Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, we are BAAAAAAACK!!! Stellar Community Fund season 2 round 1. It’s a brand new year and we are finally ready to kick the SCF back into high gear. The first thing you’ll notice is this pretty new face. 😁 Hi! 👋 You may actually have seen me on the other side of the SCF last year but I’ve since been acquired by the SDF and will now be taking over the SCF from Zac to allow him to focus on the bigger picture marketing and communications work he loves so much. From here on out Kolten and I will be your touch points for the SCF. There’s a whole new slew of guidelines and structural improvements and we plan to place a much larger focus on this fund as time goes on. From the SBC to the SCF, Stellar’s developer and community funds have been instrumental in my life and I’m here to see this thing grow and thrive into the vision I’ve had for it for years. I’m so excited to finally get this ball rolling again and I can’t wait to see what you build! Round schedule: Feb 24th – Submissions open March 23rd – Submissions close, Discussion opens April 20th – Nominations open May 4th – Nominations close, 1 week pause May 11th – Final vote begins May 18th – Final vote closes, round ends, 1 week pause The Stellar Community Fund (SCF) gives the broader Stellar community the opportunity to vote on which projects they believe deserve XLM awards. Any project built on Stellar can apply and participate! Every 3 months, 8 participants have the chance to split a pool of 3 Million Lumens. Timeline Each SCF round consists of 4 phases. The submission phase: During this phase, participants submit their proposals to GalacticTalk.org. Late submissions will not be eligible for the current round. The submission phase lasts 4 weeks. The discussion phase: The discussion phase is the participation and learning phase. Discussion and community participation is highly encouraged. It is fundamentally the most important part of the Stellar Community Fund. Not only does it give participants valuable feedback, it allows them to position themselves as advocates for their proposal and overall growth of the ecosystem. This round is strictly dedicated to the sharing and discussion of project proposals within the community. Community members should take this time to ask participants questions about their proposals, submit suggestions, and engage with any active elements. The discussion phase lasts 4 weeks. The nomination phase: This is the first round of voting. Stellar community members will vote for their favorite project proposals. Each voter must select 3 entries but can vote on up to 8 different entries. The top 8 nominees move to the final vote phase. Nomination takes place over 2 weeks. There will be a one week pause after the nomination phase before the final vote begins. The final vote: In this phase, the top 8 proposals enter a final vote which guides the lumen distribution. Voters choose their 3 favorite proposals from the top 8. Lumens are distributed based on the final percentage of the votes. For example, if a winning project receives 20% of the vote, they will receive 20% of the awarded lumens (600,000XLM of the 3M XLM pool). The final vote will last 1 week and there will be a one week gap before each new round begins. Proposal Submission All proposals should be submitted as a new thread to GalacticTalk.org under the SCF | proposals category . Proposals should be classified by category. Are you building an application, writing a resource, or planning an event? Choose appropriately. Below are category descriptions. Applications, Tools, Infrastructure: This is the ‘developer’ category. If your project is built on Stellar—or is a tool that supports developing on Stellar—your proposal belongs here. All submissions to this category must have a functional / live element. For example: if you are creating a library, you must have reviewable code; if you are building an application, people must be able to demo it. Resources & Content: This is the category for people who want to flex their creative muscles. Do you have a great series of tutorials, a podcast, or website that can help educate people about Stellar? If so, your proposal fits within this category. This category requires drafts or rough cuts of your proposed content. People must be able to read and review your submitted samples. Events & Programs: This is the category for broader Stellar outreach. Are you planning on hosting a workshop or community-driven program? If so, this is the category for you. This category requires that you share a plan for execution. Depending on the scope of this effort you will need to provide items such as proposed venues, curriculum, timelines, guests, costs, etc. Submission Template Please copy this template below and replace the text after the colons with your content. This is critically important as it allows us to regex off the template to display prettier and more detailed project previews on the voting site and in promotional material. Break this template and we may disqualify your proposal. Image header: 1200x630 image preview of your project or project brand (keep margins in mind). Project title: The name of your project. Please adhere to the Stellar brand policy. Summary: A simple sentence summary of your project. Category: Choose one the three categories (Applications, tools, infrastructure | Resources & Content | Events & Programs) Goals: What your project plans to accomplish broken down by objectives. Timeline: How and when you will accomplish your goals. Description: