Water We Doing: The Changing Tides of the Ethereum Foundation Grants Program by Kenneth Ng (Devcon4)

title of my speech is what are we doing right hi I really like puns most people don't know that about me I really like puns the changing tides of the thin foundation grants program so I my name is Ken like Barbie and Ken like the doll that's that's how you remember me I send a lot of emails out but I'm really happy to be on stage today because a lot of what I've heard throughout the weekend is you know the in foundation grants program is a black box right like no one knows who you guys are you guys are so mysterious and what else you guys you have oh you have some money right if everybody Asian grants program has a lot of money sort of but what we like to do is is talk through you know what are we actually doing here right like what is the mission of the grants program and this is actually sustainable right so thus far this year we've given out 11 million dollars to 75 projects which is not insubstantial yeah yeah there we go it's awesome because we were able to bring a lot of people from all around the block chain initiatives right so it's not just a theorem it's not just the community but it's also bringing people over from secure scuttle but it's also bringing people from university academia bringing kestrel institute bringing everyone from around the world and really talking about what it is that the grants program really is trying to do right and it's kind of nebulous thus far this is I guess like a face that you see now for the grants program but there's not just me right it's a lot more on the team and I don't like saying I it's more of we and I'll get back to this and I'll do some more puns this seem to be good it's like stand-up comedy where you wrap it around at the end maybe I don't know I'm not that funny but what I think I really want to kind of bring out here is that you know it's this idea that you know the theorem foundation grants programs really just funding metallics friends and like you know you guys are just doing whatever you want with all this money and like that would be really cool cuz like that would make my job a lot easier but it's not easy we're actually talking about you know for the grants program it's fundamentally changing and empowering the community and that's very very broad right what does it actually mean to empower the community it's talking about funding and empowering open source development right it's actually talking about creating upon the core infrastructure of aetherium and what that means is is really talking through you know public goods for a public utility public tooling what does the theorem actually need right it's actually facing the hard facts of what's broken right what where's our road map currently and how do we build upon that how do we address the issues head-on and so one of the things that I've really realized in the space is we don't like to talk about what's broken we don't like to admit our flaws but that's okay right a lot of things are going really well with a theorem and that's that's amazing the foundation is going and it's not just the foundation it's everyone else in the community I kind of liken this to you know not we're not really looking for a return on in return on investment which is what a lot of people ask us right it's like how was howard grants actually sustainable if you're not getting ROI but that's the point of rents you actually don't need an ROI what we're looking for here is actually impact right compounding impact the Thurman foundation doesn't have that much money so if you look at the grants program we actually have less than 1% of all aether in circulation right it's not in substantial we still do have money that were you know pumping out into the ecosystem I'm gonna continue to keep pumping it out the idea behind this is you know what this can really fundamentally do is bring more people to the table right it's not just us sitting here saying oh well that these guys you guys should get some money and you guys should get some money it's really like how do we bring all of us yeah Oprah style right if I wish it was all for style but it's you know we want to bring more people and and come to the table and sit with us right don't be afraid to come to me and ask me can I can I apply for a grant right we actually saw a decline in applications because people were kind of scared and saying like you know like I don't we're not even worth it like yes you are absolutely you're worth it this is the theorem community everyone here can apply for ran and I will talk to every single one of you not just me but everyone else on this team on the grants team will talk to you and will make sure that you hear back from us right so fundamentally what we want to do is have everyone here come to the table because the theorem foundation wants to use this to defuse our power defuse what we have here all of our resources and make sure it's disseminated across everyone here right for the decentralized future to actually exist it can't just be us at the table it's every one of us it's every one building with client diversity it's everyone building on security because the experts are out there the experts are all around the world and it's not just people who say we're a theorem foundation right it's it's every one of you guys sitting out here saying we want to build yeah so what let us help you build let us give you funds I'll just give you resources let's bring you to the table as have you talking to everyone else around here don't be afraid to do it right just come off and so now we're gonna go back to funds cuz I'm I only have three minutes left so what I like to talk about is is how what we're doing here is is like as like a sale it's like a ship right and so what we're doing is really like making sure everyone's sales are up and we're just pushing wind out at everyone right little by little we're just gonna keep pushing more boats at sea so that we have a full Navy out here right it's not just one ship though the most powerful Navy is with the most amount of ships flanking around right it's not just one guy at the top no Christopher Columbus here and it's still debated when Christopher collection an American reference sorry I apologize very ignorant American but you know like it's really cool to see teams like prismatic labs right who prismatic labs where you just kind of meet online right you just meet online and just say like this is what we want to build this is our passion project let us get a grant and let's build a full team and they've been able to do that and then they come back and say hey we want to build a client absolutely yeah just keep doing it let's have more people do the same thing let's build our passion projects let's see where it goes let's stop worrying about building you know like let's stop worrying about how do we build a business that's not worrying about all these other things let's actually build what we want to build let's make a theorem better right let's actually do it and let us let us give you the wind so your sails can keep going alright what are we doing that's that's it man this is what we're doing and but I truly do believe as jokes aside that you know through the grants program the decentralized future is really in our hands it really is we have to understand that using resources using funds tap and rely on the theorem foundation and rely on the grants program to let you do that because you know the other question we get asked is like who are you to be giving these grants out great question because the grants team is actually not just us what we do is just facilitate we facilitate conversations right so all of us go out and reach other people to get on these they're in these calls and get on these conversations of who deserves to get a grant right we are not technically the experts of everything right we don't know everything right we get people from outside of the foundation internal external anyone we can get to make sure that what we're doing is fundamentally going to better of the ecosystem right and that's having these hard conversations of you know will this essentially be my competitor absolutely but that's okay right it's it's okay we have to be able to say like you know what I love it let's all build together we can build the same thing and we could build a better or we can work together right that's even better this is this is the Navy right here we can keep going right so yeah I'm just gonna end it with that let the grants program allow you to put the decentralized future in all of our hands thank you guys [Applause]