EasyA Receives Grant for Web3 Education Initiative

Investing.com – Web3 education platform and incubator EasyA has received a “Decentralized Futures Grant” from the Web3 Foundation to boost its latest project: EasyA x Polkadot University.

According to Chainwire, the initiative seeks to support blockchain innovators by engaging university talent and developing a Polkadot-focused educational program.

Founded by graduates from the University of Cambridge and The Wharton School, EasyA has over 1 million downloads and has been named Apple’s App of the Day. The app continues to bring developers into Web3, hosting in-person hackathons in cities like San Francisco, London, and Singapore.

The new university program will offer workshops, hackathons, and grants to help students develop projects within the Polkadot ecosystem.

The nine-month project aims to strengthen Polkadot’s presence in academic circles and expand its developer base, drawing on the success of similar programs in the blockchain world, like Solana University.

The demand for Web3 professionals is rapidly increasing, offering competitive salaries and ample opportunities for growth across various roles including finance specialists, product managers, and developers.

As the industry evolves, companies are seeking individuals with both technical expertise and a solid understanding of decentralization and blockchain principles.

The Web3 Foundation, the development agency for Polkadot, dedicates a prize pool of 10 million DOT tokens, roughly $65 million, to support the rollout of the Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) upgrade for the Polkadot ecosystem.

To qualify, participants need to meet specific criteria such as importing and producing blocks, meeting performance standards on Kusama and Polkadot, and passing security audits.

EasyA has been pivotal in driving developer activity on Polkadot, with nearly 1,000 startups emerging from their hackathons this year. The app promotes itself as user-friendly and engaging, making it a popular choice for aspiring Web3 developers.

EasyA’s alumni are reported to have founded startups valued at over $2.5 billion and secured funding from leading venture capital firms. Cognition AI, a company founded by EasyA hackathon winner Walden Yan, reached a $2 billion valuation in April. Walden originally pitched his idea for DALLE on the blockchain at an EasyA hackathon at Harvard in 2022.

However, the intricacies of blockchain technology—including decentralized systems and diverse consensus algorithms—pose a steep learning curve, even for experienced developers. The variety of networks, each with unique programming languages and tools, presents further challenges for newcomers.