Firstly, thank you for the ongoing support. As we quickly approach the beginning of our public pre sale, we’re seeing the intense drive within the DFINITY team mirrored by the community online. In light of recent hacks, data breaches, and scams targeting various blockchain groups, we want to remind the community that the DFINITY team will never solicit funds from individuals through email, Rocket Chat, Telegram, Reddit, or any other channel. Any public funding efforts conducted by DFINITY will be preceded by several announcements across all of our community channels and include sufficient lead time to allow the largest possible group of people to participate. We’ll never ask you to act immediately or suggest you have a limited window of time to send funds.

Fundraising will be conducted solely through the avenues described in our announcements. When in doubt, CHECK MULTIPLE DFINITY CHANNELS to confirm that the instructions you’ve received are consistent and legitimate. It is possible that a particular channel could become compromised.

History has made it abundantly clear that online ecosystems are bootstrapped by their communities. As the DFINITY project moves forward we are going to begin a series of initiatives to empower those already following the project and help that community expand. Structuring these programs is an exciting process and we’re looking forward to collaborating with all interested parties in doing so. If you’re taking the time to read this, that means you.

Mahnush Movahedi is leading our academic effort. Mahnush has already launched a scholarship program for PhD students researching secure distributed systems.

Multiple grant streams will also be developed: Technical, community support, and recruiting to start.

Technical grant schemes and bug bounties will be launched as the need arises. They’ll focus on provisioning the network and leveraging the broader development community to harden and extend the capabilities of the protocol. Expect these to emerge with the launch of the testnet later this year.

In the nearer term, grants will be made available to individuals managing communities, and creating and translating content. At this stage we’re gathering information to plan the structure of these initiatives. We’ve already reached out to many of you who’ve offered help.

We need strong academics and entrepreneurs from all fields to bring original thought to the DFINITY ecosystem. The Internet Computer is not a platform for any specific generation, culture, or internet community. It is a public resource which will impact everyone. Help us spread the word.

See you on Rocket Chat, Telegram and beyond.