Table of Content
Introduction
Delendum fellowship is a nonprofit two-month program to support research and development tackling hard problems in blockchain and the frontiers of zero-knowledge.
If you are interested in working together with top experts to explore practical use cases of new research ideas, or to work on one of the topics we discussed in “What to build next” blog series, please consider applying to our fellowship program. We are also open to development proposals for concrete solutions of other significant problems.
For a research fellow, you will be collaborating with researchers on original, exploratory topics that lead to the creation of new use cases in practice. For a developer fellow, you will be working with other builders to create new products, with feedback on product feasibility and implementation.
Mentorship
This program provides access to:
- daily office hours with our team members and external mentors to cover the cryptography, engineering, product development aspects of your project
- weekly research discussion session, joint brainstorming session, external collaboration session, cross-review process to review your work in progress
- engineering and research resources from our team and network
- co-publishing opportunities
Our mentors include (alphabetically ordered):
- Alan Szepieniec - Post-Quantum Cryptography, Hash Function, Gröbner basis algorithms
- Bobbin Threadbare - Virtual Machines, Zero-Knowledge Proofs
- Brian Retford - Compiler, Transpiler, Language, Applied ZKP, ML
- Christopher Goes - Protocol Development, System Designs
- Daniel Lubarov - zkVMs, Proof Systems, Optimizations
- Eli Ben-Sasson - Theoretical Computer Science, Zero-Knowledge Proofs
- Shashank Agrawal - Multi-Party Computation, Zero-Knowledge Proofs
Logistics
Schedule
| Fellowship begins | Cross-review begins | Final presentations | |
| Fellowship 1 | Jan 15 2023 | Mar 1 2023 | Mar 15 2023 |
| Fellowship 2 | Apr 15 2023 | Jun 1 2023 | Jun 15 2023 |
Application Deadlines
Submit your by 11:59 p.m. (in your local timezone) on the applicable deadline.
| Deadline | Decision by | Reply date | |
| Application to fellowship 1 | Dec 15 2022 | Jan 1 2023 | Jan 07 2023 |
| Application to fellowship 2 | Mar 15 2023 | Apr 1 2023 | Apr 07 2023 |
| Application to volunteer fellowship 1 | Dec 05 2022 | Dec 15 2022 | Dec 22 2022 |
| Application to volunteer fellowship 2 | Mar 05 2023 | Mar 15 2022 | Mar 22 2023 |
| Sponsorship & donation | Dec 25 2022 | N/A | N/A |
Evaluation
We will evaluate applications on a rolling basis. Typically, we will get back to you within a week. Since we have very limited capacity (5 fellows), the early applicants generally get a better chance.
Location
The fellowship program is remote friendly, but we do prefer working together in our upcoming office in San Francisco.
Contact us
If you have any questions regarding the program itself, please do not hesitate to contact us at research@delendum.xyz. For donations and sponsorship related matters, please contact us at hello@delendum.xyz.
We are also looking for two volunteers who will maintain the associated open learning resources or help administer the program. If you are interested, please reach out to us at hello@delendum.xyz.
Frequently Asked Questions
I am working under an existing organization. Can I apply?
It is absolutely fine that you are working under an existing organization, but the research or development outcome of this fellowship will need to be general purpose, open-sourced and beneficial to the long-term growth of this industry.
What is the maximum length of the proposal?
There is no maximum or minimum length as long as you articulate the problem and its solution. The average length we received so far is 4-6 pages. There are applicants who submitted over 10 pages before and were accepted.
What is the time commitment of fellowship?
It is less than most applicants expect; 5-10 hours per week if you participate in all the recommended activities. All parts of the program are optional.
Where does the fellowship happen? Do I need to move to San Francisco?
The batch starts with an in-person initial presentation and ends with an in-person final presentation, both in San Francisco. For the weeks in between, you can participate remotely and do not have to be in the Bay Area. Office hours and weekly presentations will be online. However, we encourage teams to work together in our office in person.
I am located outside the US now. Can I join the fellowship program in this case?
You may. However, since most of our mentors and other fellows are based in the United States, you may need to adjust your schedule to fit theirs.
What are the dates for the next batch?
All the relevant dates are here.
This batch isn’t a good time for me. Can I apply to the one after?
Yes. We offer early decision for all batches, and you just need to mention it somewhere on the application.
What is a fellow’s schedule like during the fellowship?
Here is an example of the weekly schedule for one of our fellows.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
| 9:00-10:00 | mentor 1's office hour | mentor 2's office hour | mentor 3's office hour | mentor 4's office hour | mentor 5's office hour |
| 10:00-11:00 | paper discussion: hash functions with Alan | weekly presentations | |||
| 11:00-12:00 | zkIBC brainstorming session w IBC core developers | ZKP benchmarking: group call with Risc0, Miden founders | weekly project meetings | ||
| 2:00-3:00 | review teammate B‘s work | team reflection: technical challenges, solutions, TODOs | |||
| 3:00-4:00 | brainstorming w Chris (Anoma) | "Hyperplonk + FRI" research sync-up | |||
| 5:00-6:00 | one-on-one sync up with lead mentor | Meeting w Kevin (co-founder candidate) | |||
| 7:00-8:00 | send first draft to the team | brainstorming: what’s possible with on-chain gaming now that we have ZK | |||
If you’re interested in further discussions on this topic or working together on this subject, please consider joining our group chat or reach out to us at research@delendum.xyz.
