Summary:

The CAB (Community Awards Board) was formed in 2021 to be a community-driven source of funding and support for promising developers and teams.

The CAB encouraged collaboration between developers and open-source projects to promote the adoption and usage of Akash Network’s decentralized cloud.

In the past year, the CAB has funded multiple projects incrementally, including providing operating support, engineering resources and support, marketing, and program execution. These resources, though far beyond the original dollar funding for these teams, have helped accelerate these teams into full fledged startups in their own right. These costs are not charged to funded projects. Most of these projects continue to have a positive impact on the Akash and Cosmos ecosystem.

To this effect, the CAB will be transitioned into the Akash Accelerator. The Akash Accelerator will encapsulate the CAB functions, and focus on projects requiring funding at the K level. To this effect, similar to other accelerator programs, the following terms will apply;

*The Akash Accelerator will invest up to K in promising projects *All projects must have a working Beta product and be runway ready *Akash will continue to provide marketing and operational support as is currently *Akash will receive a 2% equity position on a convertible basis on funded projects *If a cohort team proceeds to raise external funding, Akash resource costs will convert to an additional 2% to a total of 4% at external funding. *Akash will continue to support engineering and marketing efforts for Accelerator projects *Should an Accelerator cohort require any additional funding (internal) from Akash, this will come at a 2% equity position for Akash as well. *Each cohort is a 6 month program, and Accelerator applications are on a rolling basis.

The Accelerator program will be led by a Board of 5 members (this will include some members of the CAB), an Akash representative, and 2 non-voting members with Observer / Contributor status.

No voting Board member will be eligible to apply for Accelerator funding to avoid conflicts of interest.