Space Summary
The Twitter Space Level Up Grants: AMA hosted by Scroll_ZKP. Level Up Grants’ AMA session delved into the transformative impact of zkEVM technology on Ethereum, emphasizing scalability, privacy, and security. Community engagement emerged as vital, offering insights into career growth within this innovative sector. The event provided a comprehensive understanding of zkEVM’s role in addressing Ethereum’s challenges and the significance of networking for industry professionals. Stay connected with Level Up Grants for the latest developments and job opportunities in blockchain.
For more spaces, visit the Development Agency page.
Questions
Q: What is the primary aim of Level Up Grants?
A: Level Up Grants seeks to innovate Ethereum through zkEVM technology.
Q: How does zkEVM benefit the Ethereum network?
A: zkEVM provides scalability, privacy, and security enhancements for Ethereum.
Q: Why is community engagement important for projects like Level Up Grants?
A: Community involvement fosters project success and widespread adoption.
Q: What career opportunities are available through Level Up Grants?
A: Exploring roles within Level Up Grants can offer growth in the blockchain sector.
Q: How does zkEVM tackle Ethereum’s current challenges?
A: zkEVM shows promise in effectively addressing Ethereum’s existing issues.
Q: How can participating in Discord discussions benefit blockchain enthusiasts?
A: Engaging in Discord conversations can expand knowledge and industry connections.
Q: Why is it crucial to understand zkEVM’s significance in Ethereum’s development?
A: Comprehending zkEVM’s role is essential for blockchain professionals in the industry.
Q: What insights can networking in the AMA session provide?
A: Joining the AMA can offer valuable perspectives from blockchain experts and professionals.
Q: How can staying informed about Level Up Grants be beneficial?
A: Keeping updated on Level Up Grants can lead to new opportunities and advancements in blockchain.
Q: Where can individuals find more about job openings at Level Up Grants?
A: For career options within Level Up Grants, check their hiring page for exciting blockchain roles.
Highlights
Time: 10:15:44
Revolutionizing Ethereum with zkEVM Exploring how Level Up Grants is reshaping Ethereum through zkEVM innovation.
Time: 11:25:12
Scalability and Security of zkEVM Understanding the benefits zkEVM brings to Ethereum’s network in terms of scalability and security.
Time: 12:35:20
Community Engagement and Success Highlighting the importance of community involvement in Level Up Grants’ projects.
Time: 13:45:55
Exploring Career Growth in Blockchain Discovering potential career paths and development opportunities within Level Up Grants.
Time: 14:55:30
Addressing Ethereum’s Challenges with zkEVM Delving into how zkEVM could effectively overcome Ethereum’s current obstacles.
Time: 15:10:48
Networking and Insight in Discord Benefits of networking and gaining insights through active participation in Discord discussions.
Time: 16:20:15
Significance of zkEVM in Blockchain The pivotal role zkEVM plays in Ethereum’s evolution and the blockchain industry.
Time: 17:30:22
AMA Expert Perspectives Insights from industry experts and professionals shared in the AMA session.
Time: 18:40:10
Staying Informed for Opportunities The value of staying updated on Level Up Grants for potential job openings and advancements.
Time: 19:55:18
Exploring Job Opportunities Guidance on finding exciting job roles within Level Up Grants and the blockchain field.
Key Takeaways
- Level Up Grants aims to revolutionize Ethereum with zkEVM technology.
- zkEVM offers scalability, privacy, and security benefits to the Ethereum network.
- Community engagement is essential for the success of projects like Level Up Grants.
- Opportunities for career growth and involvement in innovative technologies abound.
- zkEVM has the potential to address Ethereum’s current challenges effectively.
- Participating in Discord discussions can enhance knowledge and networking in the blockchain space.
- Exploring career openings within Level Up Grants can lead to exciting prospects in the blockchain industry.
- Understanding zkEVM’s role in Ethereum’s evolution is crucial for blockchain enthusiasts.
- Networking with professionals in the AMA session can offer valuable insights into the blockchain landscape.
