IOVLabs Introduces $2.5M Grant Program and Scaling Bitcoin Hackathon

IOVLabs, a prominent leader in the blockchain technology space, has launched a $2.5 million strategic grants program to promote the growth and use of Rootstock, the first Bitcoin sidechain and a burgeoning center of DeFi activity on the Bitcoin network.

The program was unveiled today at the first-ever Bitcoin Builders Conference in Miami, a trailblazing gathering for Layer 1 and Layer 2 developers of the cryptocurrency.

IOVLabs also announced the start of a Hackathon in collaboration with HackerEarth, a worldwide community of over 4 million hackers, to find qualified applicants for the grant program.

An ideation stage, a development stage, and a final pitch to an elite panel of judges from the Bitcoin and Rootstock ecosystems will all be included in the hackathon, which will span from May through July. The application process is open to blockchain developers from across the globe.

Since Rootstock and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) are compatible, no previous programming experience is necessary to create decentralised apps (dApps) and integrations on the network. The same Solidity tools and frameworks, such as Hardhat, Truffle, web3.js, and ethers.js, are available to developers.

All Hackathon participants have a chance to win more than $25,000 in prizes in addition to being eligible for the $2.5 million grant program.

Sergio Lerner, a co-founder of Rootstock, serves as one of the hackathon’s judges, while another co-founder, Diego Gutiérrez Zaldívar is one of its mentors. Leaders in the rootstock ecosystem, such as those from Sovryn and Tropykus, will also be judging the hackathon.

In order to use the RIF’s ready-made open-source protocols in their present and future projects, developers may make use of Rootstock’s rich resources on the DevPortal.

This is a part of a larger initiative by IOVLabs to broaden the applications of Bitcoin beyond its use as a store of value and support the ecosystem’s development into a functioning financial system. IOVLabs’ commitment to empowering the community is shown by its dual-pronged strategy of helping existing financial institutions in developing and releasing Web3 products and providing money and assistance to entrepreneurs and builders via hackathons and grants. This objective is furthered via co-creation and the ongoing expansion of Rootstock’s ecosystem partner list.

IOVLabs VP of Growth Pei Chen comments:

“IOVLabs’ support of the strategic grants program demonstrates our strong commitment to provide the tools needed to build a truly decentralized financial system on Bitcoin. This is an opportunity for the next generation of developers to harness the Rootstock sidechain to extend the capabilities of Bitcoin and help create a freer and fairer financial system for all.”

“Rootstock is rapidly becoming known as the home of DeFi on Bitcoin. But we believe now is the time to make it available to everyone, regardless of their technical ability. That’s why the overarching theme of this year’s grant programme is Everyday DeFi. This is how the first billion users will be onboarded to Web3 and together we can make it happen.”

The hackathon and grant program will incentivize programmers to investigate various ideas and initiatives in line with the “Everyday DeFi” theme, such as:

• Better technical implementations, dApps, and bridges for other blockchains based on or using Bitcoin.
• Real-world use cases, appealing DAO governance modules, and data dashboards are examples of user-centric utility that promote successful user involvement.
• By strategically integrating markets, dApps, DEXes, aggregators, wallets, on/off ramps, and oracles, DeFi may get access to additional functionality and liquidity.
• Developer Hackathon Bounties for Rootstock infrastructure and tooling (improving the basic resources and tools for sustainable ecosystems, such as compiler support, SDKs, libraries, node-as-a-service, merge mining, rollups, etc.)

The May 17th Bitcoin Builders Conference in Miami will provide developers and innovators the chance to participate in practical seminars, roundtable talks with top devs, and thought-provoking industry keynotes. The most recent Bitcoin development tools will also be shown during the conference.

IOVLabs President Daniel Fogg adds:

“With the Bitcoin Builders Conference underway, I’m excited to see how developers are harnessing Bitcoin’s potential to solve everyday challenges for people around the world. IOV Labs strongly believes Bitcoin sidechains like Rootstock will play a major role in bringing the first billion users to crypto. This conference is an opportunity to celebrate and share our progress so far while acknowledging there’s still work to do. Every network has its sweet spot, and for Rootstock, it’s all about using Bitcoin to create a more accessible and fairer financial system for all. By bringing together EVM compatibility with the unmatched security of Bitcoin, Rootstock offers developers a network that can be trusted to support the financial futures of people worldwide, no matter their economic status.”

By using the smart contract features of its Rootstock sidechain, both the grants program and the hackathon seek to inspire developers to build on Bitcoin.

By boosting Bitcoin’s long-term value proposition and encouraging sidechains for complicated transactions, this endeavour helps to future-proof it by resolving the continuing congestion problem on the top network.

IOV Labs, a company that assists in the creation of the decentralised blockchain technology known as Rootstock, has committed the whole $2.5 million grant program’s funding.

With over 60 protocols and about $400 million in total value locked (TVL), rootstock usage is still expanding.