Investing.com – Web3 education platform and incubator EasyA has received a “decentralized futures grant” from the Web3 Foundation to power its latest project: EasyA x University.
According to a press release, the initiative seeks to support blockchain innovators by engaging university talent and developing an educational program focused on Polkadot.
Founded by graduates of Cambridge University and the Wharton School, EasyA has over a million downloads and has even been named Apple’s App of the Day. The app continues to attract developers to Web3 and hosts in-person hackathons in cities such as San Francisco, London and Singapore.
The new university program will offer workshops, hackathons and grants to help students develop projects within the Polkadot ecosystem.
The nine-month project seeks to strengthen Polkadot's presence in academic circles 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 increasing rapidly, offering competitive salaries and ample growth opportunities. This spans a variety of roles, from financial specialists and product managers to developers.
As the industry grows, companies are looking for people who have both technical expertise and a solid understanding of decentralization and blockchain principles.
The Web3 Foundation, Polkadot’s development agency, is dedicating a prize pool of 10 million DOT tokens, approximately $65 million, to support the launch of the Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) upgrade for the Polkadot ecosystem.
To qualify, participants must meet specific criteria such as importing and producing blocks, meeting performance standards on Kusama and Polkadot, and passing security audits.
EasyA has been a key driver of developer activity on Polkadot, with nearly 1,000 startups emerging from its hackathons this year. The app is touted as easy to use and fun to learn, making it a popular choice for aspiring Web3 developers.
EasyA alumni are said to have founded startups valued at over $2.5 billion and have secured funding from major 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 an EasyA hackathon at Harvard in 2022.
However, the complexities of blockchain technology (such as decentralized systems and various consensus algorithms) pose a steep learning curve, even for experienced developers. The wide variety of networks, each with their own programming languages and tools, adds further challenges for newcomers.