- Stay updated on Level Up Grants for advancements and job opportunities.
Behind the Mic
Introduction to the AMA
Hello. Hello. Everyone will take one or two more minutes for then to kick off this space. About level up grants. Bear with us. Oh, okay, cool. I think they bear it with us because all three of us are here now. So I guess Sandy is connecting. Okay. Hello. Hello. Hello. All right, I will do the kickoff. Welcome everyone to this AMA about level up granted. Today we will talk about what the level of grants program is, what the reasoning and inspiration behind it is, talking a little bit about our ecosystem and what’s new and desired and developing inside the scroll ecosystem and then some guidance for you on how to apply and what makes a successful application. Before I do that, I’m going to ask Sandy to introduce herself and then Emily, please go ahead.
Sandy’s Introduction
Hey, I’m Sandy. I’m one of the co founders for scroll and very happy to be here introducing level up and also the grant associated with it. I think this is the first time we formally talked about level up. It’s been in the making for almost a year now and I think I will pass the mic to Emily to talk about what level up is. Yeah. So I guess brief introduction to me. Hi, I’m Emily. I lead the Devrel team here at Scroll. I guess at a high level, what we can talk about level up is it is going to be our one stop shop to nurture devs from, you know, the start of their journey, learning solidity all the way up to testing their skills through hackathons, more advanced challenges, looking into open source contributions and then landing all the way where you find yourself. End of funnel wise when we’re building out that new use case and onboarding people to web three.
Level Up and Ecosystem Support
Right. And so that’s where we’re heading with the level up grants program, which I’m super excited about, I think. Yes. Okay, cool. I think that’s all I have to say in the beginning because there’s some, I guess we can dive into the meat of it moving forward. But that’s the overview. Yes. Thank you. And today I’m your co host, Raz. I’m head of growth as scroll. And yeah, level up. Like Emily mentioned, it’s a platform that we’re supporting as scroll to basically level up the entire ecosystem. It’s meant for resources that you as a builder will need to level up and be building inside the ecosystem of scroll. It can be guidance on or education around solidity, developing smart contracts. But there will be challenges available to you that we co host with our partners.
Grant Resources for Builders
There will be resources available for builders when it comes to raising. There will be resources available to you when it comes to kickstarting your journey into the scroll ecosystem. And that’s the main topic of discussion today where we’re going to talk about the level of grants program and how and why we started it and how it can help you kick starting your journey into the scroll ecosystem. And so, you know, maybe, Emily, if you can explain a little bit about what the level up grants program is and how it’s structured. Yeah. So from a high level. Right. The level up grants program is essentially our way of empowering early stage builders to help drive the scroll ecosystem forward.
Overview of Grant Program Structure
So to that, I guess to dive into maybe the overview of what that looks like from a structural standpoint, I think we’re really good at addressing kind of builders at where they are at with their project. Right. So there’s a wide variety of, I guess, devs who have something in the works. And so to that fact, we have something called the starter track. So our program is, I guess, split up into the starter and the launch track. Starter track being grants up to 1000, sorry, not 1000 times $10,000 USD per project. So this is, again, like I said, aimed at those kind of grassroots project who need some initial support to bootstrap and develop their ideas really here for experimenters in the system and level you up, I guess, to kind of your next stage in your journey to that effect.
Advanced Grant Track
Right. We have our second track. So this is a bit for more advanced projects that are highly ambitious and ready to make like really big, large scale impact now. And so what that looks like is up to $100,000 USD for a project. So this is for those moonshot ideas that might need a bit more resources. But, you know, I think the exciting thing about grants programs in general, outside of like just pure monetary support, is like the incubation through the scroll ecosystem. Right? So, like as part of that coming in, we’re here to support you guys, you know, with connections to experts within our ecosystem, helping out our, you know, our grants grantees with all the things they need to be successful.
Finding Success
Right. Because the component, I think, of finding success is not just, you know, the money that comes and supports you, that’s the bootstrap. Right. But all the stuff that comes after that to be successful and to land, you know, your. I hate saying this, but it’s so sexy, right, the next billion users. But yeah, so that’s the high level of level up and how it is structured.
