Cardano | Strategic Benchmarking & Ecosystem Optimization

Context

As ecosystems mature, many Layer 1s struggle with the same question: how to evolve their grant programs from early-stage experimentation to long-term ecosystem value.

In Cardano’s case, the answer couldn’t come from inside the system. The community turned to STORM Partners’ Strategy & Research team to conduct a comparative analysis of its funding infrastructure, benchmarking Project Catalyst against Optimism’s retroPGF and Hedera’s grant council.

The Cardano Foundation wasn’t involved. This was a community-funded, ecosystem-wide reality check and a blueprint for future grant refinement.

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The Challenge

• Evaluate Cardano’s decentralized funding model against hybrid and council-driven approaches
  
  
• Identify structural weaknesses in outcome delivery, retention, and ecosystem alignment
  
  
• Deliver insights that could inform Catalyst’s future rounds, regardless of Foundation influence
  
  
• Translate abstract governance trade-offs into actionable strategy
  
  

Our Approach

Cross-Ecosystem Benchmarking

We built a comparative framework across five dimensions: feasibility, governance, economics, innovation incentives, and ecosystem alignment.

Quantitative & Qualitative Analysis

Our team scraped on-chain and off-chain grant data, tracked retention, and mapped liquidity and project outcomes across Cardano, Hedera, and Optimism.

Community Delivery Model

Findings were published in an open report with an accompanying video series, designed to inform both proposal strategy and governance reform.

Impact

• Identified critical gaps in Catalyst’s ability to retain capital and talent
  
  
• Introduced campaign-based funding as a strategy to improve ROI
  
  
• Proposed hybrid governance to balance quality control with decentralization
  
  
• Offered data-driven insights now referenced in ongoing Catalyst discussions
  
  

“This wasn’t ecosystem cheerleading—it was a governance recalibration. STORM Partners delivered the kind of comparative analysis usually reserved for institutional strategy teams.”
— Internal Reviewer, Community Governance Working Group

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STORM Partners Services Delivered

• Cross-chain funding infrastructure benchmarking
  
  
• Strategy & governance analysis
  
  
• Quantitative and narrative KPI development
  
  
• Independent delivery via community funding
  
  
• Catalyst proposal support aligned with strategic gaps
  
  

‍What This Demonstrates

STORM Partners’ Strategy & Research team helps ecosystems step outside their own assumptions. We deliver the kind of independent, data-driven insight that clarifies governance strategy, strengthens funding design, and enables protocols to scale with institutional credibility.