Hi everyone! Long time no see.

Today, I am here to tell you all about a plan, initially proposed by @blocktrades and has been in discussion for a bit now.

Hive Dev Fund: AI Agent Developer Tooling Pilot Program

TL;DR

A pilot program to fund LLM code assist/agent subscriptions for Hive developers, starting with Claude Code. The goal is to boost programming productivity across the ecosystem. $10,000 total over 2 months (~170 HBD/day) until it ends.

What is this?

This proposal creates a Hive Dev Fund a pilot program that provides LLM code assist/agent subscriptions to qualifying developers. The idea is simple: AI coding tools have reached a point where they can realistically multiply a developer's output by 10x (see 10x engineers, used to be a meme, but now quite the reality). At $100–200/month per developer, this is one of the most cost-effective investments the DHF can make in Hive's development/programming capacity.

As mentioned before, the idea was initially proposed by @blocktrades and evolved through discussions.

Why does this matter?

Quite a few devs on Hive (especially those in countries where $100–200/month is a significant expense) are either not using AI coding tools at all or are cobbling together free alternatives that don't deliver the same results. The difference between using the best available tools and using free alternatives is massive.

How does it work?

Application Process

Developers apply through a straightforward process:

1. Apply - Submit an application demonstrating your involvement with programming as a whole (bonus points for Hive related dev) (existing projects, Git contributions, known track record, etc.) or a clear plan for what you intend to build.
2. Review - Applications are vetted based on developer history, quality of prior work, and the viability of proposed Hive contributions.
3. Approval & Disbursement - Approved developers will receive funding for their subscription.

During the pilot program, please write and share a post on Hive why you'd like to participate in the program and receive funding and what are some of your plans. It doesn't have to be a lengthy "explain yourself" post, but something basic, with your credentials. GitHub link, past projects etc.

Should the program continue, I will be creating a dedicated website for it with a much more appealing/data rich system.

If you are a brand new user without a Hive account and would like to apply to this program, please send me a message on Hive's Discord server and I'll help you create one.

Tiers

For the time being during the pilot program, we are focusing on Claude Code subscriptions, which have two tiers. $100 (5x Max) and $200 (20x Max) applicants will be granted either of these packages depending on their application.

Accountability

After each month, recipients are expected to show tangible progress whether that's reaching a close-to-MVP point on a new Hive project, meaningful updates and maintenance on an existing one, or concrete contributions to Hive core infrastructure. This isn't maintenance for the sake of calling it maintenance, we're looking for real, verifiable output that reaches the hands of the users.

Funding will continue as long as the developer is producing good work and the Hive Dev Fund is able to cover it. The goal isn't to kickstart someone and cut them off, it's to remove the financial barrier that prevents developers from using the best tools available.

Scope

We are currently looking for development in the following:

• dApps and frontends — New applications, features, and improvements
• Core infrastructure — Contributions to hived, HAF, Hivemind, and related systems
• Open source tooling — Libraries, plugins, and developer tools that benefit the ecosystem

Why Claude Code specifically?

There was some discussion about whether to be tool-agnostic (like OpenAI Codex). The decision to use Claude Code comes down to a few practical reasons:

1. Core team alignment — The core Hive development team already uses Claude Code, and repositories are being optimized for it.
2. Ease of Use — Claude Code is currently the "easiest" (debatable, ofc) tool to start using AI coding agents.

Of course, these are subject to review at later.

Budget

This is a pilot program, therefore, the budget is intentionally conservative to keep the barrier to approval low and demonstrate results before requesting additional funding. Therefore, any funds that are not used (and should the program be cancelled after approximately 3 months funding plus some extra time) will be returned to the DHF.

Why a pilot?

This is deliberately small in scope. A pilot program allows us to:

• Prove the concept
• Establish evaluation criteria
• Generate tangible results

If the pilot is successful, a follow-up proposal with expanded scope and budget can be submitted based on real data about developer output and program effectiveness. Honestly, in the future, I would love if Hive Dev Fund became something like a "small scale DHF" that can help fund developers' contribution to the Hive ecosystem, on a smaller scale, yet faster and hopefully more effective than the DHF itself as there are no vote thresholds.

Who is going to be the manager of this?

Many of you may know me from my work operating api.deathwing.me, one of the most used public API nodes on Hive, serving over 180k unique users monthly at one point. I've also developed Drone (a custom API middleware, now replaced Jussi) as well as FRIDAY (a notification bot for Discord, operating for 5 years at this point), and have been a consensus witness (top 20) and active contributor to the Hive ecosystem for years.

I'll be handling the application review process and fund disbursement. Administration costs are relatively minimal. (AI agents, LLM spendings, we're aiming to have minimal "human" administration cost as much as possible, especially during the pilot program)

Your Feedback Matters

This is a community-funded initiative and your input matters. If you have questions, suggestions, or concerns, please share them. The goal is to make Hive development faster, more accessible, and more productive for everyone involved.

Vote for the Proposal

• PeakD: Click here
• Ecency: Click here
• Hive.blog: Click here