Ignite the Next Wave: Announcing the Aztec Crosschain Catalysts Program!

Aztec
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Hello Cross Chain Pioneers and Aztec Builders!

The response to our recent Cross Chain Bridges RFP was incredible, showcasing the immense talent and enthusiasm within the community for building a private, interoperable future for Ethereum. We were truly inspired by the innovative proposals and the shared vision for unifying Ethereum, privately.

To continue this momentum and support even more teams in bringing their visions to life, we’re thrilled to launch the Aztec Cross Chain Catalysts Program! This initiative is designed to activate and fund promising teams to deploy privacy-enhanced cross-chain applications on our upcoming Aztec testnet.

Our Goal: More Privacy, More Interoperability, More Innovation

Building on the success of our Cross Chain Bridges RFP, which selected three innovative teams—Wormhole (connecting Arbitrum with Aztec), Train Protocol (connecting Unichain with Aztec), and Substance Labs (connecting Base with Aztec)—we now want to expand the ecosystem with applications that leverage these foundational bridges. With Aztec ignition on the horizon, we want to see a flourishing ecosystem of applications that leverage Aztec’s unique private and public execution environment. The Cross Chain Catalysts Program aims to:

  • Activate a broader range of builders: Provide a dedicated path for teams who showed strong potential in the Cross Chain Bridges RFP, as well as welcome new developers passionate about private cross-chain solutions.

  • Expand the ecosystem: Generate a diverse set of 5-10+ small-scale, privacy-enhanced cross-chain applications and deployments.

  • Foster innovation: Encourage experimentation and practical application of Aztec’s cutting-edge privacy technology.

  • Build on foundations: Support projects that can complement or build upon the larger bridge implementations being funded through the initial RFP.

This is your chance to get hands-on with Aztec, contribute to a foundational piece of Web3 infrastructure, and receive funding for your work.

Who is This Program For?

We invite proposals from:

  • Teams who submitted proposals to the Cross Chain Bridges RFP but were not selected for the initial cohort. We recognize the effort you’ve already invested and want to provide another avenue for your ideas.

  • New developers and teams excited by the challenge of building private cross chain applications on Aztec.

  • Builders interested in creating solutions that integrate with or enhance the capabilities of the primary bridges being developed.

What We’re Looking For: Privacy-Enhanced Cross Chain Applications

We are seeking builders to create innovative applications on top of one of the three bridges that are being deployed: Wormhole connecting Arbitrum with Aztec, Train Protocol connecting Unichain with Aztec, and Substance Labs connecting Base with Aztec. Your project should aim to build and deploy a functional application on the Aztec testnet that demonstrates the power of Aztec’s privacy features in a cross-chain context.

Consider use cases such as:

  • Private DeFi Interactions: Execute deposits or other interactions with DeFi protocols on public L2s, originating from and returning to Aztec with privacy.

  • ZK Proofs of Credentials: Utilize Aztec to privately manage and prove credentials (e.g., passports, KYC status) for use in regulated applications or for gated access on other L2s.

  • Private Cross Chain Payments & Transfers: Enable users to send and receive assets across different L2s with enhanced privacy through Aztec.

  • Cross Chain Identity & Access Management: Develop systems where identity or access rights are managed privately on Aztec but recognized across multiple chains.

  • Private Multi-Sig Control: Implement private multi-signature wallets on Aztec to control assets or actions on other L2s.

  • Simple Cross Chain Messaging/Swaps: Tools that allow for basic, privacy-preserving interactions between Aztec and another L2.

We encourage you to leverage Aztec’s unique features, including its private and public state, seamless composability, and native account abstraction. For a deeper understanding of bridging with Aztec, please refer to the Additional Context for the Cross Chain RFGP.

Funding & Program Structure

Unlike the Cross Chain Bridges RFP, this program is designed to support more teams - We are looking to fund 5-10 teams! We have allocated a total budget of US$30,000 - US$50,000 for the Cross Chain Catalysts Program. Funding will be distributed through two tiers:

  1. Deployment Grants: US$2,000 - US$5,000 per team

  • For more comprehensive applications with a clear path to a functional testnet deployment.

  • Expected to deliver a well-defined user experience and potentially explore more complex integrations.

  1. Quick Build Micro-Grants: US$500 - US$1,000 per team

  • For simpler, focused implementations or tools that demonstrate a specific private cross-chain mechanic.

