The Ethereum Foundation unveiled a new grants programme on Monday, the latest initiative from the nonprofit to support the blockchain’s developers.

It comes almost three months after the foundation paused its previous grants programme to reassess its funding approach.

“The growing volume of applications stretched our resources, limiting our ability to pursue strategic opportunities,” the foundation said in a blog post outlining the new programme.

The new model switches to a more targeted approach by only funding projects that address key ecosystem priorities.

In other words, the foundation has a wishlist that it wants fulfilled.

The move comes as the Ethereum Foundation takes a more proactive approach to supporting Ethereum ecosystem development following the appointment of two new co-directors in March.

Last month, the nonprofit rolled out a new institution-focused website to guide Wall Street firms looking to integrate Ethereum into their businesses.

Privacy first

Among the foundation’s requests are two big infrastructure upgrades designed to boost privacy.

One is asking developers to build a privacy disclosure framework that allows users to disclose information within an otherwise private system selectively.

That’s similar to how shielded and unshielded transactions on privacy-focused blockchain Zcash work.

The other is a privacy-preserving relayer and cross-protocol liquidity layer.

Such a system would let users move assets privately between different DeFi protocols and allow protocols to share liquidity without the need for centralised custodians or trusted intermediaries.

It’s not the first time the Ethereum Foundation has made bold overtures toward increasing the blockchain’s privacy credentials.

Last month, the foundation announced an expanded effort to embed privacy into Ethereum, led by a new “Privacy Cluster” team of 47 engineers, researchers, and cryptographers.

“Privacy is the freedom to choose what you share, when you share it, and who you share it with,” the foundation said. “It’s essential for dignity, security, and digital trust.”

Case-by-case funding

The foundation previously ran a small grants programme that awarded up to $30,000 to successful applicants.

The new programme doesn’t specify grant amounts and will instead decide on a case-by-case basis.

The allocations won’t be overly generous, however. “We generally anticipate some flexibility below standard market rates,” the foundation said.

Successful projects must also be fully open source, meaning their codebase is public and free for other developers to use.

Applicants should also demonstrate the potential benefit of their projects to the Ethereum ecosystem and understand Ethereum’s values and ecosystem needs.

Other requests on the foundation’s wishlist include decentralised RPC access, decentralised website hosting for DeFi protocols, and integrating large language models into Ethereum security research.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi correspondent. Reach out to him with tips at tim@dlnews.com.