Ethereum Foundation Ecosystem Support Program (ESP)

The Ethereum Foundation's primary direct grants program, supporting free and open-source projects, builder tools, infrastructure, and research that strengthen Ethereum's technical, social, and research foundations. Funding flows through Wishlist items (open problems inviting proposals) and Requests for Proposals; quarterly allocation reports break awards into categories such as community and education, cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs, developer tooling, consensus and execution layers, and application infrastructure. The open grants track was paused in 2025 in favor of more strategic allocation.