The description should answer questions like “what does your project enable users to do?” “Why is your project valuable for Stellar?” and “Wow does your project use Stellar?” It should also cover what platforms the project supports (ex; Windows, Chrome, etc.) and relevant documentation. This section should be very detailed. Links: Links to your application, code repository, supporting materials, and/or home site. If you are submitting a proposal for content pieces (like walkthroughs), please provide links to the content pieces. Tags: Tag your project. Examples can be “sdk, javascript, party, game, book” Voting Voting will take place in two rounds. A nomination round and award round. Voting takes place on https://stellarcommunity.fund Submission Eligibility Applicable law and our internal policies restrict us from providing lumen awards for certain categories of projects. If your project is in one of our prohibited categories, it will not be eligible for an award. If you are unsure whether your project falls inside these one or more of these categories, please contact us and verify! Regardless of the community’s voting outcome, a submission will be ineligible to receive an award if it: violates any applicable laws, regulations, orders, judgments, decrees, guidance, or other legal authority; involves, facilitates, supports, or promotes unlawful activities, including, but not limited to: fraud, drug trafficking, purchases on dark web markets, theft, illegal arms trafficking, human trafficking, abduction, extortion, embezzlement, corruption of public officials, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing, and intellectual property violations; involves, facilitates, or promotes gambling; is offensive, deceptive, harmful, or libelous; is or contains sexually obscene content; is discriminatory or abusive toward any individual or group; contains, transmit, or instills malware or phishing pages or devices; or infringes or violates any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of privacy, right of publicity, or other rights. Participant Eligibility SDF intends to comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the distribution of lumen awards. All winners will be required to submit KYC documentation and fill out an applicable tax form. Failure to submit appropriate documentation or failure to pass our KYC checks will result in your rewards being forfeit. These tax forms will be used for accounting and tax reporting purposes so please be aware of your country’s applicable laws regarding tax-filing. Lumens will be reported at closing price on the day they are sent to you. You must be at 18 years of age to participate in SCF, unless your country's minimum age for receiving a cryptocurrency award is older, in which case you must meet the minimum age applicable in your jurisdiction. Winning entries will not be eligible for future rounds. You may only win SCF a maximum of twice per year (block of 4 rounds). While you can resubmit ‘losing’ proposals, individuals who submit new proposals after winning 2 SCF challenges within the current year will be disqualified from consideration for the award. Current Ecosystem Infrastructure Grant recipients are not eligible to participate in SCF. Participants who create fake accounts to bypass the above rules will be disqualified. This is regardless of whether or not they win a round. Participants who leverage sockpuppet accounts to submit proposals, friends to submit proposals, or any similar ‘act of bad faith’ will be disqualified. SDF has the right to withhold awards from people who have abused these eligibility requirements. Unfortunately, if you’re a national or resident of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan, or the region of Crimea, we are unable to send you any lumens. Additionally, we may also be unable to send lumens to winners in countries where local law makes it unlawful for residents to hold or receive cryptocurrencies. Please note, we currently cannot send lumens to residents of the US states of Alabama, New York, Georgia, Connecticut, New Mexico, Hawaii, Vermont, and Washington. All participants will retain the intellectual property associated with their submission. Engaging in vote manipulation will cause your proposal to be disqualified. This includes botspam, fake/sock puppet accounts, and brigading. Manipulation and Disqualification What we're looking for is organic, genuine interest and discussion around your project. Foster and encourage that. Be kind and supportive to your fellow competitors. Don’t ask for votes. Instead, ask others to simply take a look for themselves. Feel free to share a direct link to your GalacticTalk post with your friends or users, but don’t mass-message people, or attempt to "game" the system in any way. People should upvote things they genuinely like or find interesting, not because they were peer pressured or incentivized to do so. While this is a community fund, the SDF retains the right to disqualify entries and timeout participants without warning or explanation in order to maintain a fair and profitable experience for everyone. If we find you’re acting in bad faith, we may bar you from participating in future rounds as well. If you suspect foul play and would like SDF to investigate, or if you have suggestions for future rounds of the community fund, please fill out this form . Do not use the SCF Keybase team to critique the program or call out participants. Stellar Community Fund Keybase Team: https://keybase.io/team/stellar.communityfund