  • Ideal for individual developers or small teams looking to experiment and contribute a specific piece to the ecosystem.

This program serves as an introductory opportunity to get your foot in the door with the Aztec ecosystem. Successful participants will be well-positioned for future collaboration and potential additional funding opportunities.

Payment Structure (for Deployment grant tier):

  • 25% upon proposal acceptance.

  • 25% upon reaching a key mutually agreed-upon development milestone.

  • 50% upon successful deployment of the functional application/tool on the Aztec testnet and submission of a brief final report/demo.

How to Apply

  1. Create a New Post on This Forum:
  • Clearly state which grant tier you are applying for in your title (e.g., “Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): [Your Project Name]” or “Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Micro-Grant): [Your Project Name]”).
  • Tag your post with cross-chain-catalysts and either deployment-grant or micro-grant.
  1. Follow a Simplified Submission Format:
  • Given the smaller grant amounts, proposals should be more concise and focused than our Cross Chain Bridges RFP. Include these key sections:
    • Title: Team/product name
    • Contact Details
    • Summary: Brief description of your cross-chain app and which bridge you’ll use (Wormhole, Train Protocol, or Substance Labs)
    • Timeline: Start and end dates oriented towards testnet deployment
    • About You: Your team’s relevant background and experience
    • Technical Approach: Core idea, user flow, and key technical considerations
    • Grant Amount Requested: Within the defined tiers
    • Budget Rationale: Brief justification for the requested amount
  • Deployment Grants can include more detail, while Micro-Grant proposals should focus on the core concept and execution plan.
  1. Link Your Proposal:
  • Once your proposal post is created, please post the link as a comment underneath this announcement.

Submission Deadline Extended! Sunday, July 6, 2025

Why Build with Aztec?

Aztec is pioneering a new paradigm for blockchain interactions, where privacy and scalability are not afterthoughts but core primitives. By building on Aztec, you’ll be working with:

  • Noir: Our powerful Rust-based DSL for writing zero-knowledge circuits.

  • A Unique Architecture: Seamlessly compose private and public functions within your applications.

  • Native Account Abstraction: Design sophisticated and user-friendly experiences.

  • Flexible Fee Handling: Explore options like Fee Payment Contracts (FPCs) and app-sponsored transactions to enhance UX. Learn more about FPCs here.

  • Direct Access to Bridge Teams: We’ll connect you with the best bridging teams in the world - Wormhole, Train Protocol, and Substance Labs - to support your development process.

Let’s Catalyze the Cross Chain Future, Privately!

We believe that the future of Ethereum is an interconnected web of L2s, with privacy as a fundamental layer. The Cross Chain Catalysts Program is another step towards realizing this vision. We are incredibly excited to see what you will build and to support you on this journey.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in this thread or reach out to the Aztec team.

Together, let’s continue to unify Ethereum—privately.

The Aztec Team

Disclaimer

The published request for proposal and ideas herein are explicitly published as discussion points to invite community feedback in the community forums. Robust design and developer discussion is the best way for the community to collectively secure and govern the network as well as ensure cross-chain interoperability. Any ultimate governance and cross-chain designs will be a result of the analysis and feedback of the community.The information set out herein is for discussion purposes only and does not represent any binding indication or commitment by Aztec Labs and/or affiliates and their employees//consultants to take any action whatsoever, including relating to the structure and/or any potential operation of the Aztec protocol or the protocol roadmap. In particular: (i) nothing in this post (and any response to this post) is intended to create any contractual or other form of legal, investment, financial, tax or advisory relationship between Aztec Labs or third parties who engage with such posts (including, without limitation, by submitting comments, a proposal and/or responding to posts including any medium such as X, Discord, etc), (ii) by engaging with any post, the relevant persons are consenting to Aztec Labs’ use and publication of such engagement and related information on an open-source basis (and agree that Aztec Labs will not treat such engagement and related information as confidential), and (iii) Aztec Labs is not under any duty to consider any or all engagements, and that consideration of such engagements and any decision to award grants or other rewards for any such engagement is entirely at Aztec Labs’ sole discretion. Please do not rely on any information on this forum for any purpose - the development, release, and timing of any products, features or functionality remains subject to change and is currently entirely hypothetical. Nothing on this forum post should be treated as an offer to sell any security or any other asset by Aztec Labs or its affiliates, and you should not rely on any forum posts or content for advice of any kind, including legal, investment, financial, tax or other professional advice.

