Today we’re excited to announce Epoch 13—the Privacy Round.
As Ethereum continues its CROPS journey with a reshaped Ethereum Foundation, we believe privacy is an ideal theme for Octant to take an active funding role in.
So, this round is focused on funding projects advancing privacy on Ethereum and across the open internet.
Projects must fall into one of these two privacy-advancing categories to be eligible:
Ethereum: everything from private transfers, shielded pools, wallet/RPC privacy, encrypted mempools, and zero-knowledge (ZK) tooling
Open Internet: including secure messaging, metadata-protecting communication tools, private compute hardware, and the privacy libraries that everything else is built on
We have a 100 ETH matching pool for this quadratic funding round and will also run a mini-accelerator to help selected projects succeed in (and outside) the round.
We can’t wait to connect with and support this next cohort of builders. Check out the full round and eligibility details below.
Round Details
Matching Pool: 100 ETH
Application Deadline: 10 September, 2026
Epoch Accelerator: 6 - 10 October, 2026
Allocation Window: 14 - 21 October, 2026
Is my project a good fit?
Our focus is on funding software and hardware projects with existing traction.
Applied research may qualify if a verified client, application, or network has already adopted or endorsed your work.
Eligibility Criteria
Contributes to private use of Ethereum and/or the internet
Privacy is a core property of the project
Privacy-critical code is open source under a recognized license
Privacy-critical code can be built & verified independently
Based on working software or hardware with verifiable users
Exclusion Criteria
Privacy as an ancillary feature
Pre-launch project status
No verifiable traction
Community, event, or content focus
Closed-source cores
Crypto-specific work that doesn’t serve Ethereum
Monetization by weakening privacy or locking users in
How are we evaluating projects?
Verifiable traction
A credible path for epoch funding to drive impact*
Potential to create long-term, widespread public value
Technical innovation and strategic importance to Ethereum’s roadmap
*VC/token backing is not disqualifying, but if you have raised more than $1M equivalent in the last 12 months that will factor into our evaluation under this criteria.
Requirements for accepted projects
Complete a standard KYC/KYB process PRIOR to the start of the funding round
Attend our Epoch Accelerator (virtually) from 6 - 10 October, 2026 for epoch readiness
Actively engage & market to the community during the round. Funding is allocated via Quadratic Funding; the community needs to hear about your work for the round to be a success (for you and for us)