# Grants

This file is the source of [igneum.network/grants](https://igneum.network/grants).

## What a grant is

Grants are paid in IGN from the dev fee fund, on delivery. You propose a piece of work, it is accepted with a written definition of done, you build it, and it runs on the public testnet. Not a salary, not an advance, not an investment.

The money is the dev fee fund: the IGN that the Ember dev fee collects. Ember, the official miner, takes an optional 1% of a miner's rewards, in full view and off with one flag; that fee goes to Igneum Labs, the company that ships the software. The protocol itself carries no fee, no fund and no allocation, and no grant is paid from emission. [The dev fee](/dev-fee) has the mechanism.

## The tiers

| Tier | What fits |
|---|---|
| Tooling | SDK bindings, indexers, a Hardhat or Foundry plugin for the two gas dimensions, verification tooling, a light client in another language |
| Reference apps | A token, a swap, a registry, a wallet integration, an app that uses `igneum_getTransactionStatus` and the lock the way it is meant to be used |
| Infrastructure | RPC providers, archive nodes, seed nodes in new regions, pool software, an explorer back end |
| Research | The lottery hash, the finality rule, the proving layer, the fee model; attacks on the public test vectors; measurements the project does not have |

A grant is sized by the work in front of it, not by a table. Two grants in the same tier can differ.

## How to apply

Open an issue on [git.igneum.network/igneum-network/igneum](https://git.igneum.network/igneum-network/igneum/issues/new?template=.forgejo%2Fissue_template%2Fgrant.md) and pick the Grant template. It asks for:

1. What you will build, in a paragraph, and which tier it is.
2. What done looks like: what runs where, what a reviewer can click or call to see it working on the public testnet.
3. Your public work: a repository, a package, a paper, a deployed thing.
4. How you want to be reached.

A short issue is fine. The definition of done is the part that matters.

## The review

- Every Friday. Each open application gets one of three answers inside seven days: accepted with a definition of done, questions, or no with the reason.
- Accepted work is tracked in its issue. The reviewer and the builder agree the definition of done there before any work starts.
- Delivery is reviewed on the public testnet first. Payment follows the review, in the issue, in the open.

## The honest lines

- Devnet and testnet coins have no value. Before mainnet there is no IGN with value: a grant delivered on the testnet is recorded in its issue, and payment comes from the fund when the fund holds IGN. Nothing is promised about when, or whether, that is.
- No amount, price or date is promised. The fund is what the dev fee collects, and it is zero today.
- A grant is for work delivered, never for a user count, a listing, a post or a referral.
- Igneum Labs may decline any application and may close the programme; what has been accepted and delivered is still paid.

Not legal advice.