Introducing ARK Grants: a Development Incentive Program Backed by 1 Million ARK

24th March 2020: Replacing the current ‘Tier 0’ Program, ARK Grants will allow their growing community of developers to apply for funding towards ARK based Proofs of Concept, Desktop Wallet plugins and full production-ready applications. To start things off, 1 million ARK has been seeded into the program from the company’s ARK Shield development fund.

Applicable Project Types 

The ARK Grants program is now in full effect and will spur development in the following areas:

• Proofs-of-Concept: POCs serve a valuable purpose in educating developers through concrete examples. An example of a POC funded by ARK Grants is the recently released ARK Messenger, a fully autonomous and secure chat service.
• ARK Desktop Wallet Plugins. The recently upgraded Plugin Manager added a more intuitive interface that allows users to install, use, and update plugins. Interestingly enough, the Plugin Manager itself is an example of a project funded by ARK Grants.
• Production Ready Solutions. The ARK Grants program can also be used to fund or help fund full-fledged blockchain solutions that utilize ARK technology. These projects would be complete and deployed for use with either the ARK Public Network or an ARK bridgechain. One example of a production-ready solution is ARKTippr Tip Bot.
• Custom Project Ideas. The scope of projects that could be considered by the ARK Grants program doesn’t end with these three types. If interested parties have an idea that doesn’t necessarily fit here, ARK will still welcome a proposal submission.

It should be noted that the ARK Grants program is designed specifically for technology development. This means that only proposals involving technical deployments and usage of ARK technology stack will be considered.

Technologies & Frameworks

Developers who have an approved project in the ARK Grants program should follow best practices as established by the ARK.io development team. Here’s a list of preferences from the ARK team:

• Typescript is the preferred language if applicable
• Utilize ARK Smart Transactions, which is the process of using the Generic Transaction Interface and Core plugins to create application logic as needed
• The vendorField, AKA SmartBridge field, should be avoided for use in development for most cases. Instead, focus on using new Smart Transactions and custom bridgechains.
• Mobile Development should be done with Ionic or Angular
• Some of ARK’s favorite technologies include NodeJS, VueJS, TailwindCSS, Laravel, and Electron

For other technology considerations, please get approval before development starts.

Proposal Submission Process

Submitting a proposal to the ARK Grants program is simple:

1. Applicant Information. The ARK Grants program is managed by ARK.io, which is a registered business entity in France under the name ARK ECOSYSTEM, SCIC. As such, proper identity information and invoicing is a part of the process of utilizing the program. Applicants will submit an application template with information such as full name and email address, along with contact methods.
2. Project Description and Architecture. Applicants should describe the project in a few paragraphs and include information on the architecture of the project such as frameworks, languages, and custom transaction types using ARK Logic.
3. Milestones. Applicants should provide a list of milestones and attach level of effort to each. Aside from applicant-provided milestones, there are two fixed milestones at the end of the list which refer to documentation and final review.
4. Proposal Review & Approval. The ARK Team will assess the application and make a decision on whether to move forward in issuing a grant for the project. 70% of the approved funding for the project will be divided amongst the project milestones, and the remaining 30% will be released upon completion of the final review milestone.

Other Ways to Earn

The ARK Grants program is not the only way to earn ARK. There are other ways developers can get their hands on ARK tokens. Here’s a brief summary of just some of the ways developers can earn ARK:

• ARK Bounty and Security Program: The bounty program utilizes GitHub to track and manage activity, and bounties are paid out to community developers every month. ARK is also rewarded for reporting security vulnerabilities. Learn more at Bounty.ARK.io.
• Contests and Competitions. ARK.io holds contests and competitions for both developers and non-developers. Stay tuned on Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and the ARK blog for updates. An upcoming contest is in the works, so be prepared!
• Forging Delegate Node. The ARK Public Network runs as a Delegated Proof-of-Stake blockchain, Launch a node, draft a proposal for the community, and campaign for votes. Participants could forge ARK that contribute to their development ideas and efforts. Learn more on the website’s delegate page and join the community to ask about becoming a delegate in the Slack.ARK.io #delegate channel. Many delegates are already there who can help with questions.
• ARK Community Fund. This is a community-operated fund of ARK that is managed by five community-elected board members who cycle out every six months. Something of note is that the ACF considers not only development-based proposals, but also other types which may include outreach initiatives, sponsorships, content creation, and more. ARK.io is not affiliated with the ACF. Learn more at ARKCommunity.Fund.

A 1 Million ARK Grant Pool Awaits!

With the ARK Grants program now launched, ARK are ready for participants to take advantage of this opportunity to dive into Blockchain while earning cryptocurrency for doing so. ARK want to unlock the awesome potential of blockchain powered ideas together with their community – The next step for submitting an application lies here: https://ark.io/grants

Learn more about ARK at – http://ark.io/

Catch up on Twitter – https://twitter.com/ArkEcosystem

Read the Blog – https://blog.ark.io/

Media Contact Details

Contact Email: info@ark.io

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