Announcing Aleo Deploy Incentives

Attention builders! We're thrilled to announce that Deploy Incentives on Testnet 3 Phase III are just around the corner. For Deploy Incentives, 5M Aleo Credits will be up for grabs! The more you impress, the more Aleo Credits you can win. We will award credits to the TOP 10 programs deployed on Aleo as determined by a committee vote comprised of Aleo ambassadors and core team members. Take advantage of this exciting opportunity, as these incentives will kick off soon.  

Our goal with Deploy Incentives is to test the capabilities of our network and showcase the power of Aleo as a developer platform for building private, programmable Web3 applications. By writing and deploying programs, you will help us test the network and showcase the unique set of applications enabled by Aleo. To see what we learned during our previous phase of Testnet 3, check out our Testnet 3 Phase II Incentives Retrospective blog post.

In the coming weeks, we will also introduce other initiatives, including a Bug Bounty Program focused on finding bugs in our core protocol and a Community Grants Program focused on building infrastructure & tooling for the network. For this announcement's focus, we will only cover details around Deploy Incentives. In future blog posts, we will examine these other opportunities.

Program Scope

Deploy Incentives are open to applications of all types. There is NO use case or application that is out of scope. It's up to you and/or your team to decide what to build. We highly encourage you to form a team and build the next killer application on the Aleo network. When choosing an application, what’s most important to consider is if it demonstrates the core properties of the Aleo network, as well as how well it fulfills our submission criteria. 

Below we’ve provided five categories and some example applications that we think would be worthwhile to build on Aleo. You can deploy a program based on one of these categories or create something completely different. The examples listed are suggestions to help guide your thinking: 

Gaming

Nearly all Web3 games today are not decentralized, not scalable, and don’t allow for player privacy. Aleo solves this by allowing games with hidden and/or imperfect information to fully realize decentralization at world scale for the very first time.

1. Turn-based games (e.g., Battleship)

2. Table games (e.g., Poker)

3. Role Playing Games (e.g., Dark Forest)

Identity & Authentication

With Aleo, users gain trust in the ecosystem through secure identity and authentication solutions that prioritize user privacy and data security. Users control their identities, securely authenticate themselves, and safeguard their personal information.

1. Decentralized identifiers (DIDs) & verifiable credentials (VCs)

2. Namespace resolvers (e.g., ENS)

3. KYC/AML 

Zero-Knowledge Decentralized Finance (ZeFi)

ZeFi on Aleo refers to peer-to-peer financial services that are private-by-default. This enables open, free and fair financial markets that maintain user privacy and regulatory compliance. 

1. Dark pools and mixers

2. Decentralized exchanges (e.g., Uniswap, dYdX)

3. Lending protocols (e.g., Aave)

4. Stablecoins (e.g., USDC, DAI)

Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning

As Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms continue ingesting vast amounts of privacy data, the public deserves to know how each model operates and how their data is stored and protected. Using the Aleo stack, zero-knowledge proofs (zkML) give control to users and make sure algorithms are secure, fair, and consistent for everyone.

1. Single/multi-layer neural networks

2. Computational integrity

3. ZK anomaly/fraud detection

Voting & Governance

On Aleo, private and collusion- resistant voting infrastructure leads to free and fair governance. This new paradigm enables communities and organizations to implement decisions anonymously and without fear of censorship.

1. Private on-chain voting (e.g., MACI)

2. Private DAO infrastructure  

The 5M Aleo Credits available will be distributed across the TOP 10 overall programs deployed to our on-chain program registry. For the exact breakdown of this distribution, check out the chart below:

Requesting Initial Feedback & Final Submission Instructions

Today, you can begin testing your application and receiving feedback directly from the core Aleo team. Due to the competitive selection process, we highly encourage all interested participants to submit their initial applications for this feedback using our Application Feedback Form. Doing so will allow you to receive personalized comments to strengthen your application, increasing the likelihood of being ranked in the Top 10. Filling out the form above is optional, and you may request feedback as often as you like before the official snapshot for Deploy Incentives.

The snapshot for Deploy Incentives will occur between June 15th and July 15th. On June 15th we will release our official submission form for deployed applications. You must submit your application during the snapshot between June 15th and July 15th. Shortly before the snapshot commences, we will follow up with detailed instructions on how to submit your application for consideration of rewards.

Selection of winning applications will take place between July 15th and August 5th. Our committee will pay rewards after August 6th to the wallet address you’ll submit along with your application and deployed transaction ID. Again, we will release the form to submit this information on June 15th.

Numerous upgrades will occur before June 15th, wiping the on-chain registry and making other impactful changes to the snarkVM and snarkOS architectures. Therefore, you should re-test, iterate, and submit your application for feedback several times before deploying it for incentives during the snapshot between June 15th and July 15th. 

These upgrades are necessary as they will allow our engineering team to add new features/functionalities to the network and enhance the security of our system. To properly integrate with these upgrades, Deploy Incentives will only be awarded to applications deployed and submitted using our official submission form with a deployed transaction ID to integrate with these upgrades properly. 

Selection Process

Applications deployed to Aleo's on-chain program registry between June 15th the July 15th will be reviewed by a program committee comprised of Aleo ambassadors and core team members. Any programs deployed AFTER July 15th will NOT be eligible for rewards.

All eligible applications must meet a set of minimum requirements. These requirements prevent developers from spamming the network with overly simplistic programs that do not add real value to the Aleo ecosystem. These minimum requirements include the following:

1. A GitHub username

2. A GitHub repo URL

3. An Aleo wallet address

4. The category you are applying to: a. Gaming b. Identity & Authentication c. ZeFi d. zkML e. Voting & Governance f. Other

5. Passing a code test suite

On June 15th, we will release a form for applicants to submit these minimum requirements.

A committee of Aleo ambassadors and core team members will review and vote on all applications submitted during the snapshot period. Ambassador votes will account for 66.6% of the overall outcome, while the core team votes will account for 33.3%.

The following criteria will be used for evaluating deployed programs and for voting: 

1. Novelty - How unique is the application? Is it different from existing applications?

2. Best User Experience - How easy can people use the application?

3. Best Engineering - How clean is the code? How efficiently does the program run?

4. Best Functionality - How composable and valuable is it?

5. Popularity - Is the application something that people in the community find valuable?‍

6. User Interface (Bonus) - Does the application have a front end that people can use?

Relevant Dates & Additional Information

• May 2nd: Application Feedback Form live.

• June 15th: Official application submissions for reward consideration will open

• July 15th: Applications for Deploy Incentives closed

• July 15th - August 5th

  ‍ a. Applications reviewed by the community and delineated b. Applications reviewed by the core team and selected

  ‍

• After August 6th: Winning applications paid

If you’re new to the Aleo ecosystem, we recommend reading our developer documentation to understand how to write programs in Leo. You can also use our playground to experiment with application examples.

We can't wait to see the incredible applications you'll create during Testnet 3 Phase III Deploy Incentives! This is a prime opportunity for developers to display their talents, ingenuity, and proficiency in zero-knowledge. By taking part, you'll not only make a meaningful impact on the Aleo ecosystem, but you'll also have a shot at winning amazing prizes from our pool of 5M Aleo Credits.

Happy coding, and let the best applications prevail!

Claiming Rewards

For information about requirements and eligibility for claiming Aleo Credits please read our terms of service.