Stellar Community Fund Kicks Off $10M Open-Application Funding Program for Soroban Projects

SAN FRANCISCO, February 8, 2023 — Today, Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced a $10 million Soroban-focused awards program through its Stellar Community Fund (SCF). Beginning on February 13 the Stellar Community Fund will support developers as they experiment with Soroban, the new smart contract platform built for Stellar, which was designed for scale, access to financial rails, and a batteries-included development experience.

The Stellar Community Fund has helped launch and grow over 400 Stellar-based projects in the past five years, and expanding the program to include open-application funding for Soroban-based projects as part of the $100 million Soroban Adoption Fund will create new opportunities for developers and businesses interested in building first-wave tools, DeFi protocols, dApps, and educational resources focused on Soroban.

"We want to motivate developers to experiment with Soroban, and to join in the bootstrapping of a greenfield ecosystem,” said Justin Rice, VP of Ecosystem at Stellar Development Foundation. “Soroban presents a wealth of opportunity for builders and we’re eager to see what people come up with, and to get their feedback as we continue to refine the platform in preparation for Mainnet launch."

The Stellar Community Fund is open to a wide range of applicants, from individual developers to startups to long-lived companies as well as educators and community coordinators. The submission deadlines for the next four rounds are: March 12, April 9, May 7, and June 4, 2023. Interested developers and startups may apply at communityfund.stellar.org.

In addition to the Stellar Community Fund, SDF and DFS Lab will host 5-day long startup camps every quarter to help accelerate development from ideas to viable solutions. For more information on how to apply, visit communityfund.stellar.org.

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About Stellar
Stellar is a decentralized, fast, scalable, and uniquely sustainable network for financial products and services. It is both a cross-currency transaction system and a platform for digital asset issuance, designed to connect the world’s financial infrastructure. Financial institutions worldwide issue assets and settle payments on the Stellar network, which has grown to over 7 million accounts. For more information, visit stellar.org.

About Soroban
Soroban is a smart contracts platform that is designed with purpose. Soroban offers a batteries-included developer experience for scale and access to financial rails via Stellar. The Soroban ecosystem is building in the open, growing, and well-funded with a $100 million dollar Soroban Adoption Fund to support builders on Soroban. Soroban is expected to launch on Stellar Mainnet in the first half of 2023. To learn more, visit soroban.stellar.org.

‍About the Stellar Development Foundation
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source network that connects the world’s financial infrastructure. Founded in 2014, the Foundation helps maintain Stellar’s codebase, supports the technical and business communities building on the network, and serves as a voice to regulators and institutions. The Foundation seeks to create equitable access to the global financial system, using the Stellar network to unlock the world’s economic potential through blockchain technology. For more information, visit stellar.org/foundation.