FAQs

Applications will be initially screened by two members of our Grant Committee team, chosen by their expertise in the grant category that you applied for.

Should your grant application pass this initial screening, you may be invited to an interview or we may request further information by email.

After the interview, there will be a vote within our Grant Committee – with the grant being approved once there is a majority consensus. Any member with a potential conflict of interest will be recused from the vote.

You can view our Grant Committee members here.

We will employ three methods

1. Passive open grants: applicants find an idea they have an interest in and submit their applications. Please note that the categories listed above are the ones the ATOM Accelerator will be focusing on but they are not exhaustive
2. Outreach based grants where the ATOM Accelerator proactively seeks out to fund specific initiatives and encourages specific individual or teams to apply for a grant
3. RFPs. In a few instances, the ATOM Accelerator will manifest its interest in projects its Reviewer Committee deems strategic for ATOM and will be publishing more detailed guidelines on its functional and technical needs. Multiple teams are encouraged to participate and submit their application.

We assess applications using a rating sheet to pre-screen them.  Two members of our Grant Committee team complete the pre-screening task, chosen by their expertise in the grant category you applied for.

A total of 16 points is possible, and an average grade of 13.5 or higher from the two reviewers is the threshold needed for an application to move on to the interview stage.

The rating criteria can be read here.

Grants range from $10k to $1m and are paid in $USDC to a Noble address. We don’t anticipate many projects requiring that level of support but if you have a big idea that is going to be open source and drive value to $ATOM then we would love to hear from you.

Absolutely, although we expect to give funding priority to the categories we listed on our website. We are aware some grant ideas might not be covered in the listed categories and as such are committed to process them as well.

The ATOM Accelerator is focused on the Cosmos Hub and the ATOM token. Since our funding is not unlimited and because Interchain public goods are often expensive, our stance is to fund some in association with other app-chain grant programs. We have a liaison with these grant programs and will coordinate with them when necessary to fund together Interchain public goods.

Technically, yes—you can apply for funding through more than one of our funding programs. However, the scope of the funding and arrangements will have to be different.

For example, you are developing a new Cosmos SDK module that will add a specific functionality to the Cosmos Hub. Assuming you meet the requirements of the different funding programs and the approval thresholds, you could:

• Get funding via our Regular Grants program to build out the module and integrate it to the Cosmos Hub
• Get funding via Quadratic Grants, once you have completed the above, and have now released the module for any other Cosmos SDK chain to use.
• Get funding via our Ventures Program, once you decide to apply some monetization strategy and wish to further develop the module and productize it

This is just an illustrative example of how a project could be eligible for multiple funding programs. It does not mean that you will definitely be eligible, nor guarantee that your applications will be approved.

A team could technically apply for funding through more than one of our funding programs. However, the scope of the funding and arrangements will have to be different.

Several teams have applied and been approved for funding by our Regular Grants program and the Quadratic Funding program. In the example below, we will use DAO DAO.

• DAO DAO received $67,100 in funding via our Regular Grants program in August 2023 to deploy their tooling on Neutron. The grant included the development of some specific functionality and integrations that we requested for their tooling.
• DAO DAO then received $80,000 in funding again via our Regular Grants program in July 2024. This grant was to deploy their tooling on the Cosmos Hub, now that the Hub can host CosmWasm contracts (a requirement of DAO DAO).
• Unrelated to both of these grants, the DAO DAO team applied to our Quadratic Funding program and received $1,060 in matching contributions in Round 2 of the program in June 2024. The scope of that grant was a generic “maintenance and development” of the tooling as an Interchain-wide public good since the tooling is deployed across the ecosystem. The amount of matching contributions from us was determined by the public support they received during that round.

So, the two approved funding requests from our Regular Grants program were for pre-determined amounts for a fixed scope, where our Grants Team worked closely with DAODAO to define and evaluate deliverables.

In comparison, the Quadratic Funding for DAO was for a smaller, undetermined amount. It has a loose scope (since funding amounts are not set) and is generally open-ended in terms of deliverables. It is based solely on community support that projects get during the Quadratic Funding Round.

AADAO does, however, monitor new projects that list themselves for Quadratic Funding. Where it is a team that we have funded through our Regular Grants program, we ask them to clarify the scope of their QF application, and should the scope be exactly the same as the Regular Grant funding they received, working with DoraFactory, we exercise discretion in removing them from the QF Round.

Pre-Proposal Checks
You stand a better chance if you are applying for something we have listed. If not, that’s fine – just remember that you will have to prove your arguments

Browse our current funding themes to find which suites your innovation best:

• Interchain Security – Partial Set Security (PSS)
• ATOM zone build-out
• ATOM as Interchain Money
• ATOM Interchain Data
• Cross-Ecosystem Collaboration
• Infra & Tooling
• R&D
• Marketing, Growth & Developer Engagement

You can learn more about each of these grant categories here.

Submit Your Proposal
Start by filling out our grant application form with detailed information about your project, objectives, and how it aligns with the Cosmos ecosystem.

It’s unfortunate that your innovation did not fit into our grant scope or set conditions. However, there are other options for support within the Cosmos ecosystem! Discover more options here. 

Generally speaking, most projects can nominate themselves to receive funding from the AEZ Quadratic Funding program run by the Atom Accelerator DAO and DoraFactory.

