Dusk Network is making significant funds available to attract  the brightest minds in the industry to help build the future of finance. 

AMSTERDAM, APRIL 9, 2021 - At the first annual DuskCon, Dusk Network revealed their multi-million dollar Grants Program. The Grant Program is worth $5,000,000 and propels the blockchain ecosystem forwards by attracting more of the industries’ brightest minds.  

Dusk Network is a leader in privacy technology. Key building blocks in the privacy space include what's commonly known as 'zero-knowledge cryptography,' a field they lead. With the Grants program, Dusk intends to attract additional talent to further strengthen their position in the sector. Issuing grants for research and development isn’t a first in the industry: a famous success story in the blockchain space is a company called Metamask. Their internet tool started from a $30k grant and now leads their sector with millions of yearly revenue in only a few years' time. Dusk Network is the first blockchain company in The Netherlands issuing a grants program this size. 

Creating and facilitating job opportunities

The Program is estimated to fund over 35.000 hours of labour in the Dusk ecosystem, 100 smaller initiatives, or up to 20 larger projects. It stimulates developer talent to build applications that contribute to a better financial sector. The Dusk Grants Program services three main goals.  

• Kickstarting the development of tooling and infrastructure 

• Funding new research that keeps the network future proof 

• Funding the development of high potential applications that further the mainstream adoption of the Dusk Network.  

The company will share detailed procedures in the coming weeks, and the first application round starts June 1st, 2021. 

“Over the past years, we discovered that it can be quite challenging to apply for a grant as an individual. National and European funds are looking for large-scale consortiums, whilst there is much more talent needed for technology companies to grow themselves. With our grants program, we are contributing towards an innovative future in FinTech and COVID recovery.” - said Pascal Putman, Commercial Director.  

Celebrating three years of building 

DuskCon was initiated to celebrate the End-2-End Release Candidate, which can be seen as a ‘pre-beta’ launch. It is the technical milestone the company had been working towards for nearly three years. In the coming months, more features will be rolled out for public testing by the community in anticipation of its full-fledged mainnet release.  

“At Dusk Network, we strive to be transparent, share our knowledge, and work open source, so nobody is excluded from the fruits of our labors. At DuskCon, we were able to present our work and the technical choices we have had to make and to show how these culminated in a one-of-a-kind privacy blockchain that supports confidential smart contracts, opening up privacy-preserving technology to developers of decentralized finance applications. It all ties together and marks the start of a privacy-proof financial ecosystem in the future.” - said Emanuele Francioni, Tech Lead. 

Thought leaders share their takes on Dusk Network 

Many industry experts and speakers from all over the globe attended the first Dusk Conference. Amongst them ZCash’s Daira Hopwood, with others joining, from Harmony, ANKR, Aztec Protocol, and LTO Network.  

About Dusk Network 

Dusk Network is an open-source blockchain for financial applications. Data protection and privacy preservation play a major role in Dusk Network, as well as its design for regulatory compliance. The blockchain is eco-friendly, thanks to its Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, a novel and efficient method of reaching an agreement on the current state of the global ledger. Notably, the blockchain supports privacy-friendly smart contracts. Companies use the Dusk Network to power financial applications, issue tokens, trade, and collaborate on a global scale. Dusk Network is built by a team of experts from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 

About DuskCon

DuskCon is the first (digital) conference held by Dusk Network to celebrate the End-2-End Release Candidate, a technical milestone the company has been working towards for nearly three years. This can be seen as a pre-beta release.

During the conference, technical aspects like zero-knowledge proof, PLONK, and Rusk and their implementations within Dusk technology and for partners like ANKR, Harmony, and Aztec Protocol were explained. For an overview of the program and all the announcements made, please check dusk.network/duskcon 

NOTE FOR EDITORS, NOT FOR PUBLICATION 

For a full overview of all announcements and recording of DuskCon, see dusk.network/ duskcon. For interview requests or questions, please contact  

Sabine de Witte - PR & Spokesperson  

sabine@dusk.network  

+316 24 856 754