MAGIC Fund Initial Steps

Updated 2024-05-09

MAGIC Grants Background

Multidisciplinary Academic Grants in Cryptocurrencies (MAGIC Grants) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It can conduct a variety of qualifying charitable activities, which notably include the following:

Creating educational materials
Purchasing and distributing educational materials
Supporting scientific research projects
Supporting the “maintenance of public infrastructure”
- “Public infrastructure” in this case refers to major public cryptocurrency networks
- “Supporting” refers to research, development, node operation, and security testing, among others

MAGIC Grants additionally issues scholarships for undergraduate students interested in cryptocurrencies.

Meet the MAGIC Grants board members, who have extensive cryptocurrency ecosystem experience.

Step 1: MAGIC Grants Initial Diligence

The MAGIC Grants board must conduct proper diligence on the cryptocurrency project and the Fund details. Most notably, MAGIC Grants must determine that the cryptocurrency project qualifies as public infrastructure. MAGIC Grants must also have an understanding of the source of funds to be provided for the Fund, the voters, and the sort of projects that the Fund is expected to be used for. Please fill out this form to begin the process.

If you prefer to submit the form by email, please fill out this form and email it to info@magicgrants.org.

Step 2: Review the MAGIC Fund Document and Suggest Changes

MAGIC Grants will reply with a tailored document for your MAGIC Fund describing various governance details. Make sure to review this carefully and discuss this with your community. Each community is different; something that makes sense for one community may not make sense for another.

You can get a head start by reviewing the MAGIC Fund template and the documents of another MAGIC Fund to see what other communities do.

Make sure you fully understand the limitations of what MAGIC Funds can fund, and what documents are needed from grant recipients (and any other payee) for funds to be disbursed.

Step 3: Select the Voters and Run an Election

MAGIC Grants will ultimately sign off on the initial set of voters, but MAGIC Grants relies heavily on community feedback. MAGIC Grants will normally request a list of names/pseudonyms, their email addresses, and their reason for nomination. MAGIC Grants will normally open a form asking for additional nominations. The best applications have at least 100 nominations.

Once selected, the Voters will elect the first advisory committee and vote on any other initial decisions.

Step 4: Fund the MAGIC Fund

The Fund can be funded through various means, including cryptocurrencies, fiat, NFTs, stock, etc. MAGIC Grants does not accept large physical cash deposits.

The majority of funds should be liquid. While there is nothing explicitly preventing the MAGIC Fund from operating with solely illiquid assets, this is difficult in practice. The best assets are easily tradable with millions of dollars of liquidity on US exchanges or fiat currency.

Donations, regardless of asset, are fully tax deductible because MAGIC Grants is a 501(c)(3) public charity.