The DFINITY Foundation, the not-for-profit developing the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) — the world’s first web-speed, internet-scale public blockchain – has announced up to $100,000 in grants for female developers and entrepreneurs.
The grants aim at encouraging women to build on the ICP ecosystem providing them with easier access to resources and fast-tracking grantees through key milestones in the development process.
Studies have shown fewer women starting Web3 projects compared to men, reflecting the lack of female developers and entrepreneurs entering the industry.
Through the grant programme, DFINITY Foundation aims to inspire and support women to start building decentralised apps on the Internet Computer blockchain, backed by the 37th most valuable cryptocurrency at the time of writing with a market cap of more than $1.1 billion.
DFINITY grantee and Supernova Hackathon winner Bernie Snell – known as Bertie Spell on Twitter – expressed the importance of Web3 scholarships for women in a Twitter thread.
“I wouldn’t have even been in the room at all the other day if it wasn’t for a ‘women in tech’ scholarship which allowed me to quit my PhD and learn to code in the first place, many moons ago. Winning at Supernova meant I could then focus on blockchain and IC especially,” she said.
Snell is founder of dApp Signals, a location-based chat app for making connections, creating communities and discovering events. “Financial incentives bring people to the eco. If you want women in the eco — fund them,” she added.
Lomesh Dutta, VP of growth at DFINITY Foundation, said: “The Web3 movement is all about democratising access to opportunities. We are really excited to see female entrepreneurs leading the charge, but we also recognise the need to provide more special resources and support to women in this industry and to promote diversity in the Web3 space in every way possible.
“By launching these targeted grants, we look forward to welcoming more female builders to the ICP ecosystem and working together to build our vision of a user-owned, decentralised web on the Internet Computer blockchain.”
Other women-led projects in the ICP ecosystem include Distrikt, a decentralised social media platform with 110k+ users, and Factland DAO, working to slow the spread of misinformation online.
These dApps operate with zero reliance on a central cloud service like AWS or Google Cloud and offer the associated advantages of data security, safety, and a lack of deplatforming risks.
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The overall market cap of the 22,000 coins is at $841 billion at the time of writing (7am UK).
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