Core Contributors

Core Contributors are organizations (for-profit companies, developer guilds, or sub-DAOs) that develop and grow the Connext protocol.

Core Contributors may be funded by the Connext DAO and follow the Connext Improvement Proposal process to get public feedback on proposed protocol changes prior to developing them.

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Why Have Many Core Contributors?

A key part of the Connext vision is for the Connext protocol to become a true, credibly neutral public good. The Connext ecosystem’s philosophy is that this outcome is best achieved by having a wide variety of contributors from many different backgrounds, spanning many different organizations. In order to minimize governance, the Connext DAO has initially been set up to fund contributors in NEXT tokens on an ongoing basis via vesting, with the capability for the DAO to adjust tokens vested quarterly or semi-annually based on efficacy and output of various Core Contributors. Core Contributors are then simultaneously:

• Collaborative with each other to ensure the best outcome for the Connext protocol due to their shared collective ownership in the DAO through NEXT.

• Competitive with each other (and with potential new Core Contributors) on ongoing grants of NEXT from the DAO, ensuring a high quality of execution over potentially many years of research & development.

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List of Core Contributors

As of the time of writing, the following organizations are involved in some capacity as Core Contributors to the Connext ecosystem.

Contributor	Type	Focus Ares(s)
Connext Foundation	Foundation	DAO & CIP administration, communications, grants.
Proxima Labs	For-profit R&D Lab	R&D of core protocol, supplementary products, tooling, and developer onboarding/integrations.
Wonderland	For-profit R&D Lab	R&D of core protocol, supplementary products, and tooling.
Community Leaders	Sub-DAO	Community management, education, user support, and marketing.
P2P	For-profit Company	Router tooling development, router ecosystem administration.
CoinHippo	For-profit Contractor	Development of Connext explorer, bridge, and other user interfaces.
Veil Capital	For-profit Fund	NEXT token distribution, economics, and institutional relationship management.
Creed	DAO	Protocol security research.