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Sorry we could not make the post in time because of the time it takes to review it, so we hope this reply is okay as well for now :smiley:

Title: Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): WarpToad - crosschain privacy

Contact Details:

Team: Warptoad

Email: jjvalkema@protonmail.com

Discord: @jimjim.eth | @nodestarQ | @franacc_

Twitter: jimjim_eth nodestarQ| Franacc_
Github: /JossDuff/warp-toad

Summary:
Warptoad is a cross chain privacy protocol that uses a privacy primitive we call “Toad Commitments” and the “GIGA-bridge”. Together they can be used to prove: “I deposited from an address from a chain”, not specifying which address or even which chain. This does not only make bridging private, but more importantly: the privacy set is the same on all L2’s. Users do not have to bridge to get the best privacy set. And users that do bridge do not have to worry about their privacy-set changing.
Users can transfer privately either on the same chain or bridge to another chain, for the user it feels like a native Bridge or in the case of staying on the same chain, like using no Bridge at all. The link between deposit and withdrawal is private and from what chain they came from.
The first implementation will focus on Aztec and other zk-rollups like Scroll and have a simple feature set similar to 0xBow. As our main Bridge we will be using native messaging bridge.
On the aztec implementation, the bridge transactions are completely shielded.

Furthermore the “Toad Commitment” is a privacy primitive that can be used in other forms of on-chain privacy like UTXO based privacy like railgun, aztec or even something like zkWormholes. We believe “Toad Commitment” together with the GIGA-bridge are the way to build generalized cross chain private state.

Timeline:
Start: July 1, 2025
End: September 30, 2025
Milestones:
Unwrapping accounting Logic on L2s
Relayer for evm withdraws
Frontend MVP
Testnet Demo
“Canonical” Bridge (for Aztec Devs)

About You:
JimJim: passionate about ethereum since 2018, dapp dev since 2022
Danish: Head of Web3 at byte5, 7 year dapp dev experience.
Fran: Biomedical engineer. 8 years of product development and marketing.

Technical Approach:
The protocol is like 0xbow where we track commitments in a merkle tree and do inclusion proofs against inside zk like usual. However we deploy on multiple L2’s and then bridge over the roots with the GIGA-bridge to L1 where we hash all the roots off all the L2 instances into another merkle tree we call the GIGA-tree. That root, the GIGA-root is then sent over the L2’s so the user can prove against the GIGA-root instead. Because the GIGA-root contains all deposits of all chains, no-one knows what chain the user deposited on.

We also input the local-root into the circuit, just in case a user that stays on the same chain doesn’t want to wait on a new GIGA-root. This allows users to withdraw within the same block as their deposit if they have too.

We are allowed to only bridge these roots across asynchronously whenever we please since we used toad-commitments. A toad-commitment is like any other commitment but it also contains the destination chains chainId. Which is later revealed on withdrawal to ensure the user can only withdraw on one chain. Which means we also don’t need to bridge the nullifiers!

On aztec we managed to make the bridge txs completely private by using the nullifiers and note-hash tree of aztec directly. And using the archive tree to read the GIGA-root that is bridged over.

Grant Amount Requested:
We request US$5000 for the deployment grant.

Budget Rationale: 2x full time engineers and 1x part time product marketing

future outlook:
With future funding can research internal shielded transfers like Railgun and/or EIP7503.
We also like to explore support hardware wallets.
In a lot of cases users need to swap their asset on aztec. We would like to explore how to make that process as private as possible. either with p2p shielded trading, co-snarks, or homomorphism.
Exploring a market based solution to speed up bridging times. Something like hop-protocol or intents. But of course we would not reveal what chain we want to initiate the interaction from. Unlike current proposed approaches.
Using warptoad where multiple instances of aztec or aztec-like chains exist. For example: every time aztec upgrades. Users need to withdraw to L1 and deposit to the new L2. This is bad UX, reveals the users balance, and the new aztec chain will have its privacy set reset. Building a warptoad bridge would help bootstrap the privacy set, solve UX issues and make the entire migration process shielded.

