Helpful information

Grants Program Resources

Skills

These are the skill sets for individuals and teams that make you a good fit for one or more of the grants:

Technical development: Product Managers and strategists, Front-End Software Engineers, Back-End Software Engineers, UI/UX Designers
Program strategy and management: Systems builder, Project Managers, Community Leaders and Organizers
Content strategy and design: Web3 expertise, Senior Visual design, Content design, Writing and Editing
Marketing and community insights: Data science and visualization, Social media analytics

Timeline

Call for Submissions - January 12, 2022
Submissions Close - January 26, 2022
Selection Date - February 16, 2022
Offer Acceptance Date - February 18, 2022
Project Kickoff - February 21, 2022

Selection Process

There is a 4 step selection process:

Apply to a grant with a detailed proposal.
Receive a yes or no to move onto the interview process within 2 business days.
Interview with the Proposal Admin and Grants Committee.
Receive offer, select compensation package, get hired.

Deep Dive

For an in-depth look at how the MVP Wave grants were built, who is involved, and how the Grants Program will evolve, view the Grants Program Deep Dive.

General questions

Can teams apply for grants?

Some grants will be available to teams, as identified on the grant.

Teams must be assembled prior to submitting a proposal. The proposal must include all identified individuals that will cover all aspects of the project.

Proposals must include an outline of each team member’s proposed contributions and what each person will be accountable for.
We encourage community members to self- organize and connect on Discord to find potential collaborators.

Individuals cannot submit a proposal for a portion of the grant requirements.
Grant compensation must be shared between the team members.

What are the Grant Waves?

Grants will be announced and kicked off in quarterly cycles called waves.

The first wave is an MVP wave, a cycle with carefully considered projects that are designed to put processes and policies in place and ultimately inform how to implement larger scaled waves.

Estimated dates of future waves:

MVP Wave: January 2022
Wave 1: March 2022
Wave 2: June 2022

What interviews are required?

Interviews happen in two stages:

Stage 1: 15 minute screening with the Proposal Admin.
Stage 2: 2x technical interviews with members of the Grants committee.

How are changes to the project handled after the grant kick-off?

Every attempt should be made by the grantee to accurately estimate the project and set proper expectations - adhering to the anticipated deadline / required hours.

Every attempt should be made by the mentor to solidify the grant requirements before accepting submissions, and maintaining the requirements as documented throughout the project.

Despite best efforts, should the project plan / scope during the execution phase, be it technical challenges, requirement changes, unforeseen circumstances, etc, the grantee and the mentor can agree to a change request:

Deadline Extension (no request is needed if deadline extension does not exceed 2 weeks of original timelines)
Requirement Changes (only required when it affects the timeline)
ExpecGeneralGeneralted Hours / Compensation change.
Added member to a team / replace a member of the team.

How will projects completed via grant be maintained in the future?

Grants require a 1-year service agreement (up to 10 additional hours) to accommodate bug fixing, updates to libraries, additional documentation, etc.

All grants have an expectation of thorough and public documentation that can be used by future contributors that want to enhance/improve upon past efforts, document processes and how-to, FAQs. Time to create these materials is built into all grants.

How does the Community Vote on Proposals?

All grants will be voted on by the community prior to being opened for submissions. BTRST holders can direct portions of their voting power toward grants that are of higher priority to them.

Grant interviews and kickoffs with higher community votes will be prioritized first in the selection process.
Grants that fail to meet a 2% threshold will not pass and not be released for submissions.

How does the community propose new Grants for future Waves?

The MVP Wave and Wave 1 of the Grants Program will be driven by the Core Nodes.

Wave 2 is expected to include grants that have been driven by and voted on in the community.

Additional processes and information will be provided soon for how community members can leverage the Governance system to request new grants.

How can I provide feedback or provide suggestions on how the Grants program could be improved?

Please provide feedback using this form.

How do I get more information on how to Participate in the Braintrust Network?

Please visit the Braintrust Gitbook and join the Braintrust Discord server.

Builder Grants / Technical questions

How will a Builder grantee’s code be hosted?

Not all Builder grants will require hosting on Braintrust’s AWS.

For projects that require hosting, grantees will work with the Core Code Team (The HexOcean Node for application changes, Snowfork node for Token infrastructure) to push their code into production.

HexOcean is defining a hosting process and code standards. When ready, this information will be made public.

With the Core Code becoming more open and publicly available, how can engineers contribute outside of the grant’s program?

Right now the best way to contribute to technical projects is either through the grants program (either by implementing one of the Builder grants, or suggesting a new one for the grants committee to review), or by suggesting product features. Over time the core application will become more open-source where certain features could be directly suggested/implemented.

