LUKSO Grants Wave 2 — Hack The Grid
Get ready to take The Grid and Universal Profiles to the next level! We are excited to launch Wave 2 of the LUKSO Grants Program on February 1st, in partnership with Gitcoin. This hackathon-style grants wave transforms our traditional format into an exciting rapid-development challenge focused on building impactful mini dApps for The Grid.
📚 Ready to Hack the Grid? Check out this guide and start building!
With $150,000 in LYX total funding available, Hack The Grid invites web3 builders to push the boundaries of what’s possible. This initiative challenges developers to build innovative mini dApps for The Grid, a feature that transforms Universal Profiles into dynamic, interactive spaces where digital identity, social interaction, and creativity converge. By combining The Grid, Universal Profiles (UPs), and LUKSO’s smart contract standards (LSPs), builders can co-create next-generation dApps that seamlessly integrate web2 and web3 user experiences.
Why Hack The Grid?
Wave 2 — Hack The Grid focuses exclusively on accelerating development for The Grid by combining features of milestone-based grants with a hackathon-like structure to ramp up the creation of mini dApps in the LUKSO ecosystem. While Wave 1 — Open Grants focused on supporting long-term projects across categories like infrastructure, protocols, and educational community initiatives, Wave 2 introduces a faster-paced approach. Hack The Grid is all about kickstarting smaller, impactful dApps that can be quickly deployed and adopted, benefiting from the enhanced discoverability provided by The Grid’s design and infrastructure. By challenging developers to innovate freely, it paves the way for building the next generation of mini dApps that advances digital interactions — break the system, build the future.
The idea behind structuring the LUKSO Grants Program in waves has always been to stay flexible and adapt to the ecosystem’s current needs. Moving forward, the Foundation for the New Creative Economies (FNCΞ) will evaluate the impact of each setup to determine what works best, whether that means alternating between open and The Grid-focused grants or exploring entirely new approaches. Our ultimate goal is to find the most strategic and impactful ways to support our growing ecosystem and builder community.
Timeline and Funding Breakdown
Hack The Grid is structured across four levels, running from February to April 2025, with a total funding pool of $150,000 in LYX distributed across the levels.
Levels 1–3
Each level spans two weeks (except for Level 2, which aligns with ETHDenver) and includes online workshops, office hours, and support channels to guide and accompany teams throughout the process of deploying fully functional mini dApps on LUKSO Mainnet. Builders can join remotely at any stage and participate in multiple levels.
In each level, $42,000 in LYX is available to reward the best projects, distributed across three grant tiers:
- 🥇🥇 Prime Grants: 2 x $9,000 in LYX
- 🥈🥈🥈 Core Grants: 3 x $5,000 in LYX
- 🥉🥉🥉🥉 Origin Grants: 4 x $2,250 in LYX
Winners in Levels 1–3 will receive grants based on a two-step milestone structure:
- Milestone 1: 70% of the grant is paid out directly upon winning.
- Milestone 2: The remaining 30% is paid upon meeting standardized KPIs focused on the adoption of the mini dApp, designed to be achievable within four weeks after receiving the grant award (Milestone 1).
Level 4 — Community Grants Round
Winning projects from Levels 1–3 will qualify for Level 4, the Community Grants Round. In this round, an additional $24,000 in LYX will be distributed via quadratic funding on Gitcoin, allowing the community to play an active role in determining how the funds are allocated among the finalists.
Inspiration for Building on The Grid
Hack The Grid is open-themed, giving builders the freedom to explore and innovate without constraints. To spark inspiration, we conducted a community poll to discover which types of use cases the LUKSO community is most excited to see built on The Grid. While these themes are not mandatory, they offer a starting point to ignite creativity and guide your ideas for building on The Grid and contributing to the LUKSO ecosystem. Additionally, you can draw inspiration from widget providers like elfsight, which is already integrated with The Grid, adapting popular widgets into web3 use cases that showcase The Grid’s capabilities.
🤖 AI Agents 🦾
Create AI-driven mini dApps that revolutionize automation, personalization, and interaction on The Grid. Innovate with Universal Profiles to make them even smarter, unlocking the full potential of LUKSO Standard Proposals (LSPs). Whether it’s utilizing the upgradability of LSP7 and LSP8 token metadata, creating agents that leverage and act onchain based on a Universal Profile’s metadata, or using LSP6 — Key Manager to assign granular permissions for AI agents — this theme is all about building intelligent, secure, and seamless experiences powered by AI.
