The most valuable contributions to an ecosystem often begin with a focused idea, a clear community need, and someone willing to take responsibility for building the solution. Community DeGrants was created to support that kind of work by providing practical funding to builders, creators, educators, and contributors developing projects that deliver meaningful value to the Stacks ecosystem.

Funded by the Stacks Endowment, the program places funding decisions in the hands of Community Stewards rather than in the hands of a single centralized organization. Interest in the program reached a new high for Cohort 4, with more than 200 applications submitted from across the Stacks community. This represents the largest response Community DeGrants has received to date and reflects both the breadth of ideas emerging across the ecosystem and the continued demand for accessible, community-directed funding.

That growth has been supported by Zero Authority, which created the platform that powers the DeGrants application and review process and continues to serve as the program's home. Its ongoing work has provided the infrastructure needed to run each cohort, give applicants a clear place to submit their proposals, and make community-led funding more accessible across the ecosystem.

For Cohort 4, Community Stewards Jack Binswitch, MrWagmi, and GPSC reviewed the applications, evaluated their potential impact, and selected six projects to share a combined $25,000 in funding.

The selected projects span Bitcoin DeFi education, community-led distribution, permanent NFT preservation, developer tooling, accessible wallet onboarding, and stablecoin infrastructure. Although they approach the ecosystem from different angles, each proposal addresses a defined need through practical deliverables and a clear path toward measurable impact.

BFF.ARMY Community Bootcamps

BFF.ARMY is a community education hub helping people understand and participate in Bitcoin DeFi on Stacks. Since September 2025, the project has hosted 26 free live bootcamps in English and Portuguese, supported by a growing library of self-guided courses covering wallets, self-custody, STX, Proof of Transfer, sBTC, .btc names, AI agents, and DeFi protocols across the ecosystem.

With support from Community DeGrants, BFF.ARMY will expand its live programming, introduce its first Spanish-language bootcamp, publish two new protocol-focused course modules, and provide small STX gas allocations that allow participants to fund and use their first Stacks wallets. The project will measure its impact by the number of new wallets funded by participants in its live sessions.

Stacks Sponsor Network

Stacks Sponsor Network is a consent-based advertising and project-discovery pilot designed to help Stacks projects reach relevant audiences through trusted ecosystem publishers.

Participating projects will be able to create campaigns funded with STX or sBTC, distribute sponsored content through community platforms, and review transparent records of campaign delivery and publisher payouts. The system is being designed around privacy and user choice, which means advertisers will not receive raw personal data and any interest-based personalization will require explicit consent.

By creating a more transparent distribution layer, Stacks Sponsor Network aims to help emerging projects find relevant users while giving community publishers a sustainable way to support their work and audiences.

Xtrata: Forever Twins

Xtrata Forever Twins is designed to protect NFT culture by providing collections with a permanent, fully on-chain counterpart. Using Xtrata’s existing Stacks infrastructure, artwork can be preserved on Bitcoin rather than remaining dependent on an external server or storage provider that may no longer be available in the future.

Community DeGrants funding will support the development of a self-service deployer that allows collections to create their own Forever Twins contracts, together with a public registry, open documentation, and an initiative focused on preserving at-risk collections.

This work will create reusable preservation infrastructure that artists, collectors, and builders can continue to use beyond the grant period, while demonstrating a Bitcoin-native approach to protecting digital culture on Stacks.

Scaffold Stack

Scaffold Stack is building a faster path from a Clarity contract to a working, wallet-connected application. Its existing stacksdapp toolchain helps developers scaffold, test, and deploy Stacks applications using automatically generated TypeScript bindings, React hooks, deployment workflows, and a live contract-debugging interface.

The next production release will include expanded SIP contract templates, improved deployment and upgrade workflows, comprehensive documentation, video tutorials, and forkable reference applications.

The project is intended to help developers move from a new project to a testnet deployment in under 30 minutes, reducing the amount of time spent assembling basic infrastructure and making it easier for more Stacks applications to progress beyond the prototype stage.

Passkey Hot Wallet

DeOrganized is building Passkey Hot Wallet, a simpler way for people to begin interacting with Stacks and Bitcoin without first installing a browser extension or writing down a seed phrase during signup.

The open-source reference implementation will use familiar device passkeys, including Face ID, Touch ID, or a device PIN, to generate a deterministic Stacks and Bitcoin hot wallet directly within a mobile browser. This will allow applications to integrate wallet functionality into their onboarding experience so users can begin exploring the product before encountering the complexity associated with setting up a traditional crypto wallet.

The project will also address important challenges related to passkey-based wallets, including recovery, secure seed-phrase export, cross-device behavior, and differences between browsers and passkey providers.

The implementation will be tested through live use within DeOrganized and released with open documentation so other Stacks developers can adopt the same onboarding pattern without having to independently solve its security and user-experience challenges.

HermesBridge

HermesBridge is a user-friendly multichain bridge designed to bring stablecoin liquidity into the Stacks ecosystem. The project has already developed a working testnet application that supports more than 13 chains, bidirectional bridging, native transfers, and a built-in USDCx faucet for builders.

With support from Community DeGrants, HermesBridge will work toward its mainnet launch, improve the bridging experience, expand chain support, and create a more accessible route for users moving USDC from Ethereum, major Layer 2 networks, and Solana into native USDCx on Stacks.

By making it easier for users and capital to enter the ecosystem, HermesBridge aims to support deeper liquidity and broader participation across Stacks DeFi.

Continuing to Evolve Community DeGrants

Together, the six selected projects reflect the range of work required to strengthen an ecosystem. Some are focused on helping developers build more efficiently, while others are improving project discovery, bringing liquidity onchain, preserving digital culture, or making it easier for someone to use Stacks for the first time.

The selected teams will now work through their approved milestones, beginning with the delivery of their proposed work and followed by evidence of adoption, usage, participation, or community impact.

As Community DeGrants continues to grow, the program itself will remain open to iteration. Community input has always been central to its purpose, and future cohorts will explore ways to include that input at more stages of the process, including how Community Stewards are selected and how projects advance through the selection process.

The specific format will continue to develop alongside the community, with the goal of making Community DeGrants increasingly participatory, transparent, and representative while maintaining a process that remains practical for applicants and reviewers.

We would like to thank Jack Binswitch, MrWagmi, and GPSC for serving as the Cohort 4 Community Stewards, Zero Authority for creating the platform and continuing to provide a home for Community DeGrants, and everyone who submitted an application, shared feedback, or contributed to the program.

Congratulations to the six selected projects. We look forward to following their progress and seeing how their work contributes to the continued growth of Stacks.

Learn more about Community DeGrants: https://zeroauthoritydao.com/funding/degrants

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