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:rocket: Introducing Our Proposal: Guardian-Powered Recovery Validator for Aztec :closed_lock_with_key:

We just dropped a deployment-grant application for a privacy-preserving ERC-7579 Recovery Validator that lets any smart account regain access without ever exposing its guardians.

:small_blue_diamond: Guardian list & votes stay fully private
:small_blue_diamond: Plug-and-play with Kernel, ZeroDev, Safe and others EIP-7579 compliant wallets.
:small_blue_diamond: L1 communication with Aztec Smart Contract via Portals, with full cross-chain future via either Wormhole, Train Protocol, or Substance Labs.

We’d love your feedback! :page_facing_up::backhand_index_pointing_down:
Read the full proposal here

Edit: wrong topic comment

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One from Muon team - Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): Muon

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Submission: Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant) - Private P2P Trading with iExchange

I’ve submitted my proposal for integrating Aztec’s privacy technology with our proven P2P trading platform, iExchange. The proposal details how we’ll transform traditional P2P trading into a privacy-preserving cross-chain experience.

Key highlights:

  • Building on our live platform with 50k+ testnet transactions
  • Secret hash mechanism for buyer privacy protection
  • Integration with Substance Labs’ Base-to-Aztec bridge

Full proposal: Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): Private P2P Trading with iExchange

The solution enables users to purchase tokens on Base and receive them privately on Aztec while maintaining our trusted escrow system and familiar UX.

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thank you, Rahul! Not sure if I missed a step or should have linked the proposal somewhere else too. Apologies if so.

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Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): Q3x - Crosschain privacy multisig

Q3x is a privacy-first, modular multisig platform built natively on Aztec that enables teams and SMBs to manage assets across multiple blockchains. Using Wormhole integration, users can control assets on Arbitrum while maintaining privacy through Aztec’s native features.

Full proposal: Crosschain privacy multisig

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Cross Chain Catalyst Proposal (Deployment Grant): Raven House - Base-Aztec USDC Vouchers

Raven House is a privacy-first NFT infrastructure built on Aztec, empowering users to launch NFT collections effortlessly via an intuitive UI/SDK, eliminating the need to manage complex infrastructure like IPFS integration or indexers. Our platform enables users to create and mint USDC vouchers for events, redeemable privately without exposing wallet addresses, ensuring privacy through Aztec’s ZK technology. The Raven House MVP is live on the Aztec testnet, supporting Obsidian and Aztec wallets, with over 1,500 waitlist signups and multiple collections launched by the Aztec community within hours. Backed by clear documentation and robust developer resources—such as Noirlings, aztec-next-starter, and Aztec full-stack dApp video tutorials, our team actively contributes to the Aztec and Noir ecosystems.

Full Proposal: Cross Chain Catalyst Proposal (Deployment Grant): Raven House - Base Aztec USDC Vouchers

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Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): Chameleon

Chameleon is a private cross-chain multisig solution that enables users to control assets on public L2s through a privacy-preserving multisig on Aztec. Users can privately create and manage multisig wallets on Aztec with customizable X out of Y signers thresholds, then use Wormhole to authorize transactions on Optimism without revealing any of the signers or voting patterns. This creates powerful use cases for DAOs, treasury management, and organizations wanting privacy while interacting with defi on public networks to tap into their liquidity sources.

Proposal

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Submission: Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): Dust

Dust is a privacy-focused payment application that feels like a sleek consumer finance app - however it is fully decentralized under the hood. Users can send and receive private payments between trusted contacts, abstracted via Train Protocol bridge contracts and Passkey account abstraction.

  • No wallets, no seed phrases. Just tap, type, send.
  • Train Protocol contracts handle secure, gas-efficient cross-chain settlement.
  • Passkeys power passwordless account creation & auth.
  • Aztec PXE provides privacy-preserving transactions under the hood.
  • The UI resembles a regular app, but the rails are trustless.

TLDR - make sending $50 to a friend feel like using any other app, without compromising privacy.

Proposal can be read in full here: Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): Dust

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Submission: Cross-Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): ShadowVote by Stakely

ShadowVote is a lightweight, privacy-first voting app for Arbitrum DAOs with a simple user interface. It uses Aztec to keep individual votes fully private and Wormhole to bridge proposals and results. By hiding how members vote it helps prevent influence, coercion, and vote buying, making DAO governance fairer and more secure.

Full Proposal: Cross Chain Catalysts Proposal (Deployment Grant): ShadowVote