pakistan has rapidly changed its stance on cryptocurrencies, announcing several plans and initiatives to adopt crypto assets and regulate them.

In March, the country established the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) to regulate crypto assets, boost their adoption, and integrate them into Pakistan’s financial landscape. In early April, Pakistan appointed former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) as strategic advisor to the council.

Late last month, World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project with close ties to President Donald Trump and his sons, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PCC.

On May 21, following the recommendation of the PCC, the government established the Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA)—an event attended by U.S. Vice President JD Vance as well as Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

The PDAA would serve as a regulatory watchdog responsible for overseeing the licensing of digital asset service providers, ensuring compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) regulations, and promoting innovation.

At the Bitcoin 2025 conference on Thursday, Bilal bin Saqib, crypto adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, unveiled the country’s first strategic Bitcoin reserve, drawing the IMF’s scrutiny. Saqib, who also announced the launch of a national Bitcoin wallet, noted:

“Our youth are online and on-chain. Pakistan, with over 40 million crypto wallets and an average age of 23 years, is now being recognised for its future rather than its past.”

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