Second edition of Tezos India Fellowship launched: Developing next-gen blockchain talent

Tezos India, a non-profit organization promoting the Tezos ecosystem, an open-source blockchain protocol, has announced the launch of the second edition of the Tezos India Fellowship. Building on the success of the first edition, 30 exceptional builders will spend eight weeks developing impactful projects in the Tezos ecosystem. The Tezos India Fellowship is now accepting applications, and will be open till July 3, 2021.

The Fellowship offers top developers in India mentorship, the opportunity to build on the Tezos network, access to the global Tezos ecosystem, and a US$2000 stipend over the course of the eight-week mentor-led program.

“After the exemplary success of the inaugural Tezos India Fellowship program, this year we hope to see even more enthusiastic participation and provide a program filled with learning, growth, and improvements. With the consistent and rapid growth of the Tezos ecosystem, we hope to provide builders with an environment conducive to innovation and creativity. We look forward to seeing what cutting-edge ideas emerge and how they fare in the Tezos ecosystem,” said Om Malviya, President, and Co-Founder of Tezos India.

“Our objective is to empower and strengthen the developer community of India and we have always been at the forefront of educating coders by way of events, workshops, hackathons, meetups, fellowships, etc. With the Tezos India Fellowship program, we aim to spread awareness and encourage and educate the tech talent pool about what a decentralized future could look like for India and the catalyst that Tezos can provide as a platform in this direction,” he added.

Raising the Profile Via Hackathons

Tezos India is at the forefront of raising the profile and encouraging greater adoption of Tezos, in partnership with Devfolio, through the TezIndia hackathon and as a regular sponsor of university hackathons across India. It is backed by the success of the first Tezos India Fellowship, which took place last year and saw over 1,400 applications. Of that cohort, the top 10 developers went on to build innovative use-cases, from quadratic funding platforms to NFT-enabled cricket fantasy leagues (CricTez) on Tezos. Selected projects also received up to $10,000 in follow-up grants.  Tezos India aims to keep that momentum going with its second edition.

Blockchain Adoption

As innovation in the blockchain space advances in India, Tezos India constantly strives to address key barriers facing blockchain adoption to date: smart contract safety, long-term upgradability, and open participation.  Tezos is a self-upgradable blockchain that enables forkless upgrades with its on-chain governance system, improving accessibility and longevity for solutions built and utilized by the Tezos community.

Consistent quarterly protocol upgrades (most recently Florence, with Granada in tow) has led to growing ecosystem adoption across new industry verticals,  from DeFi ($7 million total value locked in Plenty Defi, 3 days post-launch) to NFTs (such as Formula One Red Bull Honda Racing collectibles). With these mainstream adoption rapidly growing for blockchain technology, there has never been a better time to build on Tezos.

According to the latest DeFi trends, over $100 billion worth of assets is locked up in DeFi. Furthermore, NFTs and dApps are popping up in the news frequently with creative use cases in sports, games, entertainment, and more. With the rise in demand for blockchain developers globally, the Tezos India Fellowship aims to nurture the talent from the 4.2 million strong talent pool of leading software developers in India.

The Fellowship

Throughout the fellowship,  participants are expected to achieve weekly milestones under their mentor, which will form the basis of bi-weekly payouts.  A total sum of $2000 will be rewarded to each of the 30 developers, throughout the course of the fellowship. Most excitingly, selected projects will be eligible for additional funding on the basis of an evaluation system, closer to the end of the fellowship. Last year, up to $10,000 was awarded through this follow-up grant process.

Tezos India is a non-profit organization with a strong focus on developer adoption, education, and providing assistance to enthusiastic and talented developers to build their creative blockchain solutions on Tezos. Tezos India regularly organizes educational webinars, workshops, hackathons,  and fellowships, to nurture, develop, and facilitate the Indian blockchain ecosystem.

Registrations are open from June 14, 2021, for developers across India and will be open till July 3, 2021. For more details about the fellowship, visit here.