Super stoked to see the proverbial torch picked up and carried forth! This year, we'll be focused on highlighting some of the great stuff going on in the community fund. I'm personally excited to see what people bring to the table and work to get eyes on all of your lovely proposals. As Tyler mentioned, this round officially begins next week -- so we'll be getting the word out then (but feel free to still submit a proposal if you've been sitting on one!) 😁

Is there a link for information on why NY would be disqualified?

ddombrowsky https://www.dfs.ny.gov/apps_and_licensing/virtual_currency_businesses/bitlicense_faqs

Can't stop progress, I suppose.

“Wow does your project use Stellar?” Yes, yes it does.

@tyvdh Would it be possible to add times/timezones to those dates? For example, the previous submission round had an ending time of 12PM PST alongside the ending date. Cheers

hi I am trying to enter a proposal where do I start the form

thisBrian All times are midnight UTC the day of. So submissions close tonight, March 23rd at midnight UTC. Most of this work moving the round forward is manual though so don’t cut it close 😉

Caterina Just go here and click Start a Discussion. Be sure and follow the template provided above though.

SCF has been held for several times, and most of the previous award-winning projects have painted their goals, so after they have received funding, have these goals been promoted? or have most projects been abandoned in the end? I think these projects should be tracked.

Stellar Community Fund Round 4

tyvdh

The submission phase of SCF 4 has officially closed! It’s amazing to see so many fantastic, ambitious and detailed entries this round. Onward to the discussion round! Use this time to ask and answer the hard questions, to lend a hand in suggesting improvements. Above all though encourage each other and celebrate your accomplishments and achievements this far, you are all amazing creators, inventors and innovators. Big claps!!

Now for some less happy news. I think we can all agree that the SCF has often felt a little like the wild west and while it’s been amazing to grow, ideate and iterate there comes a time where you have to abide by new rules and stick to your guns. There’s a new sheriff in town and as a former competitor myself I know how disheartening it can be when the playing field doesn’t feel level. To that end we have chosen to disqualify from this round the following projects.

MSI mobsen Music Spectrum App
Didn’t follow submission guidelines, unclear how Stellar has been implemented.

Granny Molly
No live element or track record of success. Run a pilot or construct some curriculum first. For pre work funds like this to be permitted some history of success, accomplishments and accountability will need to be proven first.

EduNode - Meet, learn and build on Stellar
No live element. For pre work funds like this to be permitted some history of success, accomplishments and accountability will need to be proven first.

FIDO An easy way to use Stellar Smart Contracts and fight fraud
No live element.

XLMANCHOR: Becoming an Anchor just got easier
Not enough of a live element. For technical projects the SCF should be viewed as a grant for completed work not for promised work, particularly if you’ve abandoned previous SCF entries.

paywith.glass - Transaction Infrastructure as a Service [TIaaS]
Not enough of a live element and no significant improvements made since the November 2017 SBC entry. For technical projects the SCF should be viewed as a grant for completed work not for promised work.

StarVault - Unplugged vault for Stellar
No live element. Important technical details aren’t outlined. For technical projects the SCF should be viewed as a grant for completed work not for promised work, particularly if you’ve abandoned previous SCF entries.

This is not an opportunity to gloat or bash on the developers or their projects, my hope is that they will each iterate on their entries and come back stronger and more fully fleshed out in the coming rounds. My aim is not to discourage or heavy hand the SCF but rather to encourage the best of us and keep this fund on target.

If you have questions, comments or concerns please feel free to reach out to me tyvdh on Keybase. For general suggestions or comments we also have a great form to collect feedback. I want this fund to reach its max potential and for that to happen we’ll need to all give each other a little grace, patience and understanding. We’re all in this together, learning, iterating and trying to make the most of the technology Stellar provides.

Onwards!

nachoflores

tyvdh Our live element was uploaded on AppStore and we are waiting for approval. As soon as we get the approval we can share the link. Meanwhile our project is using Stellar testnet.

