---
layout: post
title: "Announcing the MAGIC Monero Fund"
excerpt: "This community-driven fund will support the Monero ecosystem"
date: 2021-12-04
author: magicboard
---

The MAGIC Grants board is *extremely* excited to announce the culmination of several months of work: [the MAGIC Monero Fund](/funds/monero).

The MAGIC Monero Fund is the first MAGIC Fund. You can learn more about MAGIC Funds, which we hope to soon offer for several other deserving projects, [here](/funds).

[Monero](https://getmonero.org) is the gold standard private digital payment tool. Founded in 2014, Monero's community has fought on the front lines to defend privacy and fungibility.

This MAGIC Monero Fund is especially important, because Monero doesn't have the luxury of a formal Foundation or other entity to support it. Monero's community has fully embraced the Bitcoin ethos of decentralization. While this has enormous advantages, it means community members need to step up to address various needs. That's where we (and you!) come in!

Monero is largely unique in funding various projects entirely through donations. There is no founder's reward, no pre-mine, and no other hidden tax. Historically, most funds have been raised through the [Monero CCS](https://ccs.getmonero.org) operated by the Monero Core Team. MAGIC Grants has proudly supported various Monero projects over the years, including [Bulletproofs+ development](/blog/Bulletproofs+-Monero) and [the Cryptocurrency Village at DEFCON](/blog/Cryptocurrency-Village).

In starting this Fund, we spoke with dozens of Monero community members to learn how MAGIC Grants can help. We believe that the resulting advisory committee structure embraces the values of the Monero community and compliments (but does not *replace*) the Monero CCS.

We are looking forward to growing a community-advised fund that can raise money in XMR, invest money in XMR, and spend money in XMR, while still having the option of touching USD and other fiat currencies.

MAGIC Grants is a [501(c)(3) public charity](/about/documentation/). Funds can only be disbursed to grants that further MAGIC Grants's charitable purpose, which includes Monero research, (most) Monero development, and educational materials.

MAGIC Grants's board members met each other through their participation in the Monero community, and we have over 10 years of combined experience interacting with the community. Two MAGIC Grants board members also help moderate the largest cryptocurrency community in the world: [r/CryptoCurrency](https://reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency). We know a thing or two about building cryptocurrency communities!

## We Need You!

The MAGIC Monero Fund is a community effort. We need community members to participate in voting, and we especially need motivated people to run for the 5 available fund committee positions.

To apply for either of these, please [click here to review the instructions](https://github.com/MAGICGrants/Monero-Fund).

We also need donors! If you would like to give to the MAGIC Monero Fund, please email us at [MoneroFund@magicgrants.org](mailto:MoneroFund@magicgrants.org)! We accept donations of USD, XMR, and other assets. We will allow people to automatically allocate their MAGIC Grants donations to a particular fund shorty.

## Special Thanks

We would like to thank the Monero community members and developers who continue to make Monero one of the most important cryptocurrency projects and who fight for privacy and fungibility. We encourage all of these people to [apply to be a voter](https://github.com/MAGICGrants/Monero-Fund) (and a [committee member](https://github.com/MAGICGrants/Monero-Fund) if they have the time)!

We would like to thank everyone who has given to a previous MAGIC Grants fundraising campaign, Monero CCS proposal, a [Monero Bounty](https://bounties.monero.social), or any other Monero-related independent fundraising campaign.

We would like to thank the [Zcash Foundation](https://zfnd.org) and the Zcash community for the inspiration of these advisory committee funds. We feel we have learned a lot from their [ZOMG committee](https://zcashomg.org/), and we hope they can learn from our efforts as well.
