Checkmate and UpRock are excited to announce a USD 5,000 grant prize funding opportunity to support the development of the next-generation distributed uptime manager. UpRock, a DePIN platform with over 2 million devices worldwide, provides the foundation for Checkmate to monitor server uptime from across the globe effectively.
This grant funding aims to empower developers to contribute innovative solutions to enhance Checkmate's functionality and usability for distributed uptime management, powered by UpRock.
- Submission start date: January 9, 2025
- Submission deadline: January 20, 2025
- Announcement of prewinners: January 25, 2025
- Total prize pool: USD 5,000 (subject to change depending on the quality or number submissions)
- Completion timeline: A maximum of 30 days after pre-selection
- Participants are encouraged to submit ideas and features that:
- Enhance Checkmate & UpRock's distributed uptime monitoring capabilities.
- Simplify deployment for businesses and scale effectively.
- Deliver innovative value-adds to Checkmate and UpRock platform.
- Improve UI/UX consistency, performance, and monitoring reliability.
Here are some of the sample ideas you can select from, or come up with your own.
- Project 1 (DePIN sourced intelligence): Build a global internet speed survey using 3M devices. This dashboard will implement the underlying Checkmate & UpRock infrastructure and build maps and tables for: 1. Upload speed, 2. Download speed, 3. Ping numbers.
- Project 2: Build a notification system that will cover Discord, Slack, Telegram and webhooks.
- Project 3: Implement a i18n library for Checkmate. The translation framework will include modifying the source code and using an open source translation manager online so other translators can also contribute. This will help reach out to more developers to build DePIN features on top of Checkmate.
- Project 4: A plugin system and implementation for Checkmate to help add more UpRock platform functionality. This plugin system will also be used to add more plugins/features on top of Checkmate easily.
- Project 5 (Checkmate CLI): When installed via brew or curl, this CLI will help admins manage the monitoring setup directly from the command line. Admin will be able to list, check, trigger the monitors from the command line easily or change password of the users, or create/invite a new user.
- Project 6: Ability to tag or group monitors. Each monitor will have its own tagging, and the admin will be able to filter monitors in the table.
- Project 7: Deploy Checkmate and write a blog post about it on dev.to or Hackernoon. Bonus points if you market it on social media.
- Submit your ideas: Fill out our online form to propose enhancements and features for Checkmate powered by UpRock, until January 20, 2025. You can submit a project based on the ideas above, or you can also come up with your own enhancement projects.
- Selection criteria: Prewinners will be selected based on functionality, design and impact.
- Implementation phase: Prewinners will have 21 days to develop and submit their code contributions starting from January 25, 2025.
- Quality requirements: Submitted code must:
- Be high quality and free from bugs.
- Pass extensive QA testing
- Adhere to Checkmate’s UI design and development standards.
- Grant disbursement: Upon code acceptance via pull, winners will receive USD 1,000 each, sent to their bank account or Paypal.
- January 10, 2025: Grant announcement and form open for submissions.
- January 20, 2025: Submission deadline
- January 25, 2025: Winners announced.
- 21 days post-selection: Code development and submission period.
- Grant payment: Issued in 14 days upon PR acceptance.
- Cap enforcement: All projects submitted to the Checkmate & UpRock grant program will be subject to a strict funding cap of $1000 per project. This rule ensures that funding is distributed fairly among contributors, encouraging a diverse range of submissions. Applicants are encouraged to scope their projects accordingly to stay within this limit. Proposals exceeding this amount may either be revised or considered for partial funding.
- Multiple submissions: Contributors are welcome to submit multiple projects, provided each submission adheres to the specified funding cap and size criteria. This approach allows developers to showcase various ideas, features, and improvements without being constrained to a single proposal. Each project will be evaluated independently, ensuring fair consideration regardless of other submissions by the same contributor.
- Partial funding: In cases where a proposal exceeds the budget limit or includes additional features that extend beyond the core requirements, partial funding may be offered. Contributors will receive feedback and recommendations to adjust their project scope to align with the funding guidelines. This flexibility ensures that high-value features and enhancements can still be supported, even if full funding is not feasible.
- Feedback process: To support continuous improvement, contributors will receive constructive feedback on their submissions, whether accepted or not. Feedback will focus on areas such as code quality, design patterns, documentation and usability. Developers can use this input to refine their proposals, submit follow-ups, or enhance their future contributions.
- Final review and recognition: A portion of the total funding, $500 (10%), will be reserved for recognizing outstanding contributions across all categories. This award, labeled the "Best Overall Contribution" prize, will be given to a project that demonstrates exceptional innovation, technical quality, and impact. The selection process will be based on the same evaluation criteria as other submissions, with additional emphasis on originality and long-term value to the Checkmate & UpRock ecosystem.
- 4-5 small size projects
- Examples: Usability fixes, UI enhancements, updating test cases, writing command line interfaces or documentation updates.
- Reward: $100–$300
- 4-5 medium size projects
- Examples: New monitoring modules/additions, API enhancements, performance improvements or feature additions.
- Reward: $300–$600
- 1-2 large projects
- Examples: Integrations with 3rd party / external tools, major scalability enhancements, advanced analytics features, complex monitoring capabilities, better graphics/charts.
- Reward: $600–$1000
- Innovation (30%): Uniqueness and creativity of the solution.
- Contribution value (30%): Impact on usability, performance, or scalability.
- Code quality & design (40%): Clean, documented and tested code with working examples showing screenshots and/or videos.
Don’t miss this opportunity to shape the future of distributed uptime monitoring with Checkmate and UpRock! Submit your ideas today and join us in building cutting-edge solutions for global server management. Visit Link to submit your entry.