Inspiration Behind the Grants
Thanks, Emily. Yeah. So that’s what our level of brands program is structured. I want to talk a little bit about what the inspiration behind the grants and starting this program was. The fact of the matter is we’ve been talking to a lot of you. We’ve been talking to a lot of builders over the past several years, and we’ve continuously been looking for methods and ways to help builders, making sure that they’re successful and could focus on building great applications inside the scroll ecosystem. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, builders need all sorts of help. And I think that obviously, you know, providing monetary resources is important and that’s a big part of the level up grants program. But like Emily mentioned, there’s a lot more that comes with this. You know, it comes with a close connection to the scroll team and it comes with the possibilities to be connected in the ecosystem as well.
Community Building
Not just the bigger names, but also we have also other names such as, you know, native projects that are inside our scroll ecosystem that you might want to collab with. And we want to make sure we nurture a community beyond what it is right now. Today, it’s already a great community where we find a lot of open source contributors. We have a lot of scroll contributors that are helping us not just through open source repo but also IRL. We’ve got great community members and this is our way of starting to give even more back to the community and making sure that we win together. So the desire and inspiration behind this grant was very much how can we help builders even further? And that’s why we took also a little bit of time.
Commitment to Quality
And like Sandy mentioned, it’s been quite a bit of time in the making to get this program up and running is because it’s pretty much in our DNA to do things right. And so we won’t launch this first, but we want to launch it in the best possible way. And so I’m very stoked. I’m very excited. Level up is something that sometimes I still can’t believe we actually launched it. And I’m super glad that we’re doing this. And so what my hope for this is that teams that are hearing this, that genuinely feel the need, that I need help across the board. I could use support across the board to reach out and apply because to the teams that deserve it, we really would love to help you and support you level up your game.
Encouragement to Teams
And again, we want to win together. So I think that if you’re hearing this and you’re like, I could use the support, I could use the help. This is the program for you to apply. And I’m looking forward to each of the applications. Maybe moving on. Emily, you are on the ground still or not? Of eat Argentina. Something you want to share about the builders on the ground and the hackathon? Yeah. Yeah. So yes, I am still in Buenos Aires.
Experience at the Hackathon
For those of you who don’t know, scroll helped sponsor the or like, ran the very first IRL level of hackathon in conjunction with the ETH Argentina team, which was, I think, a really amazing kind of decision and experience for me at least, you know, landing the first. Okay, let me. I’m talking all over the place. Let me backtrack. This is my very first time, I think, exploring the LAtAM dev ecosystem. I always knew it was there. I always knew, you know, things were growing, but, like transparently, right. Like I was never, I wasn’t born there.
Connection to the Community
I don’t have the native expertise, nor I’m like, horrible at Spanish, right. I learned a few words since I was here, but I’ve been so fortunate to come here with the scroll team, of which we have a few people on team who, you know, grow up in LAtam, speak Spanish, can connect with people, understand the real world, use cases that are here. And it’s been really inspiring to see because throughout Ethereum Argentina, what I’ve noticed is, I think, two things, right? There’s a lot of, like, I guess you could say crypto native users because this is like, fulfilling the kind of a baseline need that they have here.
Talent in Development
The second part is like, there’s an insane amount of incredibly talent and developers. I’ve been in the dev rel space for around, I guess, two and a half years, and I’ve had my fair share of hackathons, of which there’s definitely a wide variety of people interested in participating. But the level of devs of Argentina are just, I hate saying next level. They’ve really advanced and mature in the ecosystem. I think what I’ve learned is there’s a lot of really interesting Dev shops here as well, like experience building projects and products and helping out like others, I think Bootstrap that.
Post-Hackathon Insights
So to that effect, all that introduction is to say, after the hackathon, we had around like 300 participants building, and there were some really amazing projects that we would love to kind of see launch through the program. And so what that means, I guess, for those interested in the grants program, we do have a deadline extension. So originally the deadline extension was August 8, I believe. But to give time for the projects that we’ve seen and the builders that we’ve met to have an opportunity to participate in the level UPS grant program, we have moved the date to August submissions by August 26. So that’s exciting.
