The Octopus Network is a NEAR-based multichain interoperable crypto-network for launching and running Web3.0 Substrate-based, EVM compatible application-specific blockchains, aka appchains. The Octopus Network, backed by top VCs including Digital Currency Group and Electric Capital, is committed to unleashing a new wave of innovation for Web3.0.
Who is the Octopus Network Development Team?
Octopus Network is a project born from the research of the collective known as Cdot, a group of developers who learned Substrate early on, organized the Chinese Rust Community (including RustCon), and launched the first Substrate Developer Training courses in China which are now operated by Parity, Inc.Since then, we have negotiated with partners worldwide, including the NEAR education team, to provide similar Substrate training courses to regions beyond China, with our first courses held in Vietnam, Malaysia, and India.The Octopus Network Development team has also been working on universal blockchain interoperability protocol IBC and cross-chain integration for quite some time as it is standard for us to collaborate with many public chain projects in R&D. For example, we’ve helped Oasis, PlatOn, and Flow to develop the Ethereum cross-chain bridge and we implemented the Solana platform prophecy machine for Chainlink.We were also funded by the Interchain Foundation to implement IBC communication on Substrate. And more recently, Astar Network accepted our grant proposal to create a bridge connecting the Astar/ Shiden Network to all Cosmos based blockchains and become the first parachain with IBC interoperability to both transfer and receive cross-chain assets to and from any Cosmos chain. Both of these IBC projects are active and ongoing presently.
Why did Octopus Network launch the Accelerator Program?
The Accelerator Program was born out of our experience and insight into the bottlenecks which can impede the development of Web3 — such as technical and commercial barriers. Through our experiences building Web3 technology, we’ve discovered that even with qualified Substrate developers, there is still a long way to go to form a mature Appchain team.Web3.0 applications are not only about technology, but also involve a wide range of topics. This is why we launched the Octopus Accelerator Program — a collection of open and composable courses and seminars available to Substrate developers and teams worldwide. The Accelerator Program picks up where our Substrate Developer Training ends by exposing developers, founders, and Web3 Teams to critical facets of protocol development such as token engineering product design, fundraising, blockchain governance, community building, and more.
How does the Accelerator Program work?
The Accelerator Program is a quarterly offered ten-week course which is both open and composable to developers, founders, and Web3 Teams. Even solo founders can apply. Courses are held via online seminars and mentor sessions with invited experts.Each course is followed by a Showcase Day for qualified graduates to compete by demonstrating their product for a chance to win the Octopus Network Star Prize of 50kUSD worth of grants each awarded each quarter to the top five projects. In this way, the Octopus Foundation will directly fund 20 Appchain projects through the Octopus Accelerator Program each year, providing them $1M in total annually.
