Ecosystem
Introducing SCF 7.0
Author
Anke Liu
Publishing date
Stellar Community Fund
For the past 6.5 years, the Stellar Community Fund (SCF) has been one of the most open and effective grant programs in Web3, fueling hundreds of products, protocols, and breakthrough ideas across the ecosystem. As the network matures and builders demand faster, clearer, and more supportive pathways to launch, SCF must evolve with them.
Today, after SCF Pilot voting was successfully conducted through Soroban Governor, we’re proud to introduce SCF v7.0 — a major upgrade designed to accelerate ecosystem growth, increase high-quality inflow, and help builders get from idea to scale faster than ever.
1. Three clear SCF build award tracks
Built for Speed, Differentiation, and Better Fit.
For teams integrating existing Stellar ecosystem building blocks, including DeFi protocols and ready-to-use wallet functionality, without reinventing the wheel. Eligible applications will be reviewed by a quarterly-rotating panel of (SCF Pilot) delegates, and the use cases and building blocks will be decided by quarterly (and ad hoc) community votes.
For teams building needed financial protocols and primitives to accelerate onchain growth, or functionality to unlock novel use cases that push the Stellar ecosystem forward. The Open Track is open to all builders, with no requirement to integrate a pre-defined building block. Submissions are evaluated for ecosystem impact, originality, and technical soundness, and final award decisions are made through community vote.
For developer tooling, infrastructure, or ecosystem capabilities explicitly requested by the Stellar ecosystem. RFPs are scoped and published based on identified gaps or strategic needs, and submissions are reviewed and selected by a panel of SCF Pilot delegates with relevant technical and domain expertise.
2. High-Signal submission & referral pathway
SCF v7.0 introduces a unified submission and referral system designed to reduce noise, surface high-quality builders earlier, and speed up time-to-decision — without compromising openness.
Builders can signal interest at any time and, if eligible, enter an open SCF Build Award round. Submissions can be strengthened through verified referrals from trusted ecosystem actors (alumni, ambassadors, accelerators, partners). Referred teams get stronger trust signals and faster reviews, while referrers earn recognition and financial incentives tied to team success.
Projects without referrals are still welcome and go through an AI-based prescreening process that filters low-signal submissions and surfaces strong candidates for human review. When ready, teams submit formally to a funding round, where applications proceed through panel review or community vote, depending on the selected track.
This approach preserves openness while scaling selection quality through clearer entry points, referrals, and automation.
3. Execution-aligned funding and UX-ready launches
SCF v7.0 introduces a four-tranche, milestone-based funding structure designed to encourage execution, speed, and delivery — while ensuring funded projects are ready for real users at launch.
Funding is released as follows:
- 10% upon award
- 20% at mid-development milestones (MVP)
- 30% at advanced product readiness (Testnet)
- 40% at verified mainnet launch + UX readiness
This replaces the previous structure with three equal paid disbursements (with the Testnet tranche unpaid), aligning incentives more closely with progress and outcomes.
To receive the final tranche, projects must demonstrate UX readiness, including clear onboarding flows, functional and tested interfaces, and basic usability validation. Mainnet deployment alone is no longer sufficient — funded projects must be usable, discoverable, and positioned for adoption.
4. Instawards: ambassador-led incubation
Instawards are a decentralized evolution of SCF Kickstart, empowering regional Stellar Ambassador chapters, which are community-led and independently operated, to incubate promising early-stage projects directly on the ground.
Through Instawards, ambassadors may recommend projects for small awards of up to $15K per project to support early experimentation, prototyping, and local pilots — helping teams reach the readiness required to enter the SCF Build Award pipeline.
This model decentralizes early-stage discovery, pushes incubation closer to local builder communities, and keeps SCF Build Awards focused on teams ready to ship. All award decisions remain subject to SDF’s review and approval.
5. Post-launch growth pathways — for teams that ship
Rather than a one-time chance for success, SCF v7.0 extends beyond initial funding for teams that launch successfully and demonstrate meaningful traction. Only projects with live mainnet deployments and verifiable usage qualify — this is not an automatic continuation of the Build Award.
Eligible teams may access a set of post-launch growth pathways, including:
Build awards for high-performing teams, up to $300K in total funding over the project’s full lifecycle to ship new features or scale integrations that fill a real ecosystem need.
Growth Hack: Providing targeted funding and support for user acquisition experiments and repeatable growth loops.
Audit Bank: Offering access to vetted auditors and subsidized security reviews as teams scale
Accelerators and advanced support programs, including BD, go-to-market sprints, and coordinated Launch Weeks
Selective agency, distribution, and investment access, including introductions to marketing partners (e.g., Myosin), ecosystem distribution opportunities, and investor connections
Indicate your interest in SCF today
SCF v7.0 works best when builders enter the pipeline early. Teams building on Stellar or planning to should indicate their interest as soon as possible to be considered for an active round: communityfund.stellar.org/awards.
Indicating interest early:
- Improves your chances of being invited to submit to the round
- Allows time for early referral verification and reviews, as well as incorporating feedback
The SCF #41 Build Award submission deadline is February 1st, 2026. Teams who indicated interest are reviewed and invited to submit on a rolling basis, and early signals are strongly encouraged.