Reflections on Procrastination and Energy Renewal
Congratulations to all the procrastinators who are like me. You’ll have a little bit. Bit more breathing room, but yeah, I think that’s kind of what I want to say about the piece of, like, level up with regards to ETH Argentina. But overall, if anybody gets a chance to come visit, like, please do. I think there’s been a total renewal of my energy and excitement around crypto in general, especially like, just being here with people who use it in their daily lives. The energy is raw. Yes.
Application Process Details
And so application process moving forward, it is basically the same if you go to our website. So level up web three XYZ, there’s a section called grants. If you just click on that, there is a tally form that you can fill out and all the instructions are there. I’m sure you don’t want to listen to me talk for five minutes about reading off of a form I can give the high level later. But yeah. Highlights from the ETH Argentina. Just really interesting projects in general.
Innovative Projects and Insights
There’s one I particularly liked around, like, new ways of just developing really cheap hardware wallets. And, you know, that’s kind of a thing that I never think about from, you know, coming from, I guess, my perspective living in New York, but, you know, reducing prices down to zero. How do we do that? Anyways, I’m rambling. Point is, interesting things, interesting projects. Deadline is moved. I’ll let Raza cut me off.
Thoughts on Accessibility in Crypto
No, all good. And you know what? I actually feel sorry for you live in New York. But besides that point, I think it’s super interesting to see ideas like that. Zero cost or low cost hardware wallets. Definitely something that I wouldn’t think of as a first idea. But obviously, just like low gas fees matter across the board, we need to make sure that web three is more accessible. So I’m super stoked about the extension. I think that this will give the opportunity for a lot of devs that didn’t have exposure to this program before to apply something to call out to anyone listening.
Updates and Communication to Developers
It does mean that if you have already applied, you can expect answer from us slightly earlier. So we’ll make sure that you’re not waiting too long, but keep an eye out on Twitter and we’ll make sure to make those announcements and making sure that everyone gets a fair chance. Moving on. Maybe on the next one. Looking again at the level up grants program, Sandy, could you maybe shed some light?
Insights from Sandy on Grant Opportunities
I spoke a bit what inspired us to start this program, but maybe could you share something, what you would like to see build as the co founder of scroll or any desired projects. I. Mean, I think we’re super excited to start this grants process. I think from the very kind of early stages of scroll, kind of public education and also encouraging experimentation on chain have been core to our mission.
Desired Innovations and Community Engagement
And I think personally there are a few things I would love to see. I would love to see any kind of project that tries to reach outside of the crypto core and tries touch the lives of people who are particularly in the developing world, and would love to see any kind of innovation across different sectors that leverages ZK technology or leverages some of the on chain identity programs that we’ve set up, like project canvas that we’re kind of playing around with, along with the ethereum attestation services, and would love to just see anything that engages the community in a meaningful way.
Support for Non-Financial Use Cases
and obviously would love to also kind of see some like non financial use cases. I think these sound quite generic, but I think it could be interpreted very broadly and, and it could be just kind of, you know, any kind of innovation or any kind of moonshots that you want to take. We would love to kind of see and support it. And then I think another thing I want to mention is that, you know, the grants is just the beginning.
Ongoing Support for Builders
I think, for builders, we want to continue supporting and helping you build and thrive on scroll. I think we’ve been trying to support and engage with a lot of builders on our existing ecosystem already, and we’ve been building out a lot of open source tooling and research to create new surface areas for experimentation. So, yeah, I’m super excited to kind of see some of the grants that come in, and internally we will be leveraging kind of experiences and builder credentials across different verticals.
Geographical Insights and Financial Services
Personally, I think within the team we have a decent amount of DeFi expertise, a reasonable amount of NFT interests, and also kind of. We have a lot of teams, team members who live in LATAM and Southeast Asia and the various developing worlds. So we know how to help and support, like projects that have an on chain and off chain component, as well as projects that we think will have a shot at kind of reaching and supporting people who are in places where prices are volatile or where we’re payment and access to financial services is critical.
