Ethereum Foundation Grant for TrueBlocks’ mini-dApps

Thomas Jay Rush
3 min readJul 23, 2024

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We are pleased to announce that the Ethereum Foundation Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) has awarded TrueBlocks a much-welcomed grant from July 2024 to June 2025.

About TrueBlocks

TrueBlocks is dedicated to expanding developers’ understanding of building truly decentralized applications by leveraging its unique indexing capabilities. TrueBlocks-Core 2.0.0, released in November 2023, is a local-first indexer for EVM-based blockchains and will serve as the engine for our current project: TrueBlocks mini-dApps.

About mini-dApps

Through our SDK and example mini-dApp(s), we aim to demonstrate the practicality of decentralizing the Ethereum data stack, promote local-first application development, and boost the awareness and adoption of the TrueBlocks platform among developers and end users.

Below, we describe our project deliverables and timeline. It consists of five sub-projects.

SDK Development

The SDK sub-project is the foundation of our mini-dApps and a crucial part of our community engagement strategy. TrueBlocks’ index provides robust data decentrally. The SDK will enhance our system, making it easier for us and others to use.

Timeline:

  • Jul-Sep: Design, code, and test the SDK.
  • Oct-Dec: Create samples, templates, and YouTube video tutorials.
  • Jan-Mar: Write comprehensive and user-friendly documentation.
  • Apr-Jun: Continue refining and improving the SDK based on user feedback.

Mini-dApp Development

With the mini-dApp project, we aim to demonstrate how to build a truly decentralized application by leveraging TrueBlocks-Core and the SDK.

Timeline:

  • Jul-Sep: Design, wireframe, and begin coding the mini-dApp.
  • Oct-Dec: Continue to code, polish, document, and test.
  • Jan-Mar: Develop case studies, videos, and tutorials for the mini-dApp.
  • Apr-Jun: Finalize downloadable, installable mini-dApp. Wireframe possible other mini-dApps.

Index, Publish, and Automate the Creation of Unchained Index

This sub-project focuses on automating the publication and distribution of the Unchained Indexes for Mainnet and Sepolia (and possibly Optimism/SuperChain) to ensure cross-chain functionality for mini-dApps.

Timeline:

  • Jul-Sep: Identify chains to support, possibly including Optimism.
  • Oct-Dec: Fully automate the creation and publication of the indexes.
  • Jan-Mar: Complete automation, publication, and testing of indexes for Mainnet and Sepolia chains.
  • Apr-Jun: Continue expanding and optimizing the indexing process.

Note: references to Optimism and other chains are excluded from the Ethereum Foundation grant. We include them here but are not committed to completing this work under the grant.

Update TrueBlocks-Core

TrueBlocks-Core will be updated (if necessary) to support mini-dApps, address EIPs, and handle protocol-level hard forks. This is ongoing work to ensure the core remains up-to-date and efficient.

Timeline:

  • Jul-Sep: Update code to improve TrueBlocks-Core UX/DX.
  • Oct-Dec: Continue making necessary updates to support new features.
  • Jan-Mar: Address EIPs and protocol-level hard forks.
  • Apr-Jun: Ensure TrueBlocks-Core remains current and effective.

Grow Awareness and Community

We are committed to ensuring TrueBlocks’ long-term viability by updating our studies, participating in conferences, and exploring partnerships.

Timeline:

  • Jul-Sep: Update our study comparing the TrueBlocks index to others.
  • Oct-Dec: Speak at/on 1–2 conferences/podcasts.
  • Jan-Mar: Publish quarterly reports on progress.
  • Apr-Jun: Explore partnerships and other use cases.

Note: Notwithstanding the above, the actual deliverables for this project are described in the official grant application paperwork and contract reproduced below. To the extent there are errors or omissions in the above, the contract dominates.

Summary

TrueBlocks aims to deliver high-quality tools and applications to empower developers and promote decentralized technology. With our first-ever mini-dApp, developers will see how easy and robust it is to develop full-stack decentralized applications, thus avoiding all the pitfalls with Web 2.0 back — and front-ends.

Stay tuned for more updates as we make progress through each quarter! We’re excited to share our journey and engage you in our developments.

Obligatory Image

Me when I think of instantaneous, automated accounting

Conclusion

TrueBlocks is funded from personal funds and grants from The Ethereum Foundation (2018, 2022, 2024), Optimism Retro PGF (2022, 2023), Consensys (2019), Moloch DAO (2021), Filecoin/IPFS (2021), and our lovely GitCoin donors.

If you like this article and wish to support our work, please donate to our GitCoin grant using ETH or any token. If you’re an Optimism badge holder, vote for our project. Or send us a tip directly at trueblocks.eth or 0xf503017d7baf7fbc0fff7492b751025c6a78179b.

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Thomas Jay Rush
Thomas Jay Rush

Written by Thomas Jay Rush

Blockchain Enthusiast, Founder TrueBlocks, LLC and Philadelphia Ethereum Meetup, MS Computer Science UPenn