The Ronin Network has officially kicked off a huge $10m Ronin Ecosystem Grants initiative dedicated to supporting developers looking to build on this growing chain.

How Do Ronin Ecosystem Grants Work?

The team behind the popular gaming network has allocated a whopping $10 million in total to support a variety of projects with funding that starts at $20k and can go up to $300k worth of $RON tokens. Not only can applicants gain funding, but they could also get significant exposure to the blockchain’s community by getting featured on social channels that are said to receive “millions of impressions everyday.” The funding programs part of this developer-focused initiative will also help builders get in contact with studios working on notable projects that include Axie Infinity, Pixels, and more.

You can apply for a funding program part of the Ronin Ecosystem Grants initiative by filling in the application form accessed through the official Notion page that is linked in the official announcement. The Notion page also has various resources to help you get started with deploying your dApp on the EVM blockchain. Anyone can apply, regardless of the project size or the type of project you’re working on, with applications said to be evaluated on a rolling basis by the Grants Committee, for which we don’t seem to exactly know the members of.

While this web3 gaming ecosystem is expanding quickly, the blockchain studio would like to further double down on bringing more utility to its network by fostering collaboration and funding promising teams through various grant programs as they support them throughout development.

As of writing, this initiative provides two types of grants that projects of any size and type can choose to apply for: Builder Grants and Waypoint Gas Grants. More grant types may be added in the future.

What Are Ronin Builder Grants and Waypoint Gas Grants?

The Builder Grant program is designed to support developers creating “innovative use cases.” Up to $300k in $RON is given to accepted projects that receive this grant, with funding unlocked through milestones “to align long-term interests.” According to the official blog post, the funds can be used to cover “essential costs” such as deployment, development integrations, audits, and community usage campaigns.

Aside from funding, grantees also gain exposure across Ronin channels, which is said to include a feature on Ronin Wallet, a feature on the grants website, and inclusion in a “Builder Round-Up" across the network’s official blog and social channels. You can also gain access to the Ronin Builders Discord server, through which you can get in touch with VCs, advisors, and teams building on this network. Last but not least, you can also look forward to receiving builder perks, some of which are said to include integrations with various blockchain games and ecosystem partners, access to exclusive discounts from various infrastructure providers, and more.

You can apply for this grant no matter the size or type of project, nor the stage in which you’re at. Some of the key factors used to evaluate applications however include existing traction, the project’s reputation, the team’s execution capabilities, the ability to bring new users and increase on-chain activity on the network, and the ability to solve user/developer pain points or bring new utilities to Ronin.

The Waypoint Grant program offers $20k grants to eligible teams who are looking to integrate Ronin Waypoint, a universal account and wallet system that makes it easy for players to access the network without needing to use extensions or worry about seed phrases. That being said, this funding program is designed to support projects focused on improving user onboarding and UX, with the funds used specifically for covering gas costs. This helps teams who have successfully integrated Ronin Waypoint and are looking to provide sponsored gas fees for end-users through smart contracts. Next to integrating Waypoint, teams should also have the account service implemented as the primary login method for their projects in order to be eligible for this $20k grant.

In other ecosystem-related news, Axie Infinity recently integrated Ronin Waypoint to App.Axie, while Moku launched the first Discord native web3 wallet on Ronin: Moku Pouch.