Freitag

tyvdh Thank you for following through with improvements to the SCF. Post funding development has been a big issue throughout the SCF. Encouraging longer term development is a great step in the right direction.

tyvdh

nachoflores Amazing! I cannot wait to see it, really looking forward to playing with it next round, the video definitely looked very promising.

nachoflores

tyvdh Thank you so much for the words. We are trying to solve a massive problem. Here in Mexico all kinds of Frauds are committed and we need to stop it.
Since we found Stellar and SALDO anchor we belive we can create a great tool.
We will work harder for next round but anyways we will deploy our solution in order to get traction and solve the fraud problems around people in Mexico.
Congratulations for this amazing community.
Saludos/Regards

tyvdh

hatter Really excited about the potential here but without a live element you'll have to wait until a future round when you've got something the community can actively and accurately discuss and evaluate. Really hope you have something tangible for next round or sometime later this year as it looks like you've really put some thought and effort into this.

tyvdh

hatter I understand the frustration and I don't doubt you have something locked and loaded ready to blow us all away but unfortunately I'm unwilling to bend the rules here as it would be unfair to other entrants who have sufficiently live elements and were ready to go on time by the deadline. Remember too this is a quarterly fund so you won't have to wait long before you get a fresh shot at wowing us all in a much more tangible way.

hatter

tyvdh Ok, thank you, bye.

Torkus

tyvdh

My project was deleted and I didn't know why, now I know so I deleted my post asking for a reason. Thanks for the explanation.

dzham

Torkus

Just scroll up a page or two.

Torkus

dzham

Good, at least it wasn't disqualified because of the fight with the troll.

Torkus

Ok now to the good parts:

No live element. Understandable, reason accepted, and only valid reason.

Important technical details aren’t outlined. Be very careful with this since it introduces subjectivity to the evaluation. And that exactly what the next phase of the contest is for, answering questions.

For technical projects the SCF should be viewed as a grant for completed work not for promised work, particularly if you’ve abandoned previous SCF entries. Now we're on shaky ground and the most dangerous of all. Abandoned projects are abandoned for so many reasons, starting with lack of traction, no monetization plan, no profits, no possibility to add human resources, chicken and egg problem, etc, but the most important of all is money, if there is no money there is no way to continue development specially for world changing projects that need tons of resources, human and capital.

So, take it as a suggestion for improvement. I'll start working on my entry for the next SCF and I hope I don't get disqualified or accused of abandoning projects.

tyvdh

Torkus As you seem to be reasonable here I'm going to respond in kind as I think this discussion is worth having and may help guide further improvements and clarifications around the SCF.

Important technical details aren’t outlined.
I actually agree with you here, there is subjectivity in the evaluation, however it isn't a minor point particularly in areas which have been problem areas for entries in the past. Key storage and management is an area ripe for scams and mismanagement particularly when dealing with solo entrepreneurs. It's a trigger area for us and while I agree it can seem subjective we will require more details, demos and likely code available for review when submitting projects of this nature. Remember entries set patterns so while one entry may be fine due to underlying, unseen factors if that’s not obvious you set a pattern for bad actors to come in next round. You're absolutely right to think that there's a time for the community to pitch in but there's also a responsibility we have to guard the community from potentially dangerous or mismanaged projects. Your job is to prove the value and security and never assume your history or promises are enough. I've made that mistake before personally and been disqualified. It's unfortunate in the moment but in the long term I get it and support it as it puts me in the community's shoes not necessarily knowing me or my history nor having the time to deep dive mine and 30+ other projects. Assume nothing, prove the value and security every time.

For technical projects the SCF should be viewed as a grant for completed work not for promised work, particularly if you’ve abandoned previous SCF entries.
Again you are right that projects are abandoned for many reasons however there is a fundamental misunderstanding here of the purpose of the SCF in your statements. The SCF grant is primarily an opportunity for the community to partner with developers and content creators not the other way around. It's putting funds in the hands of the community at large to distribute to those projects and initiatives which they find value in. The assumption is that the projects which receive support don't immediately cease development, that the developers aren't in a mindset of money grabbing with another latest and greatest flashy new toy each round.

