Investing.com – Web3 education platform and incubator EasyA has received a Decentralized Futures Grant from the Web3 Foundation to support its latest project: EasyA x University.
According to a press release, the initiative aims to support blockchain innovators by engaging talented university researchers and developing an educational program focused on Polkadot.
Founded by graduates of the University of Cambridge and The Wharton School, EasyA has over 1 million downloads and was even named Apple’s App of the Day. The app continues to attract developers to Web3 by hosting in-person hackathons in cities like San Francisco, London, and Singapore.
The fresh university program will offer workshops, hackathons, and grants to aid students develop projects within the Polkadot ecosystem.
The nine-month project aims to strengthen Polkadot’s presence in academia and expand its developer base, building on the success of similar programs in the blockchain world, such as University.
Demand for Web3 professionals is already growing rapidly, with competitive salaries and broad opportunities for advancement. This includes a range of roles, from finance specialists and product managers to software developers.
As the industry grows, companies are looking for people with both technical expertise and a deep understanding of decentralization and blockchain principles.
The Web3 Foundation, the development agency for Polkadot, is committing a bounty pool of 10 million DOT tokens, or approximately $65 million, to support the rollout of the Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) upgrade for the Polkadot ecosystem.
To qualify, participants must meet certain criteria, such as importing and producing blocks, meeting performance standards for Kusama and Polkadot, and passing security audits.
EasyA is a key driver of developer activity on Polkadot, with nearly 1,000 startups emerging from hackathons this year. The app bills itself as simple to utilize and fun to learn, making it a popular choice for aspiring Web3 developers.
EasyA graduates are said to have founded startups valued at more than $2.5 billion and raised funding from top 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 Harvard’s EasyA hackathon in 2022.
However, the complexities of blockchain technology—such as decentralized systems and diverse consensus algorithms—create a steep learning curve, even for experienced developers. The wide variety of networks, each with its own programming languages ​​and tools, adds fresh challenges.
