In the past couple of weeks we’ve all faced some challenging news for us as a team and our community, which naturally opens questions and concerns for the future of Reef. We understand uncertain times bring confusion. Knowing this, we’re trying our best everyday to stay positive, share positive news and campaigns, and engage honestly with you. Setbacks happen, but we are committed to Reef’s growth and you as a community. 

Some of the concerns we’ve heard from the community are around Reef’s future. Let’s talk about:

Reef has a healthy runway and the funding to continue operating as we have since the beginning of 2024. We have a small and talented development team, a core group of community managers, and a solid marketing and operations team. Our user base is constantly growing as crypto becomes more accepted with the masses. For example, we have over 4000 new active wallets on Reef Chain in the last month, and we are working closely with top partners, like Fearless Wallet and StealthEx to continue to provide solutions for our community.

From recent news, it is clear that many expect us to build faster! To do that, we have to engage with more designers and developers all-around, whether they work directly for Reef, are contracted on a project basis, or they’re part of an existing team that receives a grant. While we have not issued grants since the last bear market started, it’s clear to us that we can no longer attract developers to Reef without some kind of financial reward. Knowing this, we’d like to introduce the Reef Community Developer Fund.

Community Developer Fund

Today Reef is announcing the creation of the Community Developer Fund (CDF). The CDF is being funded by a new validator node, just launched, that must be in the active validator set in order to receive inflation rewards. To ensure the CDF receives a sufficient amount of funding, while also rewarding nominators for bonding to it, the commission rate has been set to 90%.

This idea was first brought to us a few months ago, prior to ReefSwap and Reef Chain Wallet launching. The timing didn’t seem right, so the idea sat on the shelf. Based on our conversations with the Reef community over the past two weeks, now is the ideal time to begin this initiative so that we can accelerate development of the Reef ecosystem.

What the Funds Will be Spent On

We have a small wish list of protocols and dApps that we believe would foster a healthy blockchain ecosystem:

• Token-gating tool for Discord and Telegram

• DAO infrastructure

• Hardware wallet integration

• Lending protocol

• MetaMask Snap audit and launch

• Bridge integration, audit and launch

• Fiat on-ramp integration

• Integration into e-commerce payment solutions

And more!

All rewards and expenses will be fully transparent, including wallet addresses, transaction hashes, and even invoices/receipts for off-chain expenses. 

The initial self-stake is coming from an existing wallet controlled by a team member, and we have received commitments from several individuals both internally and in the community to bond REEF to the Community Development Fund validator today. We hope you will choose to do the same so that we can accelerate Reef’s growth into an amazing, fully fledged, comprehensive blockchain ecosystem with dozens of tools and dApps to use each day!

We have great indexing infrastructure, hosted by Subsquid, which can be used by any developer on Reef. We have good developer tools thanks to Witnet, Bitstack, SubQuery, WalletConnect, and others. And now we have a fully baked plan to grow the Reef!

Join the Community Developer Fund now

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are questions that came up in discussions with community members, community managers, and other core team members. 

Who will run the validator?

Derek Silva, Operations Lead for Reef, is running the validator. It’s already up and running using cloud infrastructure, and is ready to nominate today.

Why should I nominate a validator with 90% commission?

Because validators and nominators all have a vested, financial interest in Reef’s future. More users using Reef Chain means more REEF is burnt, which leads to fewer REEF existing. More funding for developers means more dApps on Reef, which means more usage and coin burning. It’s a virtuous cycle we’re trying to kick off here.

How can nominators/Reef community members be sure this money is being spent on developers?

We are developing a process to make this fully transparent. Reef rewards will go to the designated stash account. When deposits are made to a CEX or REEF is swapped elsewhere, the transaction will be posted to a Google Sheet or Notion doc. Payments made to developers will also be shared, whether they are on-chain or off-chain, in a similar manner. We aim for something similar to district0x’s Wages Paid spreadsheet.

Who’s going to decide where this money goes?

A small cadre of individuals including Derek Silva, Operations Lead, Cassie Doubleday, Head of Growth, Matjaz Hirschman, Lead Developer, Bene, Community Manager, and a representative of Reefaq will be the group making these decisions. We will also open up these decisions to some of the nominators who get the CDF validator into the active set, but first we need additional infrastructure on Reef Chain.

What’s in it for me? I’m only getting 10% rewards.

I’m so glad you asked! We’re going to be doing some big giveaways for nominators!

First, all of the top 64 nominators will be sent free Reef swag, exclusive items that showcase how they helped bring more life to the Reef. 🪸💜

Second, we have big prizes on the line and the only way to become eligible is to bond your REEF to the Community Development Fund validator!

• 1st place - an iPhone 16 or equivalent Android smartphone; winner’s choice!

• 2nd place - $250 worth of SOON and $250 worth of MRD

• 3rd place - $125 worth of SOON and $125 worth of MRD

To be eligible for these rewards, you must bond at least 1 million REEF to the Community Developer Fund validator for a period of six (6) months starting today, 23 August 2024. Snapshots will be taken daily, and eligible nominators will have their tickets credited daily. More details coming to Reef docs next week.

Do you have more documentation on how the Community Development Fund works?

Yes, we do. See Reef docs for more details next week.