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Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) is a governance-mandated DAO of the Cosmos Hub. We have been formed and mandated to drive value for the Cosmos Hub & ATOM, supporting initiatives that either directly create economic impact or produce value that can drive its growth. From this, our current primary mandates are public grants & venture grants.

Atom Accelerator’s venture arm strategically invests in promising early-stage Web3 founders and startups both within and outside of the Cosmos Hub’s ecosystem. As experts within the Cosmos ecosystem, Atom Accelerator offers expertise, guidance, and support while driving value toward ATOM.

In 2023, we deployed $3.8 million in grants to 39 recipients – resulting in, among other things – a $22m USD airdrop to the Community Pool, an AEZ Accelerator program to expand the AEZ, a successful hackathon with 42 project submissions bringing innovations to the AEZ – and many other key initiatives. Read about them in our 2023 Impact Report.

The Atom Accelerator DAO (AADAO) is a decentralized organization created by an onchain vote on the Cosmos Hub. It does not hold any trademarks or copyrights for ATOM or Cosmos Hub – which were acquired / registered before AADAO was formed.

The Interchain Foundation holds trademarks and copyrights for ATOM and Cosmos.

AADAO’s funding is a result of the two following proposals:

• https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos/proposals/95
• https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos/proposals/865

Each passing onchain voting on Cosmos Hub to allocate funding to AADAO.

The Cosmos Hub is a pioneering blockchain, that gave birth to the Cosmos ecosystem and the modular Interchain Stack (aka Cosmos Stack).

Launched in 2019, the teams behind the Cosmos Hub conceptualized and funded the Interchain Stack, which today powers over 100 sovereign blockchains. Read the Cosmos whitepaper.

Today, the Cosmos Hub serves as a major economic, political and cultural center of the Cosmos ecosystem. It continues to be the primary chain that funds public goods within the Cosmos ecosystem, is the largest liquidity exporter across the IBC-connected interchain ecosystem and through Interchain Security, the Cosmos Hub provides economic security to its Consumer Chains.

The ATOM Economic Zone (AEZ) is an ecosystem of blockchains and dApps that bring direct value to Cosmos Hub.

The core of the AEZ is the ATOM Security Zone, which comprises blockchains and dApps secured by Cosmos Hub’s economic security through Interchain Security.

We assess applications using a rating sheet to pre-screen them.  Two members of our Grant Committee team complete the pre-screening task, chosen by their expertise in the grant category you applied for.

A total of 16 points is possible, and an average grade of 13.5 or higher from the two reviewers is the threshold needed for an application to move on to the interview stage.

The rating criteria can be read here.