A new governance-backed fund is live on Canton, built to keep core protocol & shared infra scaling with adoption.
@CantonNetwork's adoption is accelerating, and so is the demand for the essential work that keeps a real financial network healthy: protocol upgrades, security hardening, developer tooling, and shared infrastructure. The Canton Protocol Development Fund is now live to support that work in an open, accountable way.
Why this Fund exists?
Most networks fund grants from a premine or a central treasury. Canton Coin was fair-launched, so there wasn’t a large pool sitting aside for ongoing protocol investment.
Instead, through the Foundation’s governance process, Super Validators approved a programmatic reallocation of 5% of future CC emissions to create a durable, predictable funding source (see CIP-0082 and CIP-0100).
What it funds
The Fund is focused on public goods, work that benefits the network at large, not one private company. Typical scope includes:
- Core protocol R&D (capabilities, performance, upgrades)
- Developer tooling (build/test/operate on Canton more easily)
- Security work & audits (remediation, hardening, review)
- Reference implementations (reusable building blocks)
- Critical infrastructure the ecosystem relies on
- Selective DeFi liquidity seeding (when liquidity is a prerequisite for early utility)
How it’s governed?
The Fund is administered by the @CantonFdn as a neutral facilitator, with review and delivery oversight led by the Tech & Ops Committee
Funding is:
→ Allocated quarterly
→ Denominated in Canton Coin (CC)
→ Released against clearly defined milestones
→ Evaluated milestone-by-milestone (continuation funding depends on delivery)
If milestones aren’t met, funding can be paused, renegotiated, or stopped.
Who can apply
This is open to the broader community, with a structure that keeps quality high:
◽️ The Tech & Ops Committee may publish RFPs for specific work.
◽️ Committee members can submit proposals directly.
◽️ Anyone can propose work , if you’re not a Foundation member, you’ll need a Tech & Ops Committee champion to guide your proposal through the process.
◽️ Startups can apply as long as the work is a common good for the network (and you have a champion).
How to apply and track
- Submit proposals via PR to the public repo:
- Questions: dev-fund@canton.foundation
- The repo will also serve as the public ledger of funded projects.
The intent is simple: keep Canton’s shared foundation improving in the open, with predictable funding, milestone based accountability, and governance led oversight, so builders can rely on the network for the long run.