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Take it a step further by thinking about the creator economy: how can AI agents empower creators and enhance creativity on LUKSO? Whether enabling new forms of collaboration, streamlining creative workflows, or helping creators enhance their Universal Profiles to provide personalized and interactive experiences for their visitors, the possibilities are endless.
📲 Social DeFi 💸
Reimagine DeFi by infusing it with reputation and social connectivity through Universal Profiles on The Grid. Utilize Universal Profiles (LSP0 — ERC725 Account) and powerful token and NFTs 2.0 (LSP 7 & LSP 8) to design reward structures, create innovative incentive systems, or explore community-driven trends like social and cultural tokens. Leverage LSP4 — Digital Asset Metadata to create rich, interactive token experiences. Consider building mini dApps that enable users to buy and sell tokens or off-chain products directly peer-to-peer through Universal Profiles. Explore unique ways to interact with Universal Profiles using LSP6 — Key Manager permissions, or enable dynamic interactions with LSP1 — Universal Receiver.
DeFi developers can now truly merge the worlds of finance and social interaction on LUKSO, driving greater engagement and value creation — something that would be challenging to achieve on other EVM chains.
🎨Creator Monetisation📈
Empower creators, artists and musicians to showcase their talents, connect with their audiences, and monetize their work seamlessly on The Grid through their Universal Profiles. Design mini dApps that enable creators to sell their digital or phygital products directly through their Universal Profiles and set up loyalty programs to reward their supporters (leveraging LSP26 — Follow System), using LSP4 metadata-rich tokens and NFTs 2.0 (LSP 7 & LSP 8). Or offer unique subscription-based experiences, managed through LSP6 — Key Manager permissions.
Think about how The Grid can serve as a hub for creators to express their identities across web2 and web3, while building meaningful connections with their communities. Whether it’s through personalized storefronts, interactive galleries, or tools that enhance creator-fan engagement through LSP1 — Universal Receiver Delegate, this theme invites you to redefine how creators thrive in a decentralized digital space.
🎮Gamified Grids🎰
Add a layer of fun to The Grid by creating mini dApps that incorporate gaming elements or gamification strategies. Build features that reward users for their engagement, encourage social challenges, or unlock exclusive content through creative gameplay mechanics. Utilize LSP5 — Received Assets to track achievements and LSP12 — Issued Assets to manage in-game items.
Imagine creating a game across Universal Profiles, where leaderboards display interactive challenges and social rankings, enriched with users’ profile details through LSP3 — Profile Metadata. Gamified Grids blend entertainment with creativity, turning The Grid into an immersive playground that fosters engagement.
How to Prepare
Detailed eligibility and evaluation criteria will be published on the Gitcoin Grants Stack when Hack The Grid officially launches on February 1st. In the meantime:
- Start here. This guide covers everything you need to know — eligibility criteria, key resources, submission info, and more.
- New to LUKSO? Welcome! Start exploring what you can build with Universal Profiles and user-centered standards on LUKSO here.
- Explore the full potential of mini (d)Apps on The Grid in this article: Mini-Apps are the new dApps. It dives into how features like one-click-connect and profile-specific contexts make building and interacting with mini (d)Apps more user-friendly and impactful with Universal Profiles.
- Check out this short workshop video: Getting Started with the Grid: Building mini apps for Universal Profiles.
- Get inspired by potential use cases and think about what kind of mini dApps could add the most value and drive adoption of The Grid and Universal Profiles.
- Check out the find-teammates channel on our Discord if you’re looking for collaborators.
- You’ll also find a curated list of resources to get started with building on The Grid, along with a support channel on our Discord server.
In Partnership with Gitcoin to Support Builder Success
Building on the success of our previous collaboration for the Community Grants Round, we’re excited to partner with Gitcoin once again for Wave 2 — Hack The Grid. All grants will be distributed through the Gitcoin Grants Stack, with Level 4 featuring our second community-driven quadratic funding round, designed to amplify the impact of contributions from the LUKSO community.
To further decentralize decision-making, the Gitcoin team will join the judging process for Hack the Grid, ensuring a broader perspective in evaluating submissions. Beyond the infrastructure of the Grants Stack, this partnership also taps into Gitcoin’s ecosystem to bring greater visibility to LUKSO projects. By connecting builders with a wider audience, it creates new opportunities for collaboration, fosters innovation, and supports the growth of the LUKSO ecosystem and developer community.
Learn more about our previous collaboration with Gitcoin and the power of quadratic funding here: LUKSO Partners with Gitcoin — Elevating the Future of Digital Identity and Creativity.
Hack The Grid is just around the corner!
Gather your team, start brainstorming, and get ready to bring new possibilities to Universal Profiles. Stay tuned for updates, and see you on February 1st!
