Ecosystem Support Program (ESP)

ESP is the public-facing allocation arm of the Ethereum Foundation focused on strengthening Ethereum's foundations and enabling future builders: improving infrastructure, expanding the range of tools available to those building on Ethereum, deepening our understanding of cryptographic primitives, and growing the builder ecosystem through education and community development.

Website | Twitter

🏆 Prize - Account Abstraction: Wallets, Paymasters, & Developer Tooling

We encourage building in any of the 3 domains listed below, and recommend using Trampoline for all domains. The top 4 projects submitted (regardless of domain) will each receive $2,500.

Wallets: Demonstrate creative use of ERC-4337 (e.g. an innovative recovery method, access control, privacy, automation).

Paymasters: An interesting implementation of a paymaster contract into an application flow (e.g. Sybil-resistant gas sponsoring, paymasters swapping tokens for ETH) or tools for paymasters to manage their paymaster contract.

Developer Tooling: Simplify the developer experience by enhancing an existing devtool to support ERC-4337 (e.g. Hardhat plugin, ethers.js support) or create a new devtool to support ERC-4337.

🏅 - $2,500

🏅 - $2,500

🏅 - $2,500

🏅 - $2,500

Privacy & Scaling Explorations (PSE)

The PSE team explores new use cases for zero-knowledge proofs and other cryptographic primitives through research and proof-of-concepts.

Website | Twitter

🏆 Prize - ZK, Semaphore, RLN, & Unirep

We encourage building in any of the 4 domains mentioned above, and are looking for the best integration for any use case.

🎯 Note: general ZK mentorship is available at booth on April 14, 6-10pm, and April 15 2-6pm.

Semaphore Protocol: The ZK protocol for proving you belong to a group and signaling without revealing you identity. Great for developers who want to build:

• • private voting and governance mechanisms
• • privacy-preserving attestations and credentials
• • anonymous endorsements
• • anonymous social networks

🎯 Note: mentorship is available at booth on April 14, 8-10pm, and April 15 4-6pm.

RLN Protocol: A ZK gadget designed to limit spam and denial of service attacks in privacy-preserving environments. Great for developers who want to build:

• • anonymous chat or messaging
• • privacy-preserving communications platforms
• • anonymous environments resistant to spam

🎯 Note: mentorship is available at booth on April 14, 6-8pm, and April 15, 2-4pm.

Unirep Protocol: A ZK protocol that expands reputation to include anonymous identifiers for user preferences, alignment, and ownership. Great for developers who want to build:

• • apps where users are anonymous and their data is never stored
• • systems that allow users to prove they control their data
• • apps that require reputation for social interactions

🎯 Note: Unirep mentorship is not available on-site, please join Unirep's Discord and ask your question.

🏅 - $2,500

🏅 - $2,500

🏅 - $2,500

🏅 - $2,500