Open source maintainer funding for crypto projects

Which programs pay maintainers over time?

Seven Bitcoin programs in the directory pay individuals for months or a year of ongoing open-source work.

These funders expect public work in return. Brink grantees publicly commit to deliverables and post regular progress updates; OpenSats grantees report every 90 days; Maelstrom publishes an annual report on what each grantee shipped. Maelstrom also caps total grant income from all funders at $400,000 a year, which shows it expects grantees to combine funders. Our guide to Bitcoin developer grants compares them in detail.

Committees and treasuries that fund upkeep

Several ecosystems fund maintenance through a community-elected committee or an on-chain treasury instead of a foundation.

Zcash Community Grants. A five-person committee elected by the Zcash community funds wallets, SDKs, light client infrastructure, core development and audits. You post your application on the Zcash Community Forum, the community gets at least a week to comment, and the committee votes in its bi-weekly meeting. Grants range from a few thousand dollars to six-figure, year-long engineering programs, set in USD and paid by milestone in ZEC or USD. KYC is required above $50,000, but you can stay pseudonymous in public. See zcashcommunitygrants.org.

Monero CCS and MAGIC Monero Fund. The Monero CCS funds proposals from community donations in XMR, held in escrow and released per milestone; most recent proposals pay for three months of full- or part-time work on the Monero codebase or Cuprate, and a proposal can wait months for funding. The MAGIC Monero Fund, run by a committee elected by the Monero community, gives direct grants of up to $55,000 for open-source Monero research and development.

Polkadot OpenGov Treasury. DOT holders vote on every spend, and "maintenance of open-source developer tools and SDKs" is the first focus area. Spends can be paid in DOT, USDC or USDT and scheduled as several payouts over time, which suits a maintenance budget. Many recent requests are rejected, so build support with delegates before you go on-chain. Our guide to blockchain treasury funding explains the tracks.

The Graph and ESP. The Graph Foundation offers longer-term core dev grants in GRT, but only to people with current or past contributions to the protocol. The Ethereum Foundation's Ecosystem Support Program has funded client teams such as Lighthouse and Lodestar, but as of October 1, 2026 it had no Wishlist or RFP items open, so there is nothing to apply to.

Does quadratic funding still pay maintainers?

Quadratic funding (QF) is a matching mechanism: users donate to projects, and a matching pool is split so that many small donations count for more than a few large ones. It suited maintainers with a visible user base, but all three QF programs in the directory are between rounds with no next date:

• Gitcoin Grants: no round since GG24 in October 2025, and none announced. As of October 2026 Gitcoin is folding quadratic funding into a local-money pilot targeted for November 2026, with no application for builders yet.
• Giveth QF rounds: the Stellar round closed applications on August 28, 2026, and no next round is announced.
• Octant: Epoch 13 allocation closed on October 22, 2026, and Epoch 14 has no date. Octant excludes pre-launch projects and wants open-source code with verifiable users.

How the matching works is covered in quadratic funding explained.

Does retroactive funding pay maintainers?

Retroactive funding pays for impact already delivered, which fits maintenance well: the work is done before you ask. But the largest programs are paused.

• Optimism Retro Funding rewarded open-source dev tools used by Superchain builders, paid monthly in OP. It has been paused since January 2026 for at least 12 months, and no missions are planned for Seasons 9 or 10.
• FIL-RetroPGF is paused in 2026; its stewards expect retro funding to return in late 2026 under a new framework.
• Algorand xGov funds "maintenance costs of public goods already running on Algorand" retroactively, from 5,000 to 400,000 ALGO. Proposals are still accepted, but payouts wait on a Foundation top-up of the xGov treasury and a newly elected Council.
• Rocket Pool's GMC pays retrospective awards for Rocket Pool work already completed, but funds are tight: Round 41 declined every application.

See retroactive public goods funding for how retro rounds score impact.

Maintainer programs outside the directory

Two maintainer-specific programs we checked in October 2026 are not in the directory:

• Intersect Maintainer Retainer (Cardano): active as of October 2, 2026. Intersect's Open Source Committee takes applications both from community projects that need a maintainer and from developers who want to join as Community Maintainers, and several seats on core repositories were listed as open. The committee has asked the Cardano treasury for 4,601,000 ADA to run its open-source programs for another 1.5 years. We left it out because we could not verify enough detail, but its retainer docs are public.
• ENS Service Provider Program: the ENS DAO streams funding to teams that provide services to ENS, with a minimum request of $200,000. Season 3 applications ran from May 19 to June 9, 2026, and the cohort runs to Q3 2027. Another season needs a new DAO vote, and none had been proposed as of October 2, 2026.

How do you make maintenance fundable?

Turn ongoing work into something a reviewer can check, and spread it across funders.

1. Name the deliverables inside the upkeep. Releases, triaged issues, reviewed pull requests, dependency upgrades, security fixes. Brink-style public commitments are the model.
2. Publish reports on a schedule. OpenSats asks for one every 90 days. A public record of past reports is your best argument for renewal.
3. Ask for time, not features. The year-long Bitcoin grants fund a person's time. Elsewhere, ask for a fixed number of months with clear maintenance targets.
4. Stack and disclose. Several funders expect you to have more than one source. Our guide to applying for multiple grants covers disclosure.
5. Plan beyond grants. Retainers, service contracts and protocol revenue last longer than any round. See sustainable funding for open source crypto projects.

For the basics of how grant programs work, start with what Web3 grants are.

FAQ

Can I get paid a salary to maintain an open-source crypto project?

A few crypto funders pay something close to a salary. Brink pays established Bitcoin protocol developers for a year of full-time work, and its London fellowship pays a salary with benefits. Maelstrom pays $50,000 to $150,000 per developer in monthly installments over 12 months, and Btrust pays developers in the Global South monthly in BTC. Outside Bitcoin, most programs fund scoped milestones rather than ongoing pay.

Do Web3 grants fund maintenance of existing code?

Some Web3 grants fund maintenance of existing code, but many do not. Algorand xGov lists maintenance costs of public goods already running on Algorand, the Polkadot treasury lists maintenance of open-source developer tools and SDKs, and OpenSats offers long-term support grants for established maintainers. DoubleZero and Ink Spark, by contrast, say their grants do not cover open-ended maintenance, salaries or routine hosting.

Is Gitcoin still running grant rounds for open source?

Gitcoin has not run a grant round since GG24 in October 2025, and none was announced as of October 2026. Gitcoin is folding quadratic funding into a local-money pilot targeted for November 2026, with a wider launch in mid-December, and there is no application for builders yet. Open-source maintainers who relied on Gitcoin rounds should look at the long-term grants and treasuries listed in this guide.

What is the Intersect maintainer retainer?

The Intersect Maintainer Retainer is a Cardano program run by Intersect's Open Source Committee that pays developers to maintain community and core open-source projects. As of October 2, 2026 it was taking applications from projects that need maintainers and from developers who want to become Community Maintainers. It is funded through Cardano treasury withdrawals and is not in web3grant's directory.