Announcing the BlueYard DYOR (Do Your Own Research) Funding Program

Backing open-ended breakthrough research is at the core of BlueYard’s investing philosophy, whether it’s nuclear fusion, programmable stem cells or novel crypto-compute infrastructure. Hackers and researchers remain the essential backbone of the crypto industry. We are proud to have supported the work of research-focused companies like Protocol Labs, Filecoin, Flashbots, Privy, Ingonyama, Tromero and more in solving critical crypto compute and infrastructure challenges, including those that could be key to unlocking adoption and enabling groundbreaking novel use cases.

This brings us to our core thesis underpinning our crypto investing strategy:

In the history of technology, economics and organizations — never has there been a technology and incentive system that can autonomously coordinate machines (compute, storage, etc), algorithms, data and capital at such an incredible scale, so quickly — all while providing independent, robust and trustless infrastructure for economic activity and data. Although still early in its development, crypto might be the ultimate solution to the collective action problem. Also, if one believes in a future where the autonomous coordination between compute, data and capital will play an increasing role, crypto networks could be the “under the hood” operating system for large economic networks.

Due to crypto’s inherent properties (ability to cut out gatekeepers, separation of state and money, internet native assets with open access) — crypto’s potential will unfold both through novel applications and decentralized infrastructure.

Within this context, it is essential that individual researchers and hackers continue to explore open-ended research, despite the current funding and regulatory headwinds in the industry. Individual research is often the nucleus of a future key component of the crypto industry. ​​In that spirit, we are announcing BlueYard DYOR (Do Your Own Research, and pronounced like this) funding program. We’re offering $100k to thoughtful researchers and builders to pursue their curiosities and research in crypto, with an open-ended outcome if their work is contributed to the industry and/or forms the nucleation of a new company or network.

As the name suggests, we expect the BlueYard DYOR cohort to conduct independent crypto research and/or work on a project. You don’t currently have to have a company, team, or a specific idea of what you want to build or research. Simply a direction of what you want to pursue. We are geography agnostic and excited to work with the best minds wherever they might be.

You are someone who:

• Has a track record of experimenting and building (show us your work!)
• Might be sitting on the sidelines waiting for the bear market to blow over (now is the best time to start something new) or don’t have the personal funding to spend more time pursuing your crypto curiosities
• Is independent, insatiably curious, and excited to try novel things in crypto
• Understands the potential of crypto beyond its speculative value and wants to build for the long term

What you can expect from BlueYard DYOR:

• Access to the BlueYard team and its crypto portfolio (and the wider science and compute companies in our broader portfolio) to support you in your work
• A cohort of 10 other builders experimenting, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in crypto
• Help in publishing / releasing and distributing what you have built
• Access to crypto and science events alongside meetups within the BlueYard family
• Help in setting up an entity through which the DYOR funding will be received via an uncapped SAFE

You can learn more about our crypto portfolio here and apply for BlueYard DYOR here.