There are, however some key guidelines and nice-to-haves:

1. Applicants must have active Github repos and a video demo of your project (as applicable)
2. Applicants must specify what the Quadratic Funding will be used for
3. Applicants must have received less than $1.5 million in total from venture capitals and previous grants.
4. Projects must not be commercialized or have tokens listed.
5. Projects must specifically contribute to the Cosmos Hub and/or the Atom Economic Zone (AEZ) ecosystem.
6. There are no restrictions on project categories. Applications can be from either technical or non-technical projects.
7. Nice-to-haves:
   1. Detailed information of projects’ team members
   2. An actual usable demo with front-end (if applicable)
   3. Smart contract address if the project is already deployed on a blockchain

Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) is a governance-mandated DAO of the Cosmos Hub. We have been formed and mandated to drive value for the Cosmos Hub & ATOM, supporting initiatives that either directly create economic impact or produce value that can drive its growth. From this, our current primary mandates are public grants & venture grants.

Atom Accelerator’s venture arm strategically invests in promising early-stage Web3 founders and startups both within and outside of the Cosmos Hub’s ecosystem. As experts within the Cosmos ecosystem, Atom Accelerator offers expertise, guidance, and support while driving value toward ATOM.

In 2023, we deployed $3.8 million in grants to 39 recipients – resulting in, among other things – a $22m USD airdrop to the Community Pool, an AEZ Accelerator program to expand the AEZ, a successful hackathon with 42 project submissions bringing innovations to the AEZ – and many other key initiatives. Read about them in our 2023 Impact Report.

AADAO’s funding is a result of the two following proposals:

• https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos/proposals/95
• https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos/proposals/865

Each passing onchain voting on Cosmos Hub to allocate funding to AADAO.

The Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) is a decentralized organization created by an onchain vote on the Cosmos Hub. It does not hold any trademarks or copyrights for ATOM or Cosmos Hub – which were acquired / registered before AADAO was formed.

The Interchain Foundation holds trademarks and copyrights for ATOM and Cosmos.

With new innovative grants and opportunities rolling out each month, be sure to follow AADAO on our different social channels to stay up to date on the latest news:

X (Twitter) | AADAO on Cosmos Hub Forum | Blog

The Cosmos Hub is a pioneering blockchain, that gave birth to the Cosmos ecosystem and the modular Interchain Stack (aka Cosmos Stack).

Launched in 2019, the teams behind the Cosmos Hub conceptualized and funded the Interchain Stack, which today powers over 100 sovereign blockchains. Read the Cosmos whitepaper.

Today, the Cosmos Hub serves as a major economic, political and cultural center of the Cosmos ecosystem. It continues to be the primary chain that funds public goods within the Cosmos ecosystem, is the largest liquidity exporter across the IBC-connected interchain ecosystem and through Interchain Security, the Cosmos Hub provides economic security to its Consumer Chains.

The ATOM Economic Zone (AEZ) is an ecosystem of blockchains and dApps that bring direct value to Cosmos Hub.

The core of the AEZ is the ATOM Security Zone, which comprises blockchains and dApps secured by Cosmos Hub’s economic security through Interchain Security.

All the Contributors at AADAO hold themselves to a high level of conduct, especially when acting as stewards of the Cosmos Hub. In the spirit of transparency, you can view the internal policy that we use to ensure compliance here.

The Oversight Committee is effectively independent of the Atom Accelerator DAO’s “executive” teams. It conducts random spot checks on grant-funded projects to ensure compliance with terms and monitors the performance of the Grant Committee and other AADAO committees.

Specifically, the Oversight Committee’s role is to:

1. Provide internal controls of the ATOM Accelerator DAO such as expenditure controls, monitoring of conflicts of interest as well as publishing of transparency reports.
2. Oversight & accountability of grant recipients through follow-ups on milestones and deliverables
3. Interface with the ATOM community at large to inform of the latest developments.

Enshrined in our Internal Protocols is to have one Oversight member directly elected by Cosmos Hub governance onchain – thus providing direct community oversight into our operations. For a list of current members of the Oversight Committee, see our Team page.

In return for our capital (as part of the Ventures program), we seek equity, tokens or warrants in your startup, ensuring that our success is closely aligned with the growth and success of your project.

Book an exploratory call with our Ventures team here. You will need to send through your pitch deck and other pertinent information before the call.

No, you don’t need to use ATOM as Gas. In fact, we also invest in projects that aren’t in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Learn more about our investment thesis here.

It depends on our analysis of your termsheet and your growth potential. In the first nine months of the Venture Program, ticket sizes have ranged from $50k to $500k.

You can see granular data about our Venture Program on our Funding Dashboard.

Atom Accelerator’s venture arm strategically invests in promising early-stage Web3 founders and startups both within and outside of the Cosmos Hub’s ecosystem. As experts within the Cosmos ecosystem, Atom Accelerator offers expertise, guidance, and support while driving value toward ATOM.

Lear more about the Ventures Program or check out the origins of the Venture Program.

The ATOM Accelerator is focused on the Cosmos Hub and the ATOM token. Since our funding is not unlimited and because Interchain public goods are often expensive, our stance is to fund some in association with other app-chain grant programs. We have a liaison with these grant programs and will coordinate with them when necessary to fund together Interchain public goods.

We fund projects that align with our investment thesis, including those launching with Interchain Security, projects within the Cosmos ecosystem that provide value accrual to ATOM, and high ROI Web3 projects across any ecosystem. You don’t have to be a Cosmos project, nor do you need to use ATOM as Gas.

Learn more about our investment thesis here.