MOTE FUND Model Grant Application

We love funding builders who are working on projects simply because they want to learn and make an impact while doing so. Oftentimes, MOTE FUND is the first grant our applicants have ever applied for. To make things easier, here are example snippets from mock first-time grant writers who would be receiving funding for their projects. Feel free to use these as inspiration, not as a script. If you have any questions, reach out to hello@motefund.com.

What and why.

Example 1: Autonomous Agent for Bill Negotiation

I am building an autonomous "bill negotiation agent" that works on behalf of gig economy workers to lower their recurring expenses. Most freelancers overpay for software subscriptions, insurance, and utilities because they lack the time to negotiate or switch providers. My plan is to design a local, private agent that scans a user's monthly invoices (PDFs or emails), identifies overpriced services compared to market rates, and automatically drafts negotiation emails or cancellation notices for the user to approve. The goal is for a freelancer to install this "financial sidekick" in under five minutes, giving them the leverage of a corporate procurement department. If this works, individual workers can reclaim hundreds of euros annually without endless admin work, leveling the playing field between solo operators and large firms.

Example 2: Privacy-Preserving Credit Scoring Protocol

I am building a privacy-preserving credit scoring protocol that lets young renters prove their reliability to landlords without handing over years of sensitive bank statements. Currently, securing an apartment often requires exposing every single transaction to strangers, which is invasive and unsafe. My solution is a "zero-knowledge proof" generator: users connect their bank feed locally, and the app generates a verified certificate that simply says "This user has paid rent on time for 24 months" or "Income > 3x Rent," without revealing where the money came from or what else they bought. The microgrant will help me build the first trusted verifier for a student housing cooperative in Zurich, proving that financial trust doesn't require total surveillance.

Budget.

Example 3: Gamified Savings Pilot

Gasless Relayer Fees (Paymaster): € 100 (Covering initial L2 transaction costs for 50 beta users so they pay zero gas)
Smart Contract Audit (Community Review): € 150 (Bounty for a senior developer to review the yield-routing contracts)
Frontend Hosting & Domain: € 40 (Vercel pro plan and domain for 1 year)
User Onboarding Incentives: € 60 (Small € 2 "seed" deposits for the first 30 testers to test the round-up mechanism)
Design Assets: € 50 (Purchase of UI kit/icons to make the app look like a standard fintech app, not a crypto tool)

Total requested: € 400. This budget allows me to run a live mainnet pilot where the "invisible" crypto rails are truly free for the end-user, proving the UX thesis.

Example 4: Real-Time Tax Engine Prototype

API Integrations: € 80 (Subscription to banking/invoice API providers like Plaid or Teller for testing)
Backend Server Costs: € 60 (3 months of cloud hosting for the secure tax calculation engine)
Legal/Compliance Consultation: € 120 (One-hour session with a fintech compliance expert to ensure the "tax vault" model is viable)
Developer Tooling: € 40 ( GitHub Copilot/cursor credits to speed up the complex tax logic coding)

Total: € 300. The microgrant covers the critical infrastructure needed to connect real bank feeds to my tax logic, moving the project from a theoretical model to a working prototype.

Fund Goals.

Example 5: Agent-Native Compliance Infrastructure

This funding will help me turn the "tax streaming" prototype into an open compliance primitive that any freelance marketplace or agent platform can integrate. The goal is to standardize how "work agents" handle money, ensuring they don't just earn income but also manage the liabilities (taxes, VAT) instantly.

Standardize the API: Create a documentation site where other developers can see how to plug their "agent" into this tax engine.
Open Source the Logic: Release the core tax calculation modules on GitHub so the community can audit and improve them for different jurisdictions.
Prove the "Embedded" Model: Run a pilot where a separate "job finding" agent automatically sends its earnings through this tax engine, showing that two different AI tools can coordinate financial compliance without human intervention.

The long-term vision is for compliance to become an automatic, invisible layer of the internet economy, allowing independent workers and their agents to operate globally without fear of regulatory mistakes.

MOTE FUND is a fiscally sponsored ____ nonprofit. #: _____.