You've built a ton of stuff, like actually so many things, and that's amazing! So many of your projects seem that they could be great, could take off, but it would appear you're unable or unwilling to push them forward, and that's absolutely fine. If there's no business or no desire for you to pursue a business in them you have no requirement to do so. However that attitude and pattern isn't one the SCF is designed to support. The community is voting for your entry, your project, your event or service, not you. You are involved in your project and loyal developers are often our biggest winners in the SCF but if after winning, those projects the community voted for in hopes of delivered promises go nowhere and disappear we cannot continue to support that as a long term pattern. Money is a problem, business is hard, but that's not a problem unique to Stellar and in fact there are for-profit businesses running on Stellar right now without any involvement or payment from the SDF. There are also so many other means of fundraising out there, especially these days, I would strongly suggest projects looking for early stage or ongoing support default to looking outside the SDF for funding.

Torkus

tyvdh

So you don't want me to participate anymore? That's fine. Does Jed know about that? Because the SCF is not for funding projects, it is for growing the ecosystem, and that includes sharing ideas with fellow developers to further expand the reach of Stellar in the hands of more people and that's what I've been doing since I started working on Stellar, all my projects have been copied/extended/inspired by others and that's a good sign because that further increases awareness. I, personally, don't have CEO skills, my job is to program, to develop ideas that can be of high interest for the community, just like you when you brought to us GraphQL as an excellent idea but someone else took the prize from your hands by further developing your initial idea. How did that feel? Not good for you but very good for the ecosystem, people got inspired and they finished something of utmost importance for all. My Swift SDK inspired others and someone won the prize and even inspired a Kotlin SDK for Android, my PayWithStellar tool inspired others that adapted it to wordpress and shopify, my StarBoard project was copied line by line (now modified) to build the very own Stellar Network analisys tool, no credits required since I gain satisfaction from my projects inspiring others. When I started Galtex, I was the first to offer crypto, forex, stocks, commodities, all in one exchange, a world changing idea that had to be shut down or face jail time.

So yes, I know everybody here piles up against my submissions because I've won many times and I haven't continued development on any of them, some trolls even called me "milking the community". Now take for example Paysapp, a billion dollar idea that needs MILLIONS of dollars to comply with all the laws and regulations, that can be a total pain to implement due to all the hurdles that messaging platforms require in order to meet their terms of services or get banned. Do you think ten thousand dollars would be enough to lift that project up? There are only two options, one, comply and raise millions, and two, go underground and shut off whatsapp, twitter, and all messaging platforms reducing the posibility for virality and multi-app communication losing its appeal.

No, this field is not easy, it is a minefield full of booby traps, a thousand projects will fail and only a handful will survive, even Facebook with their Libra project understands all the risks and legal/political mountains they must climb but at least they have the resources, and you can not expect all thousand dead-end projects built on Stellar to continue development without proven monetization plans or even law compliance. Does that disqualify me? Then let me know not to waste my time or yours anymore.

And remember, Stellar has money allocated for development, that money should be used to expand the ecosystem no matter what, and that's what I've been doing since day one, my day one in November 2017 once I learned about this awesome project, not awesome anymore I guess. And no, I don't want special treatment, I took my disqualification with pride and will work hard for the next SCF only if you all stop looking at us developers as "community milkers" and change your attitude against us. There are tons of scammers and shitty projects on every round even in this one, so open your eyes and learn to differentiate those who PROVIDE VALUE from those who don't.

Thanks for the good times. A great learning experience.

Caterina

tyvdh why was my proposal in the competition hidden can you look into that

tyvdh

Caterina Sorry to report your submission was disqualified. See the post above for the explanation

ddombrowsky

tyvdh April 20th – Nominations open

What will you use for nominations?

tyvdh

ddombrowsky our voting app we’ve used for the last few rounds https://stellarcommunity.fund

aj07

Hy,

Sorry, I just got to know about this grants. Is the application window still open. I want to apply there

tyvdh

aj07 This round is closed for applications but the next round opens up on May 25th, hope to see you then!

GrigoreIonut

Hey, man! My name is Tudor - I wanted to ask you, if by any chance, you are the guy that replied to me on reddit about the dev role for a stellar based project? I've been trying to get in touch with you on all channels possible.

Please get in touch whenever! Thanks!

tyvdh

GrigoreIonut Not sure. You can DM me on Keybase tyvdh but as far as jobs feel free to submit your application through our jobs page. http://jobs.lever.co/stellar

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