Updated September 2024
1.1 Welcome to the JAM Prize competition (the "Competition"). This Competition is organised by Web 3.0 Technologies Foundation, Gotthardstrasse 3, 6300 Zug, Switzerland, CHE-322.596.347 (the “Foundation”) By participating in this Competition, you agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions (the "Terms"). The total Prize pool consists of 10 million DOT and 100,000 KSM (the “Prize”) and it will be distributed to the selected winners of the Competition at the Foundation’s discretion.
2.1. The Competition is open to individuals and teams (the “Participant(s)”). Each Participant is only allowed to work on one implementation.
2.2. The Participants must comply with all eligibility requirements and ensure their submissions do not violate any third-party intellectual property rights.
2.3. The Participants accept and acknowledge that the payment of the Prize by the Foundation is conditional upon the successful completion of all KYC/AML processes, which might be outsourced by the Foundation to a third-party service provider. If this requirement is not met, the Participant may be disqualified and no Prize will be paid.
3.1. Third-party libraries for cryptographic primitives (erasure-coding, Bandersnatch, Ed25519), codecs (e.g., SCALE), and networking (e.g., QUIC) are acceptable.
3.2. Only programming languages defined in one of the approved language sets are eligible for the Prize.
3.3. An application may be submitted for languages not included in the set, providing the proposed set and a justification explaining why the set is appropriate and why the language is sufficiently different from the others to be valuable.
3.4. Code must be idiomatic for languages that define idioms.
4.1. Gas, trie/DB, signature-verification, and availability (EC/DB) performance tests are requirements and will be run on standard hardware.
4.2. Clean-room implementation using the Graypaper and public implementor chat channels as the only resource is mandatory.
4.3. Any JAM-implementation code which is viewed before or during implementation must be declared.
4.4. Relevant private (not in the public implementers' channel) conversations with other implementers must be declared and summarised in reports to the Fellowship.
4.5. Implementations must pass all relevant public and private conformance/performance tests. These will be shared in the near future.
5.1. The Prize may be reduced in case collusion may be sufficient to reduce network security.
5.2. If concerned, then declarations may be stated up-front and the maximum reduction set; as long as declarations are accurate and no further collusion happens, then the reduction proportion will be the maximum.
6.1. An interview may be requested by the Foundation after the submission is made to provide further clarifications regarding the submission.
6.2. Following the accepted completion of each milestone, the Participant may nominate one Fellowship candidate/member to be promoted directly to Rank III and (optionally) a second candidate/member to Rank II. More information about the ranks can be found on the Polkadot Fellowship Manifesto.
6.3. A clear Git history and public, credibly timestamped commits are necessary to help evidence organic code development by the team(s).
6.4. Timestamps may be made by virtue of pushing code to GitHub on a timely basis.
6.5. For code developed in private, commit hashes should be placed, in a timely fashion, on a major public blockchain and readily visible on a block explorer.
7.1. Appeals shall be made through a governance referendum on the Polkadot Wish For Change track within two (2) weeks of receiving a decision about the Submission (as defined below) and the result will be respected by the Polkadot Fellowship.
8.1. The Prize pool is limited. Prizes will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, based on the order of valid submissions received. The Prizes are paid to the earliest Polkadot/Kusama account IDs stated in the repository's README. In the case of a tie, the payment will be split equally.
8.2. The amount of this Prize, as well as its allocation to a specific Participant of the Competition, is at the sole discretion of the Foundation. Once the Prize pool is exhausted, no further Prizes will be awarded, regardless of the number of Participants or the quality of submissions. Prize pools may be redistributed and reallocated if a pot is nearing depletion, subject to the following conditions: (i) a 3-month notice period must be provided and (ii) no more than 25% of the Prize pool may be scheduled for redistribution at any one time.
