Official Rules

Each Project team looking to submit for an SCF Public Good Award must meet the Eligibility Requirements, adhere to the Proposal Phases & Processes outlined below, and follow the General Rules (collectively referred to as the "Official Rules").

1. Award Structure

Project teams can apply every three months and may receive up to $50K in XLM* per proposal. Funding is awarded based on both demonstrated retroactive impact and the value of the newly proposed features or maintenance. Projects may reapply each three months, and continued funding is contingent on prior deliverables being met and validated impact in the ecosystem. Accountability is driven by transparent review, community oversight, and adherence to eligibility and evaluation criteria and these Official Rules.

1.1 Roll-Out Timeline

The SCF Public Good Award program will roll-out in several incremental stages based on performance and community feedback. The Award Structure, Participant- and Submission Eligibility mentioned below align with the current stage of the program (Soft-Launch), and may change with future stages of the program.

Current stage: Soft-Launch

• Eligibility: The Soft-Launch stage allows teams to propose eligible tools and services for the SCF Public Goods Award with existing validation from the Stellar community.

• Platforms: Airtable for Proposal Submission and Soroban Governor for voting.

• Network: Testnet

• Proposal types: Snapshot only

• Voting parameters (as implemented on Soroban Governor)

  • Proposing Projects: Community Members with SCF Pilot Role

  • Voting: Pilots

  • Quorum: 10% NQG score to make the vote eligible, with 66% approval for the vote to pass.

  • Council: Anke, Justin, Gemma

Future stages

As the community and proposal teams have little to no issues with the program and outcomes of the previous stage, parameters are agreed upon by the community, and any necessary security audits have been completed with vulnerabilities (if any are found) fixed, the program may progress to a future stage (subject to change):

• Launch (Testnet): Ability to propose new eligible proposals (including previous Stellar Infrastructure Grant recipients). Proposal submission will be included into the SCF Dashboard.

• Launch (Mainnet): After an extensive audit, contracts launched on mainnet. Can include experimentation using the onchain treasury and call data proposals, as well as further decentralizing the council.

• Full Launch: Onchain treasury processes all public good award payments based on community vote.

1.2 Program Phases

For the Soft-Launch phase, the Proposal Discussion phase has no defined deadline for Proposal Submission based on quarterly timelines.

Phase	Description	Duration
1️⃣ Proposal Discussion	Initiate async discussion in Discord to gather community feedback, after soft approval the project completes the Proposal Form.	Ongoing
2️⃣ Eligibility Review	The Council reviews the Proposal Form for Eligibility, supported by the SDF Legal team who will review KYC, and Due Diligence for basic eligibility.	~3–5 business days
3️⃣ Onchain Submission	Eligible Pilots submit proposals via Soroban Governor.	Within 2 business days post-approval
4️⃣ Council Review	Council has a veto window to reject non-compliant proposals.	72 hours
5️⃣ Onchain Vote	Pilots vote on proposals using NQG scores.	7 days
6️⃣ Award Distribution – Tranche 1	First 50% of award distributed after vote approval and payment setup.	~1 week
7️⃣ Resubmission	Projects reapply with updates, impact evidence, and new goals.	Every three months
8️⃣ Panel & Council Review	Review of past deliverables and proposed next steps.	~1 week
9️⃣ Award Distribution – Tranche 2	Second 50% of award distributed after successful review.	~1 week

1️⃣ | Proposal Discussion

All new proposals must begin with a post in #scf-governance on Discord. This async discussion provides initial community feedback and helps surface priorities. If the proposal is well received, the proposer will be invited to complete a Proposal Form, which includes:

• Project overview and category

• Deliverables completion overview of the past three months (not applicable to first-time applicants)

• Retroactive impact of the past three months

• Goals and metrics for the next three months

• Budget request (up to $50K in XLM*) and deliverables

• KYC and Due Diligence questionnaire (if not completed before)

2️⃣ | Eligibility Review

The Council reviews the completed Proposal, verifies KYC and Due Diligence questionnaire if not completed before, and confirms the team meets the eligibility criteria.

3️⃣ | Onchain Submission

Eligible SCF Pilots in the top 25% of latest NQG score may submit the proposal via Soroban Governor using the Snapshot proposal type. If the project team expresses no preference on who should initiate the proposal, the Council will initiate the proposal. Proposal metadata must include:

• Title

• Description

• Budget

• Link to full submission

4️⃣ | Council Review (72 hours)

The Council may veto proposals that do not meet criteria in its sole discretion. Council intervention is expected to be rare and only for clear misalignment or procedural violations.

