Dora Grant DAO — PadawanDAO and Deus
Introducing Dora GrantDAO and the first recipients
DoraHacks is one of the largest active multi-chain developer communities in web3 and is a global hackathon organizer. We provide grants and incubation resources to help assist emerging web3 projects, which is why we have decided to launch our latest project Dora GrantDAO.
Dora GrantDAO aims to assist early stage hacker projects by providing grants to help support teams through their initial stages. Dora GrantDAO will be providing grants of up to $100k to hackers who are able to provide a clear roadmap with milestones ahead, and who also haven’t received any other funding or investment from other parties.
The first projects to receive a grant as a part of the Dora GrantDAO are Deus Ex Securitas and PadawanDAO. These projects will receive a mini grant of $5k each as a goodwill gesture to the teams and to help build our relationship with them, being first grant providers.
These projects were discovered by the DoraHacks team at ETHDenver22, where we were able to meet young hackers and Padawans Dickson Wu and Robert MacWha, who are the founders of Deus Ex Securitas.
PadawanDAO
PadawanDAO was started through Ric Burton & his friends’ kindness of sending students to ETHLisbon to kick start their journey in crypto. In Lisbon, the Padawans then created PadawanDAO to continue the initiative to send more students interested in crypto to these types of events in order for them to gain more exposure to the blockchain world and in turn further develop the blockchain community with young minds. So far PadawanDAO has helped onboard over 100 Padawans, by sending them to events around the world including ETHDenver, Dev Connect, & ETH Rio!
PadawanDAO’s roadmap going forward is to continue getting younger students into crypto by sending them to hackathons and other events around the world; and onboarding them into jobs within crypto by putting them in touch with startup projects and companies within the space. Currently the team is working on curating a list of events for Q3 and Q4 of 2022, as well as setting up partnerships with other blockchain startups to help the Padawans on their journeys in the crypto space.
DoraHacks are happy to support PadawanDAO and their vision, as giving the next generation mass exposure in crypto is going to help shape and grow the space in years to come.
For more information on PadawanDAO and to contribute visit their Twitter @PadawanDAO
Deus Ex Securitas
Deus Ex Securitas is an AI Powered Anti-Virus for Crypto. The aim is to detect and repel hacks in real time. This is achieved using AI through monitoring incoming transactions to a protocol, detecting if someone is trying to exploit it, and then shutting it down if the model is confident it’s a hack — thus preventing the hack all together!
This project was founded by Dickson Wu and Robert MacWha who are both machine learning engineers. The two met through TKS (human accelerator program to help high-schoolers use exponential technologies to make the world a better place). Through the program they both discovered their mutual interest in AI technology and began formulating ideas. As Padawans of PadawanDAO, they were sent to ETHDenver22, where they hacked and created Deus. The project went on to be Vitalik’s pick at ETHDenver22 which was a significant milestone for the team.
When speaking to Dickson and Robert about how they came up with the idea they said “The idea for Deus came when we were scrolling through CT and we could see protocol after protocol being hacked. We felt really bad for the people who put their lives into their protocols, only to find out that they’ve been rekt. With approximately $1.2B being lost through hacks in Q1 2022 alone, this number is only going to grow as crypto grows — and that’s unacceptable. This is where we thought let’s use the power of AI to stop that”.
At this stage the team are currently working on the finishing touches to the machine learning, and creating infrastructure to monitor various protocols. The aim is for the project to launch in July 2022.
DoraHacks looks forward to working closely with Dickson and Robert and being a soundboard for the team going forward. We are excited to see Deus launch in the near future and be a part of the journey with the team.
To stay up to date with Deus Ex Securitas follow their Twitter @DeusExSecuritas