8.3. The Participants accept and acknowledge that at least 75% of the Prize allocated to the Participant will be subject to a "vested transfer" mechanism, wherein the DOTs will be locked in a wallet address specified by the Participant and will vest linearly over a period of twenty-four (24) months (the “Vesting Period”). This means that the full amount of the Prize will be completely unlocked within twenty-four (24) months from the date of the transfer of the Prize to the Participant’s wallet address. The Participant acknowledges and agrees that until the full Vesting Period is completed, it will only be able to dispose of the Prize to the extent that it has been released according to the underlying rules of the protocol. The Participant acknowledges that, despite the vesting mechanism, it assumes all ownership and risk associated with the Prize from the date of transfer, including compliance with any applicable tax obligations relating to the Prize. The Foundation shall not be responsible for any fluctuations in the value of the DOT.
8.4. The Prize will be awarded no earlier than the ratification by the Polkadot Fellowship of version 1.0 of the JAM protocol. The payment will be made by the Foundation within 30-days of the receipt of a valid invoice issued in line with this invoice template.
8.5. If the team consists of multiple individuals but does not operate through a legal entity, the Foundation will transfer the reward to a team member designated by the team. The reward will be sent to a wallet address indicated by the designated team member. The Foundation bears no responsibility for the internal distribution of the reward between team members.
9.1. Each Participant warrants that any work, including but not limited to ideas, concepts, designs, drawings, code, or other materials (collectively, the "Submission"), submitted in the course of the Competition:
- is the original work of the Participant and has not been copied or derived from any third-party work without permission;
- does not infringe upon, violate, or misappropriate any third-party intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights;
- does not violate any laws or regulations applicable to the Submission or its use.
Apparent lack of originality, undeclared collusion, plagiarism or any other violation of these Terms may result in disqualification entirely at the discretion of the judges.
9.2. Each Participant agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Foundation, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, and representatives (collectively, the "Indemnified Parties") from and against any and all claims, demands, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:
- any breach or alleged breach of the Participant's warranties set forth in this Clause;
- any claim that the Submission infringes, violates, or misappropriates any third-party intellectual property rights or proprietary rights;
- any other claim related to the Participant's Submission, including but not limited to claims of defamation, invasion of privacy, or violation of any other rights.
The Participant's obligation to indemnify the Indemnified Parties shall survive the conclusion of the Competition and shall be binding upon the Participant's successors, assigns, and representatives.
9.3. Each Participant agrees to irrevocably publish their Submission under an open-source licence, specifically the Apache License 2.0 or an equivalent licence approved by the Open Source Initiative. The Participant shall provide all necessary documentation and permissions to allow the Submission to be freely used, modified, and distributed in accordance with the terms of the chosen open-source licence. The Foundation reserves the right to verify that the Submission complies with the terms of the open-source licence before accepting it as a valid entry in the Competition.
10.1. The Participant acknowledges and agrees that the Foundation will collect and process personal data submitted by the Participant through the application form (such as an email address, Matrix handle, X handle, etc.) on the basis of legitimate interests for the purposes of facilitating the Participant’s participation in the Competition, and that this data may be shared with third parties.
10.2. The Foundation will handle personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws and regulations. The details of how the data will be processed, as well as the respective data subject rights can be found in this privacy policy. Additionally, the data collected during the KYC process will be processed by Sum and Substance Ltd in accordance with their privacy policy.
In no event shall the Foundation be liable to the Participant in respect of any losses arising from the participation in the Competition, in particular the Foundation is not liable for any loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of contracts, or for any indirect or consequential loss whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence), misrepresentation (whether statutory or tortious), breach of statutory duty or otherwise. However, to the extent that the Participant suffers a loss as a result of the participation in the Competition, the Foundation's individual total liability to you for such losses whether in contract, tort (including negligence), misrepresentation (whether statutory or tortious), breach of statutory duty or otherwise shall be limited to CHF 100.
These Terms shall be governed, construed, and enforced in accordance with the laws of Switzerland, without giving effect to its conflict of laws principles. The courts of the Canton of Zug shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any disputes arising out of it or in connection with the Competition and this Agreement.
(x) By participating in the Competition, you agree to comply with these Terms and all decisions made by the Foundation and judges. Failure to adhere to any of the above Terms may result in disqualification.