According to a press release, the initiative seeks to support blockchain innovators by engaging university talent and developing a Polkadot-focused educational program.
Founded by graduates from the University of Cambridge and The Wharton School, EasyA has over 1 million downloads and has even been named Apple’s App of the Day. The app continues to bring developers into Web3, hosting in-person hackathons in cities like 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 looks to strengthen Polkadot’s presence in academic circles and expand its developer base, drawing on the success of similar programs in the blockchain world, like Solana University.
The demand for Web3 professionals is already rising quickly, offering competitive salaries and ample opportunities for growth. This spans a range of roles, from finance specialists and product managers to developers.
As the industry grows, companies are looking for individuals who have both technical expertise and a solid understanding of decentralization and blockchain principles.
The Web3 Foundation, the development agency for Polkadot, dedicates a prize pool of 10 million DOT tokens, roughly $65 million, to support the rollout of the Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) upgrade for the Polkadot ecosystem.
To qualify, participants need to meet specific criteria like 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 coming out of their hackathons this year. The app touts itself as easy to use and fun to learn with, making it a popular choice for aspiring Web3 developers.
EasyA’s alumni are said to have founded startups valued at over $2.5 billion and secured funding from top venture capital firms. Cognition AI, a company founded by EasyA hackathon winner Walden Yan, hit 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 diverse consensus algorithms—pose a steep learning curve, even for seasoned developers. The wide variety of networks, each with its own programming languages and tools, adds further challenges for newcomers.
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