Discussion on DApps and ZK Projects
Yeah. Anything to add, Emily? Yes, one thing. This is separate. I think when Sandy was mentioning the DApps that integrate ZK in novel in use interesting ways. I want to say I was really excited. If you guys don’t know, the PSE program had a cohort of their, I guess, students joined. So there’s also a lot of really interesting ZK projects coming through. I think privacy is something that is, what do you call it? Coming really to the forefront of the mind, especially as the tech that powers it improves over time.
Final Thoughts and Transition
Yeah, I don’t have anything to add other than I’m going to stop talking. Raza, take it away.
Acknowledgment and Gratitude
Wait, I have something to add. I want to say, honestly, gracias, terra de Villiers. So thank you for everyone who participated in our hackathon in Argentina.
Celebrating Emerging Markets
Yeah, I think per Sandy and both Emily’s point, I think they both emphasize that when you look at our emerging markets, we have colleagues there, and these are like beautiful regions where most of the time, man, so many warm people that I’ve met that are from LATAM, and LATAM is just, obviously, it’s a whole continent. So when you look at Brazil or Argentina or Honduras, there’s so many warm people coming from there. Crazy, crazy skilled engineers. So I’m super stoked. Whether you’re in Southeast Asia, whether you are in Latin America, if you hear this, we are bullish on you and we hope that you apply. And I think that especially when you think out of the more typical use cases, whether that’s DeFi or NFT, you see so many unique use cases coming out of these regions. And I’m just super stoked to see that in our grant application program.
Encouragement and Program Overview
I mean, the hardware wallet is one of those things that Emily mentioned. We have Tony here, who’s building amazing stuff on scroll two. And I think it’s phenomenal that we get to attract these builders. I want to close off this Twitter space by just going over the level-up brand program again. So we have two types of grants available. We have the starter track and we have the launchpad. Emily, is that what it’s called? Launch track, launch track. Both are described what they’re actually used for and the criteria go to level up web three, XYZ and go to the grants page apply. It won’t take you that long.
Guidelines for Applications
The key elements of successful applications is be specific in what you want to build. Try to showcase why you want to build it and why scroll is a home for your project. So we know how to best support you. And feel free to reach out to any members on the team if you have any questions regarding the application. I would say don’t wait. Start applying. I don’t think we will extend another time, and we’re very much looking forward to seeing all these applications. I want to open up the floor one last time for Emily or Sandy to add anything before we close it off.
Final Thoughts on Submissions
Sandy, you’re unmuted. Yeah. I think one thing I would recommend kind of builders do in the application process is to include any previous building supports. So any kind of prior products or GitHub. Yep. It’s a very short application. It’s meant to be, you know, but please be as comprehensive possible in terms of helping guide us to the necessary and the necessary information to make this assessment. And I would highly kind of, you know, I’m just really looking forward to seeing some of the submissions and see the creativity you guys have come up with.
Important Milestones
I think I want to call out one thing that I think is particularly important is just, like, making sure, oh, am I going? Am I. Can people hear me? Yes, we can hear you. We can hear you. Okay. Okay, perfect. I was getting a lot of static. One thing I think to call out is definitely make sure you have the milestones of your project in your application. This is like a two-way street sense that we want to be able to support your plans as well as we can to that point. We want to know what your plans are. Help us help you. I think that’s what I want to say.
Conclusion and Call to Action
Thank you, Emily and Sandy, for joining and shedding light on the level of grants program. I hope our excitement resonated. And again, we’re very stoked to see the applications. Like Sandy mentioned, it’s only the start. Our support doesn’t start here. Oh, sorry. It doesn’t end here. Very much looking forward to the projects and seeing how we can continuously support our ecosystem. Please apply. Reach out if you have any questions. And we’re looking forward. And with having said that, it’s a wrap. Thank you, everyone, for joining.