5️⃣ | Onchain Vote (1 week)

Voting opens to SCF Pilots with NQG scores from the most recent SCF Build round. Vote thresholds require a 10% total NQG score threshold to make the vote eligible, with 66% approval for the vote to pass. Find more information on Neural Quorum Governance here, as well a guide on how to use Soroban Governor.

6️⃣ | Award Distribution – Tranche 1 (50%)

Upon vote approval and verified eligibility, SDF distributes the first 50% of the award in XLM. Payment is sent manually to the whitelisted Stellar address provided by the project team following successful test transaction confirmation.

7️⃣ | Resubmission for Continued Funding (every three months)

To receive the remaining 50% and/or apply for new funding in the next three months:

• Submit a new Proposal

• Report on last three months’s deliverables

• Demonstrate measurable impact (e.g., usage, integrations, community value)

• Outline upcoming goals and budget for the next cycle

Project teams must complete the last three months’s deliverables in order to apply for the next three months funding. If some deliverables were not completed during the last three months and the project team reallocated resources to a different deliverable(s) with good reason, the council will review if sufficient effort has been made similar to the initially proposed deliverable(s).

8️⃣ | Panel & Council Review

SCF Council and technical reviewers assess whether prior commitments were met and whether the newly proposed work meets eligibility criteria.

9️⃣ | Award Distribution – Tranche 2 (50%)

If the above is verified, the remaining 50% is distributed. If not, feedback is provided and the project may reapply in a future three months.

Program Eligibility Criteria

2.1 Participant Eligibility

To be eligible for the SCF Public Goods Award, project teams must meet the following criteria at the time of each submission in addition to SCF’s general Participant Eligibility criteria:

• The submitter must be an SCF verified member with Pilot role or higher, based on prior participation in SCF governance.

• The submitting individual or team must be the direct maintainer or steward of the proposed public good (e.g., core contributor, project lead).

• If applying as a team, at least one team member must be verified as a Pilot or higher.

• All proposers must complete KYC and a Due Diligence questionnaire as part of the submission process. KYC must be re-submitted if any material changes (team, entity structure, etc.) have occurred or if it has been over 2 years since the last verified check.

• The project must not be located in a sanctioned jurisdiction or involve persons/entities subject to U.S. sanctions.

• KYC must be completed by all beneficial owners or core contributors if submitted on behalf of an organization.

2.2 Submission Eligibility Criteria

Projects need to meet all following criteria in order to be eligible for the SCF Public Good Award:

• The proposed project must not have an existing or planned revenue model that makes it self-sustaining in the near term.

• Tools/services that generate revenue through commercial licenses, APIs, or tokenomics are generally not eligible, unless they operate under an open, freely accessible model with meaningful ecosystem utility and are judged on a case-by-case basis during the Discussion phase.

• The proposed project must not receive any currently active (ongoing) grant funding from the Stellar Development Foundation or have any outstanding tranches of the SCF Build Award.

• Projects should provide a clear justification for why they qualify as a public good and why support through SCF is necessary to maintain accessibility for the ecosystem. See a list of categories below.

• Projects should demonstrate usage and/or validation by existing ecosystem teams, compatibility or direct support for Stellar-native resources, protocols and/or tooling (if applicable), as well as examples of past or current contributions to Stellar ecosystem utility.

• Proposals must be highly aligned with general ethos of the Stellar ecosystem to further access to financial services, with the team demonstrating previous experience building on Stellar (e.g., funded through SCF, known open-source contributions, protocol infrastructure), familiarity with Stellar tech stack and community norms, and a proven track record of community engagement or responsiveness.

• Proposals must have SMART deliverables (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) with reasonable and justifiable budget allocations.

• Projects who have previously been awarded by the SCF Public Goods Award will need to include in their renewal proposal proof of delivery on previously funded milestones, evidence of continued usage, relevance, and ecosystem demand, and a compelling case for new features or maintenance required in the upcoming three months.

Public Good Categories

Additional categories may be added based on community discussion. Generally, the SCF Public Goods Award will not support educational categories but exceptions closer related to Developer Experience could be made pending community discussion.