Do Builder Grantees have flexibility in selecting languages and technologies?

Builder grants should follow the same tech stack as the core code. The Core Code Team will approve new technologies/languages if it is not possible to complete the grant with the existing stack.

Front End Code Stack

Back End Code Stack

How does QA work for Builder Grants?

All projects carry an expectation that the Grantee does a thorough and complete UAT before deployment. Depending on the project, this may include Security review and testing and will be defined with the Core Code team during planning.

The UAT plan will already be predefined in the grant spec writing process. The plan will be finalized in the kick-off planning during approach alignment (which is ultimately signed-off on by the Core Code team). UAT from the Core Code Team will be a final step for any projects that touch the core code.

Additional team members and/or community members will be asked to complete additional UAT rounds prior to project completion.

How does Braintrust maintain code quality with decentralized engineers contributing to the core code?

Braintrust’s core application code is maintained by the HexOcean Node, with parts of the Token contract and infrastructure maintained by the Snowfork Node.

The Core Code team is deeply integrated into the Grants program process:

A member of the Grants Committee includes a member of the Core Code Team. As such, they have control over which grants are ultimately presented to the community, and play a role in evaluating grantees through the interview/selection process.
The Core Code Team evaluates each grant, documenting concerns, requirements, and advising on technologies. The Core Code team also validates effort estimates.
After the grantee is selected, the first task is to align with the Core Code team. The grantee is asked to define their approach, technologies used, open questions, etc. The grantee’s approach is then approved by the Core Code team.
The Core Code team will do a final round of UAT on all code that is hosted on Braintrust’s AWS. Depending on the project, even if the code is not hosted in Braintrust's AWS environment, a core node may perform a final UAT.
The Core Code team is available to the grantees to answer questions about infrastructure or existing processes throughout the grant.

How much are we able to touch the actual code of the project?

Grants that touch the core code of the product are called Builder Grants. All builder grants are pre-evaluated by the Core Code Team - The HexOcean Node. Once the grantee is selected, the first task is to align on an approach that is compatible with existing infrastructure. The Core Code Team will approve the approach and be available for consultations and questions throughout the grant.

Grantees will work directly with the Core Code Team in deploying to Braintrust Hosting Solution. and integrating their code into the core code.

Compensation questions

What if my project requires upfront expenses? (e.g. personal hosting costs, database, subscriptions, etc)

Grants are paid out after the project has been completed and will cover any expenses associated with the grant.

If a project requires an upfront portion of the total grant, this is requested (and approved) during the kick-off week.

How does the token amount get decided per Grant?

Rewards will be given in the form of BTRST and USD. Each individual grant will be rewarded a custom amount based on the contribution. The split could be 50/50 or 70/30 USD to BTRST, depending on the nature of the project. The grant spec will provide an initial proposed split, but will include a note that the split can be negotiated during the selection process.

The amount of BTRST will be determined based on the USD value of the grant (30 day trailing average USD price of token at time of an accepted grant/grantee offer).

How does the token get distributed?

Each Token Grant will vest monthly at a maximum 12 month vesting schedule or until the total tokens are distributed, with a minimum 100 tokens per month.

For example, if a 1,000 Token Grant was earned, then it would vest monthly at 100/month for 10 months. If a 1,500 Token Grant was earned, then it would vest at 125/month for 12 months.

The first distribution will occur in the month following the completion of the work.

The 12 month vesting period helps ensure tokens (and thereby ownership + control of the network) are distributed evenly over time. Vesting tokens over 12 months is very standard practice, particularly once the token is liquid. This helps to ensure the network remains fully decentralized and balanced.

How will I know what BTRST tokens will be in my wallet from the Grant?

Each monthly token distribution will have a specific code associated with it that will represent the Grant for tracking purposes.

How are the mechanics of paying out a grant handled? How will the grantee submit their invoice.

Payments will be made through Braintrust’s platform.

Grantees will be hired into a project on the platform and can submit an invoice for their project when it is completed.

The USD portion of the grant will be paid in one invoice upon completion. In future we may decide to break it up in milestones payouts later.

Who proposes the budgets and compensation for the grants?

Rates are based on the Network Dashboard skills calculator. All skills are assumed to be of middle seniority.

Prior to being released to the community, the core code team evaluates all builder grants to validate estimated hours, estimated timelines, and estimated seniority validated.

The Braintrust Grants Program MVP Wave has closed

More grants coming soon

Ambassador Grants

Builder Grants

Educator Grants

MVP Wave Grants

Increase brand awareness.