The Starknet Foundation, behind the altcoin project Starknet (STRK), announced a grant program consisting of $5 million in USD Coin (USDC) to support projects being developed on the network. The funding aims to assist developers with blockchain projects in their final stages to launch and to boost overall blockchain innovation.
Details of the $5 Million Grant Program for the Altcoin Project
The new $5 million grant program will serve as a final push to help launch end-stage projects on Starknet, a ZK-rollup based Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution, aiming to support at least 200 promising project teams with $25,000 each.
Starknet Foundation CEO Diego Oliva stated that the $5 million grant program was introduced to solve the fundamental problems faced by current Starknet developers. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Oliva said, “We listen carefully to developers and are aware of the fundamental problems they encounter. We are talking about projects with incredible creativity and vision, which always face significant issues regarding funding to bring a project to life. We responded with a grant program aimed at solving this issue directly and with minimal bureaucracy.”
The grant program will target projects related to Starknet that have already developed a minimum viable product (MVP) or proof of concept. Oliva emphasized that the main goal is to encourage more blockchain innovation, saying, “Generally, we want to reduce the barriers and burdens young teams face when considering launching a project. We are trying to pave the way for innovation.”
It is evident that Starknet is increasingly attracting more developers to its ecosystem. According to the latest developer report, the total number of active developers per month rose from 10,500 in December 2020 to over 22,400 in December 2023, an increase of more than 113% over three years. With the announced $5 million grant program, more developers are expected to turn to the ecosystem.
Emphasis on Blockchain-Based Gaming
Moreover, when asked about the most exciting projects and protocol categories being built on Starknet, Oliva stated that blockchain-based gaming continues to be the best use case, saying, “Starknet is leading the way in fully on-chain gaming. Key projects in this area include Realms, Influence, and Dojo. This sector is rapidly growing with more teams working on Starknet using the Dojo standard. Gaming is important not just for players but for everyone as it increases demand for the network, tests the network’s features, and demonstrates the network’s strength.”
According to data provided by DappRadar, blockchain-based games account for 35% of total decentralized application (dApp) activity, with more than 2.2 million unique active wallet addresses daily.
