How to Apply
Whether you're working on a specific project, or you're still exploring possibilities, you can connect with our team for guidance.
Wishlist Applications
The Wishlist identifies key gaps and opportunities within the ecosystem. Instead of prescribing specific approaches, it invites builders to propose ideas and initiatives that address these priorities.
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Apply
Select from the available Wishlist items below and submit your application. Please review the item details carefully and explain how your background and approach align with the project requirements. Provide clear information on your methodology, timeline, and deliverables.
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Decentralized RPC Access for Developers and End Users
Ethereum’s default access layer still relies heavily on centralized RPC providers, which serve most wallets, dapps, and users. This dependence introduces single points of failure and undermines Ethereum’s resilience. Over time, an entire ecosystem has formed around these providers, adding sophisticated capabilities such as MEV protection, privacy-enhanced routing, load balancing, and analytics, yet the underlying foundations remain centralized. At the same time, decentralized approaches have advanced significantly. Light clients such as Helios, Nimbus, and Lodestar bring verifiable access to chain data, while peer-to-peer RPC networks and the Ethereum Portal Network aim to distribute data availability and routing across many independent participants. Together, these approaches point toward a model of open, verifiable, and censorship-resistant access to Ethereum. We aim to support work that moves Ethereum toward decentralized, verifiable, and open RPC access that anyone can use freely. Possible directions include improving light client usability and integration, developing hybrid systems that combine verification with distributed routing, or creating new infrastructure that prioritizes openness, neutrality, and public availability. We are especially interested in candidates demonstrating a clear go-to-market path and practical deployment strategy. The focus is on usable, testable infrastructure that can realistically serve users and developers at scale. Our goal is to make decentralized, censorship-resistant, and verifiable RPC access the default way users and developers connect to Ethereum.
Smart Account Passkey Support
We are entering a new era of blockchain usage where new users cannot be expected to manage seed phrases or write down 12 words to access their wallets. Passkeys offer a simple, secure, and familiar way to authenticate using fingerprints, facial recognition, or device-stored credentials while preserving self-custody. We would like to explore how passkey authentication can be implemented natively in smart accounts such as those based on ERC-4337 and ERC-7579. The goal is to enable users to interact with Ethereum applications using modern device authentication standards, without relying on centralized wallet infrastructure. There is already promising work in this direction, such as Ithaca (Porto) developed by Paradigm and Base Account developed by Coinbase. These implementations demonstrate strong design patterns and valuable insights. We would like to support complementary open-source efforts that build on this momentum and help establish shared, vendor-neutral foundations that any wallet or developer can integrate with. In parallel, a number of emerging infrastructure providers are simplifying developer access to secure key management and passkey-based authentication. These solutions play an important role in accelerating adoption and improving wallet onboarding experiences. However, our long-term goal should remain toward open, decentralized, and self-sovereign systems that minimize reliance on any single vendor or intermediary. Open-source cryptographic libraries such as ZKnox’s crypto-lib show that much of the groundwork for WebAuthn and passkey-based authentication is already available. Extending these tools could accelerate the creation of a composable, interoperable passkey module for smart account systems. Such a system should make it possible for users to “eject” from closed ecosystems if they choose, and continue using their passkey-enabled accounts across compatible wallets and platforms. We are especially interested in teams that can demonstrate a clear path to adoption, usability testing, and real integration within the Ethereum account abstraction ecosystem rather than theoretical designs.
Privacy Disclosure Framework
Define and standardize how users, auditors, or institutions can request and verify scoped visibility into private data (via view keys, selective disclosures, or zk attestations). This enables auditable privacy and compliant transparency across protocols. Example deliverables might involve creating a common schema and toolkit for handling disclosure requests, building user-facing dashboards or SDKs that enable time-limited and scoped data sharing, and developing adapters that make privacy proofs interoperable across different protocols. Projects could also explore zero-knowledge circuits that allow verification without revealing full data, along with clear consent flows and scope-selection patterns to protect user control. A strong security analysis demonstrating minimal information leakage would further reinforce trust in the framework. Success signals would include real demonstrations of user-to-auditor disclosure flows across multiple privacy protocols, early adoption of the shared schema by privacy wallets or compliance partners, and independent reviews confirming limited privacy leakage. Strong documentation, well-defined adapter patterns, and evidence of compatibility with frameworks such as GDPR and AML would signal that the approach is both practical and responsible.
Privacy-Preserving Relayer and Cross-Protocol Liquidity Layer
Develop open coordination and incentive mechanisms for privacy-preserving relayers that can move assets and proofs across protocols and chains, expanding anonymity sets while maintaining non-custodial design principles. Projects under this theme could develop peer-to-peer or intent-based coordination protocols that allow relayers to discover each other, share liquidity, and route privacy-preserving transfers in a verifiable and censorship-resistant way. A strong implementation might include a prototype demonstrating cross-protocol liquidity transfers between at least two privacy systems, together with an economic model showing how relayers manage liquidity and inventory risk without introducing centralized intermediaries. Further outputs could include a toolkit or SDK for testing coordination, matching, and incentive mechanisms, or integrations with existing intent-based bridges or settlement networks. Some projects may also explore atomic settlement mechanisms that remove intermediaries entirely, acknowledging that this may not always be technically feasible. Depending on the level of protocol cooperation, deliverables could range from proof-of-concept prototypes to production-ready implementations. Successful efforts would demonstrate live liquidity coordination across multiple privacy systems, operate without centralized custody or trusted intermediaries, and show compatibility with existing compliance and registry layers from other related RFPs. Strong signs of impact would include open-source SDKs that are adopted, forked, or extended by other teams, as well as public interest from privacy protocol founders seeking to integrate with the framework.
