These projects have gone on to address some challenges the Cardano ecosystem faces.
The Cardano Catalyst program has produced three of the largest projects in the Cardano ecosystem, boasting an impressive return on investments for these protocols. This underscores the massive contribution the initiative made to the growth of the Cardano ecosystem.
Sebastien Guillemot, co-founder and CTO of dcSpark and Milkomeda, recently called attention to this achievement, noting that the network’s on-chain Catalyst treasury has had “a massive ROI.”
Cardano's onchain treasury has had a massive ROI
3 largest projects started through its treasury
– dcSpark. 50K USD. Now builds many open source tools across the ecosystem
– Milkomeda. 40K USD. Recent tweet got >3K likes
– Paima. 40K USD. Recent tweet got >1K likes pic.twitter.com/7bAQqXynef
— Sebastien Guillemot (@SebastienGllmt) April 4, 2023
dcSpark’s Rust SDK Update
Founded in 2021, dcSpark was the brainchild of members of the Cardano development community, including Sebastien Guillemot. The firm looks to promote project building in the Cardano, Algorand, and Mina ecosystems.
dcSpark submitted a proposal during Fund 5 in April 2021. The proposal requested Catalyst funding to $50,000 to help keep the Cardano Rust SDK for Alonzo updated. Governance voting approved the funding, and dcSpark has continued to deliver on its promise.
The Cardano Rust SDK is an open-source software development kit (SDK) designed to help developers build on the Cardano blockchain using the Rust programming language. dcSpark offered to continue integrating and updating the library as Cardano evolves.
Milkomeda’s Multisig Contract
Being a product of dcSpark, Milkomeda is a layer-2 solution currently built atop the Cardano and Algorand networks. dcSpark submitted a proposal during Fund 6 in August 2021, requesting funds to build a multisig Solidity smart contract to create multisig transactions.
The smart contract would leverage EVM-compatible networks for the creation of the multisig transactions. The proposal requested $40,000 in funding which was granted through governance voting.
Milkomeda Game
dcSpark also brought up a proposal last March, seeking $40,000 in funding to build a game with its Milkomeda protocol. The firm highlighted the significance of gaming in any blockchain ecosystem, but noted that Cardano was lacking in the gaming sector.
A game, Jungle Wars, has been developed by Paima Studios using the Paima Engine, having launched on the Milkomeda C1 mainnet on Jan. 10. Paima Studios has also teased multiple games currently in development.
Cardano won't just be a top EVM chain
It will also be a top gaming chain?
Paima is a L2 for onchain games with ANY web2 language using ANY game engine
Now live for EVERY Cardano user from ANY wallet
All in pure ADA
Making Cardano a top gaming chain by user count? pic.twitter.com/NNiia22p84
— Paima Studios (@PaimaStudios) April 3, 2023
The Cardano Catalyst Program
The Cardano Catalyst program is an initiative that provides funding and support for community-driven projects on the Cardano blockchain. It is aimed at fostering the growth and development of the Cardano ecosystem by empowering developers to bring their ideas to life.
The program has so far been discontinued. The first fund was launched in August 2020, with the last fund, Fund 9, introduced in June 2022. $38.3 million was requested, with $29.7 million distributed. 1,155 ideas have been funded. Of this, 452 ideas have been completed.
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