Category	Purpose	Eligibility Rationale	Examples
SDKs	Maintain SDKs in popular programming languages to enable easier Stellar integration.	Core ecosystem infra required by developers for app and protocol development.	Python Stellar SDK
Data Support	Provide dashboards, indexers, or APIs to expose Stellar data, analytics, or insights.	Supports visibility, growth tracking, and transparency across the ecosystem.	Dune Dashboards
Wallet Support	Develop shared wallet tooling or starter kits to reduce dev effort and improve UX.	Encourages better wallets and faster onboarding; critical for adoption.	Stellar Wallets Kit
Developer Experience	Tools that enhance productivity and access for smart contract, backend, or frontend devs.	Lowering friction in building on Stellar improves ecosystem velocity.	Solang Compiler
Ecosystem Visibility	Surface projects, developer activity, use cases, and funding history in the ecosystem.	Transparency drives engagement, investor interest, and governance participation.	Stellarlight.xyz
Infrastructure Monitoring	Tools for observing validators, node status, uptime, or key protocol signals.	Ensures network reliability and decentralization monitoring.	Stellarbeat
Governance Tools	Public interfaces, analytics, or coordination tools to support voting and participation.	Supports decentralization and open participation in funding or protocol-level governance.	Soroban Governor
Security & Auditing Tools	Build or maintain tools that help identify, prevent, or analyze vulnerabilities in smart contracts.	Increases trust and reduces systemic risk for DeFi or financial tooling on Stellar.	Fuzzing Framework

3. General Rules

3.1 Publicity

By applying to the SCF Public Goods Award Program, Participants consent to the use of their personal information by the SDF and third parties acting on behalf of SDF. Such personal information includes, but is not limited to, Participant’s name, likeness, photograph, opinions, comments, and hometown and country of residence (“Participant Profile”). Participant Profiles may be used for advertising and promotional purposes and in any existing or newly created media, worldwide without further payment or consideration, or right of review, unless prohibited by law. The duration of this consent is for a period of three years following the time of the most recent award payment. This consent applies, as applicable, to all members of the Participant that has been selected for the SCF Public Goods Award Program.

3.2 Disclaimers & Limitations of Liability

‍In addition to the disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnities agreed to in the main SDF Terms of Service, Participants also specifically agree to release and hold harmless SDF and its respective affiliates, employees, and agents from any and all liability or any injury, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with SDF and its promotion, or any Awards granted in connection with SDF.

3.3 General Conditions

SDF reserves the right, in their sole discretion, to cancel, suspend and/or modify the SCF Public Goods Award Program, or any part of the Official Rules for any reason.

The SCF Public Goods Award Program is governed by the SDF Terms of Service and these Official Rules. If there is any conflict or inconsistency between the SDF Terms of Service and the Official Rules, these Official Rules will prevail. If there is any discrepancy or inconsistency between the terms and conditions of the Official Rules and disclosures or other statements contained in any SCF Public Goods Award Program materials, including but not limited to the SCF Public Goods Award Program Proposal Form, and/or the Stellar.org website, then these Official Rules shall prevail.

The terms and conditions of the Official Rules are subject to change at any time, including the rights or obligations of the Participants and SDF. SDF will post the terms and conditions of the amended Official Rules on the Stellar.org website. To the fullest extent permitted by law, any amendment will become effective at the time specified in the posting of the amended Official Rules or, if no time is specified, the time of posting.

SDF’s failure to enforce any term of the Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. Should any provision of the Official Rules be or become illegal or unenforceable in any jurisdiction whose laws or regulations may apply to a Participant such illegality or unenforceability shall leave the remainder of the Official Rules, including the Rule affected, to the fullest extent permitted by law, unaffected and valid. The illegal or unenforceable provision shall be replaced by a valid and enforceable provision that comes closest and best reflects the SDF’s intention in a legal and enforceable manner with respect to the invalid or unenforceable provision.

3.4 Data Privacy

SDF collects personal information from Participants when they enter the SCF Public Goods Award Program. The information collected is subject to the privacy policy located here: https://www.stellar.org/privacy-policy

3.5 Contact

If you have any specific questions or concerns you can also email SDF at [e-mail].

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*To determine the number of XLM equal to the USD value of any Award, the USD valuation of XLM shall be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR), or, if such settlement price is unavailable or reasonably suspected by SDF to be unreliable, the settlement price as reported on a substantially similar and equally reputable cryptocurrency index provider as determined by the SDF in its discretion. The USD valuation of XLM for any particular Award shall be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price (or other agreed upon settlement price) reported on the day such Award is scheduled to be paid. The Participants acknowledge and understand that XLM is a highly risky and volatile asset, and that SDF does not provide any representations, warranties, or guarantees of its value.