[Proposal] Mask grant and ecosystem program budget request

This is an initial funding proposal for the Mask Grant requesting budgetary funds for a series of ecosystem programs. The snapshot proposal will last 3 days from August 30 at 10:00:00AM to September 2 EST at 10:00:00AM (Proposal ends with 50% pass).

TL;DR

In order to further expand the Mask ecosystem in a more systematic way, Mask team would like to propose to distribute $MASK worth of 1 million USD funds to Mask ecosystem programs including:

1. Mask Grant program ($MASK worth of 500k USD)
2. Gitcoin Grant ($MASK worth of 200k USD)
3. Hackathon/Scholarship ($MASK worth of 250k USD)
4. Bounty ($MASK worth of 50k USD)

The Funds will be distributed through roughly a 1-year-duration. They can be renewed or increased upon review.

Vision

Mask’s mission is to nurture cutting-edge applications in Web3 and has been actively shaping the future of the field since 2019. Mask has funded many projects to grow and scale, which has driven the mass adoption of the decentralized internet. We want to solidify our position in web3 social and stick to our vision of data ownership where regular everyday users will be able to control their own on-chain identity, privacy and data.

To this cause, Mask wants to provide a fund of $MASK token equivalent to 1 million USD to support early-stage projects. We have 4 programs allocated as the following:

• Mask Grant program (500k USD worth of $MASK, with 10+ candidates)
• Gitcoin Grant (200k USD worth of $MASK, already allocated 50k)
• Scholarship/Hackathon (250k USD worth of $MASK)
• Bounty program (50k USD worth of $MASK)

Programs Overview

• Mask grant application link: Mask ecosystem Notion page
• Gitcoin grant Link
• Info about scholarship: https://twitter.com/suji_yan/status/1464929882257772545
• Bounty application link: All bounties
• Investment fund email: bonfire@mask.io

Internally, Mask Network offered dedicated funding programs like Mask Grant and Scholarship to encourage college dropout students, public goods and ecosystem projects. In the past few months, Mask has hosted major events like ETHShanghai Hackathon.

Externally, for the first half of the year, we’ve sponsored Gitcoin GR14 web3 social round and Moonshot hackathon. We look forward to sponsoring more Web3-themed events like Gitcoin GR15, etc.

• Refer to the Mask Ecosystem notion page here
• Refer to the Mask Grant program notion page [here] (https://mask.notion.site/Mask-Grant-Program-4b177b18925f4c57b2346d6ec85e641d)

Metrics and KPIs

• Fund 50 grant projects in Web3 social and public good area in 1 year
• Introduce 100+ projects into the Mask ecosystem, including Mask browser Extension and Next.ID via all sorts of programs above
• Grow users of the ecosystem products to the next level

How Voting Will Work (Pass with 50% approvals)

Select the option based on the initiatives above [ ] yes [ ] no

Conclusion

Mask will support early-stage projects, build the Web3 social ecosystem, and bring Web3 dapps to large scale of people. Thank you for taking the time to consider our proposal and the commitments we have put forth for Grant Program. We look forward to answering any questions you may have and ensuring our work is closely aligned to the expectations of the Mask DAO.