Fund parameters

Fund15 Operating parameters are the actual operating parameters that make up the Catalyst voting protocol put in place to enable the community to decide which proposal will receive funding under the Project Catalyst program. Please note that given the dynamic nature of Project Catalyst, the following dates and parameters may change as the actual Fund progresses. If this is the case, community announcements will be distributed for clarifications.

PARAMETER

VALUE

DESCRIPTION

General Parameters

Direct Voting privacy state

Yes

Are votes private?

Fund name

Fund15

Funds available

$ADA 20,000,000 and $USDM 250,000

Challenges title and budget

Cardano Open: Ecosystem - $ADA 4,000,000

Cardano Use Cases: Prototype & Launch - $ADA 6,000,000

Cardano Partners: Tier-1 Enterprise Integrations - $ADA 8,500,000

Midnight: Compact DApps - $USDM 250,000

Minimum budget request per proposal

Cardano Open: $ADA 15,000

Cardano Use Cases: $ADA 15,000

Cardano Partners: $ADA 250,000

Midnight: $USDM 2,500

Minimum amount for each proposal.

Maximum budget request per proposal

Cardano Open: $ADA 60,000

Cardano Use Cases: $ADA 200,000

Cardano Partners: $ADA 750,000

Midnight: $USDM 10,000

Maximum amount for each proposal.

Proposals submission fee

Free

Applicants can submit up to 2 finalized proposals into Fund15. The Catalyst Team will remove incomplete and ineligible/non-compliant proposals when the submission deadline elapses.

Compensations and funds distribution target date

March 2026

The target date, which is subject to change, for when F15 funding for milestone 1 initial tranche and community governance role compensation is paid following verification of test transactions.

Maximum proposals per applicant that can be put on the ballot

If more than 2 applications are submitted by the same person or entity, only the first 2 submissions received will be accepted for the voting process.

A10

Community Reviewer registration

Community Reviewer registration is a Catalyst ID generated in the Catalyst App for use in the Community Review Module

Anyone can register to be a Community Reviewer. Start by creating an account in Catalyst, generating a Catalyst ID and registering to be a Community Reviewer.

Community Reviewers can be LV0, LV1, LV2 reviewers based on their experience and contributions from previous Community Review stages.

A11

Proposals registration on the blockchain

Jan 8, 2026

The target date, which is subject to change, for when proposals are loaded into the vote plan and registered into Block0.

A12

Voting power threshold

Minimum 25,000,000 lovelace (25 ADA)

25 ADA is the minimum stake threshold to register as a voter

A13

Registration snapshot date

Jan 4, 2026 09:45 PM UTC (epoch boundary 604 into 605)

The target date, which is subject to change, for when the Snapshot takes place at the epoch boundary. Voters are advised not to move staked ada for one epoch beyond the snapshot time and date.

A14

Voting period start time

Jan 13, 2026, 12:00 PM UTC

The target date, which is subject to change, when voters can start voting on proposals

A15

Voting period end time

Jan 27, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC

The target date, which is subject to change, when voters stop voting on proposals

A16

Start of tallying

Jan 27, 2026

The target date, which is subject to change, when the voting tally is decrypted

A17

End of tallying

Jan 29, 2026

The target date, which is subject to change, when the decrypted tally is made publicly available.

A18

Enhancing decentralization

Generalized Quadratic Voting Parameter: 1/3 (Cube Root) after the stake snapshot

Generalized Quadratic Voting with the Scaling Parameter (Gamma):

Gamma = 1 means "1 ADA is 1 Vote".

Gamma = 0 means "1 Wallet is 1 Vote".

Any fraction between those is (voter's stake in ADA) to the power of the Gamma = Voting Power.

The Scaling Parameter is Cube Root, which is equivalent to the voter's stake in ADA to the power of 1/3 in the selected Generalized Quadratic Voting scheme.

A19

Proposal Funding logic (winner selection rule)

Proposals are ranked by the “YES” votes and funded one by one until the budget allocated for the category is exhausted. Any leftover funds will follow the logic and guidelines set out in the F15 Fund Rules.

Midnight: Compact DApps category proposals follow the same logic, but are subject to Midnight Foundation's ultimate decision about which proposals are funded.

Proposals are ranked by “YES” votes and funded in order of the voting power received. If the amount requested by a proposal is more than the remaining budget available, it is skipped.

A20

Proposal acceptance threshold

2% of active voting power

At least 2% of the total voting power calculated based on the total active stake in all active wallets must cast at least one vote.

E.g., there is 1,75 billion of ADA as the total active stake in 5000 wallets. From the amount of stake in each wallet it is independently taken the cube root (giving corresponding voting power to the owner of this wallet), and the sum of voting power in all wallets gives 208,722 ADA of the total voting power (as there is a sum of the cube roots, this sum depends on stake distribution among wallets and it is not equal to just the cube root of the total registered stake).

To be accepted (become an 'approved proposal' as well as be eligible for funding), a proposal must be voted "YES" by at least 0.02 * ₳208,722 = ₳4,174.44

A21

Voting options

Yes/Abstain

There is only “YES” and “ABSTAIN” in all categories

Compensation Parameters

Voter compensations formula

Voter compensations will be given for active participants only in proportion to the voting power voters have.

2.50% $ADA 500,000

Voter Compensations

Compensation is for active participation in the Voting (cast at least 1 vote)

In order to benefit from voter rewards, voters must select either ‘Yes’ or ‘Abstain’ in the voter interface. By choosing to not select the ‘Abstain’ option, this will not cast an ‘Abstain’ vote and therefore not generate a unit of voter compensation.

2.50% $ADA 500,000

Community Review Compensations

LV0 (20% of share - $ADA 100,000):

Share of compensations based on number of LV0 community compensations received

LV1 (80% of share - $ADA 400,000):

A simple price paid per review

0.70% $ADA 140,000

Community Moderator Compensations

$ADA 120,000:

Share of community compensations based on the number of flags raised by scripts for LV2 moderator review

$ADA 20,000:

Maximum share of community compensation based on the number of flags raised by Moderators during LV2 Moderation Bounty

Pam

1.80% $ADA 360,000

Project Accountability Management Compensations

Compensating L2 Community Reviewers who help to verify evidence of achievements for:

Statement of Milestones (SoM)
Milestone Proof of Achievement (PoA)

Funded projects will submit a Statement of Milestones once approved and onboarding.

Each SoM and milestone PoA are verified by at least 2 community reviewers at each milestone and compensated $ADA for their work.

Back-End Parameters

Direct Voting privacy state

Yes

Are votes private?

Funds available

$ADA 20,000,000

$USDM 250,000

Fund will have $ADA 20M and $USDM 250K available

Voting power threshold

25,000,000 lovelace. (25 ADA)

25 ADA is the minimum stake threshold to become a voter, based on the efficiency benchmarks of the voting protocol.

current_fund_name

Fund15

current_insight_sharing_start

Nov 12, 2025