Tanju Akbıyık 
The Starknet Foundation recently revealed a compelling endeavor called the “$5M Seed Grants Program,” aiming to fast-track the expansion of Ethereum’s layer-2 sphere. The program was announced on May 7, as it provides grants of not more than $25,000 USDC to projects that meet the eligibility criteria.
Moving forward, a successful pilot phase involving 20 teams resulted in the disbursement of 500,000 USDC. For the next phase, the program is likely to reach 200+ teams as per the Starknet team confirmation.
The team said: “Now, having made a small pilot project (20 teams worth 500,000 USDC), funds for large-scale continuation of the program to support 200+ teams have been earmarked for some 5 million USDC.”
The blog post has provided eligibility criteria for the projects to have developed a minimum viable product (MVP) or proof of concept and presented evidence that they take an active role in the Starknet community. It is covering university students’ involvement in hackerspaces, hackathons, builder programs, or similar opportunities. On the other hand, candidates must designate that they will use or be building on specific Starknet tools and products.
This makes an impression about the Starknet Foundation’s mission of nurturing creativity and cooperation in the Ethereum layer-2 field. The foundation offers financial assistance to lucrative projects intended to accelerate the formation of scalable solutions while at the same time providing for network adoption and utility.
Such an announcement has led many people within the blockchain community to become more and more excited, with external crypto industry followers admiring the initiative as an incentive for interchain scalability and ecosystem building.