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Summary

• As part of our overall decentralization roadmap, this proposal aims to establish the official Band Protocol Grants Program for the Band community.
• The purpose of this proposal is to secure funding from the community pool of Band Protocol in order to support the official Band Protocol Grants Program and advance the growth of the Band Protocol community
• As of the date of submission, we are seeking approximately 20% (or 150k BAND) of the total funds available in the community pool, which currently stands at ~800,000 BAND. This pool, derived from 2% of block rewards and network fee, has remained untouched thus far.
• The requested funds will be allocated to support contributors in the first wave of the grant program. The grant program operates on a four-wave per year basis, with a maximum funding limit of 150,000 BAND per wave. To reinforce the decentralization of the network, the proposed grant program will be governed by the existing Band token holders.
• All BandChain Grants Proposals (BCGPs) will undergo a review process led by the grants team lead and will be reviewed by three supported reviewers using the BCGPs process
• The grants program will commence once the proposal has been approved.

Purpose

To successfully achieve decentralization, Band Protocol recognizes the importance of building a robust and active community. As part of our ongoing efforts to further decentralize the network, we are introducing a grant program that will be governed by the existing Band token holders.

The primary objective of Grants program is to enhance the Band community and increase the long-term effectiveness of BandChain by rewarding individuals who contribute values that support BandChain.

The grants program aims to:

• Expand the Band ecosystem, funds will be provided for development activities aimed at adding value and ensuring the long-term success of BandChain.
• Support and fund innovative ideas that enhance the Band ecosystem.
• Provide funding for value-added projects, ideas, and community events to encourage more active participation from contributors. The growth of the Band ecosystem depends on the community, and this will benefit it while attracting new members to the Band community.

From onset, BandChain has maintained Band tokens in its community pool, which steadily increases by around 19,000 BAND per month through the allocation of 2% of block rewards and network fee. And so far this has accumulated 800,000 BAND which have not been utilized before and it is essential to actively utilize these funds to add value to the protocol and its ecosystem. As part of an effort to further decentralize the network, we are proposing a grant program governed by the current Band token holders.

The grants program will establish a maximum funding limit of 150,000 BAND per wave, and the program will operate on a quarterly basis, with four waves per year.

The BCGP was established with the aforementioned goal in mind, and contributors can apply for and obtain $1,000 to $50,000 worth of BAND under the funding conditions, which is a sum that would not be viable for governance funding via on-chain voting every single time. We recognize that having funding for operations and development is crucial for contributors, which is why we encourage them to be active and grow the ecosystem in the long run.

Scope of work

During the initial phase, Band core team will help to create all the essential procedures and resources for the program, including the Grants website, Band forum, and application process. If the program operates efficiently on its own, it will slowly shift to the community, enhancing its long-term sustainability.

The program’s scope extends beyond providing funding to individual contributors, as it also encompasses talented teams that are developing value-added projects. Our objective is to support the Band Ecosystem by allocating grants to projects that generate significant benefits for the community.

There are 4 categories to support Band Ecosystem:

1. Development Grants: Grants for developers building blockchain-based applications and services on top of a particular platform.
2. Research Grants: Grants for academic or industry researchers studying various aspects of blockchain technology, such as scalability, security, privacy, and interoperability.
3. Community Grants: Grants for projects that promote the adoption and growth of a particular blockchain ecosystem, such as meetups, hackathons, educational initiatives, and marketing campaigns.
4. Infrastructure Grants: Grants for projects that improve the underlying infrastructure of a particular blockchain ecosystem, such as improvements to consensus algorithms, network scalability, or storage efficiency.

Grants Team

The initial introduction of the grants team by the core team of Band will include individuals who have been working closely with Band for over three years. These team members possess diverse skill sets, extensive experience, and share a common goal of ensuring the long-term success of BandChain.

Here are the proposed initial members of the grants team:

1. Grants Team Lead:
   • Shine - Head of Operations, Band Protocol
2. Reviewers:
   • Swit - CTO, Band Protocol
   • Paul - CPO, Band Protocol
   • Queue - Senior Software Engineer, Band Protocol

Since the grants team is affiliated with Band Protocol and are pre-selected for an initial starting period, they will not be compensated using the requested grants fund. Therefore, the entirety of the funds in the community pool will be dedicated solely to contributors.

The grants team will remain operational until the program achieves self-sufficiency, with a planned experimentation period of one year. Furthermore, community members will be able to volunteer and garner votes from Band token holders and the community, opening up possibilities for them to join the grants team down the line.

The team will have the following responsibilities:

• Operations: As soon as the applications for the BCGP are received, the grants team will establish an efficient operational process.
• Review BCGP: The team will review all applications bi-weekly.
• Feasibility Testing: The team will interview contributors to clarify information, agree on funding terms and amounts, and discuss with the Band core team and advisors to ensure that the grants are valuable.
• BCGP Approval: The team will approve BCGPs that meet the criteria.
• Provision of Funds: The team will provide the funds as per the agreed terms of the contributor and grant team’s agreement.
• Follow-Up: The team will hold a follow-up meeting with the grantee to ensure that they achieve any milestones and generate a final report for the community.

Granting Process and Timeline

After the approval of this proposal, the grants program will initiate, comprising of four cycles annually, with each cycle spanning three months. Community members are encouraged to submit their applications through the Band forum within the designated grants program timeframe. Evaluations of the approved applications will be conducted using the BCGP processes approximately one month prior to the conclusion of each cycle. Any proposals submitted during this timeframe will be considered for the subsequent cycle.

The grants team will source and discuss potential BCGP with the Band core team and advisors to ensure that it benefits the Band ecosystem. If everyone agrees on the BCGP, the grants team will interview the contributor to clarify information, agree on milestones, funding terms, and grant amounts. The grantee will then apply for the BCGP on the grants website and prepare for the final approval.

Upon submission of the BCGP on the website, the grant team will review all the information and give the final approval. After the reviewing status of BCGP changes to the implementing status, the grant team will fund the grantee within seven days following the terms of the agreement. And the fund will be paid in BAND for worldwide applicants, except for those located in the United States, who will be paid in USDC instead.