MAGIC Monero Fund Request for Research Proposals

Mission

The MAGIC Monero Fund is offering a grant program to support actionable Monero research, especially research relating to privacy, security, user experience, and efficiency. Proposals can be related to the Monero protocol directly, or they can be related to other areas of the Monero ecosystem.

Target Research Areas

We are interested in Monero's open research questions, along with the following:

Security proofs around Monero's existing constructions
Arithmetic-circuit-based membership proofs, specifically ones without a trusted setup based on battle-tested cryptographic assumptions

While the above topics are especially encouraged, the Fund is open to funding other topics as well.

The proposal's chance to be approved will be increased if it also helps support one or more of the additional mission areas of the MAGIC Monero Fund: Development, Security (including audits); Critical Infrastructure; Community Building and Community Infrastructure; Interoperability; Feature Enhancements; Efficiency Improvements; Educational Materials.

Funding Amount

The MAGIC Monero Fund anticipates funding requests of the equivalent of 5,000 to 20,000 USD at this time.

Deadline

The MAGIC Monero Fund accepts applications on a rolling basis. Applications will be notified of the committee's vote on approval within three weeks of submission except in extraordinary circumstances.

Proposal Format

Applicants must submit their applications on the web form here. Alternatively, applicants can submit a PDF file by email to [email protected] . Applicants are free to use their legal name or a pseudonym at this step, although note the "Eligibility" section below.

The research plan should be 3-5 pages (not counting citations, any images, and biographical sketch) and include the following:

The research question you seek to answer, and how the Monero Project benefits from the research.
A literature review of existing work and how your proposal improves upon it.
Any preliminary work you have already completed.
Description of the plan to carry out the research.
A plan to work with Monero's developers and/or researchers to integrate the results of the research into Monero's protocol or ecosystem.
A budget, likely consisting mostly of labor costs for the researcher(s). This should include the desired payment schedule, which should be no more frequent than monthly. Any additional budgetary item such as equipment should be included as well. Specify the desired form of payment, which can be cryptocurrency or fiat currency.
OPTIONAL: A biographical sketch such as a resume or CV. Alternatively, a list of contributions to open source projects.

Computing Resources Available

Computing and data storage resources can be made available to applicants depending on research requirements, resource availability, and vetting by a third party. These resources include a research computing server with a 64-thread Threadripper CPU, 256 GB RAM, 2TB SSD, and 12TB RAID1 HDD.

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

Submitted proposals will be evaluated by the committee based on the following criteria:

Impact on Monero's privacy, scaling, decentralization, and/or user experience
Feasibility of research plan
Prior work and qualifications of applicant(s)
Clear plan to integrate research findings into Monero's protocol and/or ecosystem

Eligibility

All competent researchers are eligible to apply, regardless of educational attainment or occupation. However, as a nonprofit organization registered under U.S. tax laws, MAGIC Grants is required to comply with certain laws when disbursing funds to grant recipients.

Grant recipients must complete a Due Diligence checklist, which are the last two pages of this document. This includes the collection of your ID and tax information. We will conduct sanctions checks.

Vulnerability Research

If your proposal seek to uncover weaknesses in the privacy and/or security features of Monero as it exists today, then the Committee will require that you share any significant weaknesses with the Committee (and any critical vulnerabilities with Monero's official Vulnerability Response Process) 90 days before publishing the research so that action can be taken to mitigate the vulnerabilities.

How to Submit an Application

Applicants must submit their applications on the web form here. Alternatively, applicants can submit a PDF file by email to [email protected]

Contact

Contact [email protected] for further questions.