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🪙 Alternative Funding

Some funding sources might be more and some less suitable for your project throughout its various stages. We encourage you to explore alternative funding options listed below. Please note, however, that you should not seek to fund the same scope of work from multiple sources and that any team found doing so will have its Web3 Foundation support terminated.

tip

If you are unsure about what's the best next step for you and your project, consider signing up for the Polkadot Alpha Program.

Treasury​

The treasury is a pot of on-chain funds collected through transaction fees, slashing, staking inefficiencies, etc. The funds held in the treasury can be spent on spending proposals. Both Polkadot and Kusama offer everyone the opportunity to apply for funding via the treasury. See:

Hackathons​

From time to time, Web3 Foundation and/or Parity organise hackathons to promote quick prototyping of Polkadot related ideas. We highly encourage you to participate in these hackathons. Bear in mind, however, that you cannot submit the same work for a hackathon and the Grants Program. If you have worked or are planning to work on a project for a hackathon, your grant application should either propose a different set of features or otherwise build on top of your hackathon work. The same applies in reverse, although that will likely be less common.

The best way to find out about upcoming hackathons is by following Polkadot on the various social channels, such as Element or Twitter.

Other Grant or Bounty Programs​

Below is a list of other grant and bounty programs in the Polkadot/Substrate ecosystem: