General Resources
Program Dates: 27 Oct – 16 Nov, 2025
Questbook Application (Grant Page): Invisible Garden: Arbitrum Stylus Tooling Residency (Buenos Aires, 3 Weeks)
Website: https://invisible.garden/
Milestone 1: Topics Outline • Curriculum & Teaching Plan
Deliverable: “Stylus Training Session Plan, Schedule & Full Curriculum”.
This document outlines the pedagogical arc, learning objectives, and hands-on progression from Stylus fundamentals to a fully functional AMM implementation.
Scope (high level):
- Session 1–3: Introduce Stylus and the Rust-based toolchain; progress from basic contract development to data types and common patterns.
- Session 4: Implement a Uniswap-style constant-product AMM in Stylus (building on session foundations).
- Session 5–6: Speedruns + debugging, emphasizing experimentation, iteration, and live problem solving.
Full document: Stylus Training: Session Plan, Schedule & Full Curriculum - Google Docs
Milestone 2: GitHub Repositories (Pre-event)
General deliverables: Initial public org and repositories. README with quickstart and environment verification. Issue/label structure for tracking participant progress.
Outcomes: Established and maintained the public GitHub organization and project pipeline used for submissions, weekly progress tracking, and mentor review. This milestone provides the “audit trail” for the residency’s open-source outcomes.
Key artifacts:
- IG public GitHub org: invisible garden · GitHub
- Quickstart & Submissions Template README: arg25-Projects/README_template.md at main · invisible-garden/arg25-Projects · GitHub
Environment verification: done case-by-case per project (given diverse tech stacks), with mentors supporting setup and validation at the end of each project’s Week 1 progress report.
Qualification process (summary): projects receive the “FOLLOW-INSTRUCTIONS” label only when the README_template is fully complied with (team info, description, tech stack, objectives, weekly progress for Weeks 1–3, and final wrap-up including repo/demo/slides links, learnings, and next steps). Issues are addressed directly in-person by qualified mentors; PRs and updates remain auditable via the repository.
Milestone 3: First-half Sessions • Student Content Proof (Sessions 1-3, Week 1)
General deliverables: Student evidence for the first half of the sessions. Associated repos/links and short recaps.
Internal annex: Execution Log & Evidence Pack (Sessions 1-3): attendance, per-session checklists, code links/PRs, screenshots, short recordings, blockers & TA notes, rubric alignment.
Outcomes: Week 1 ran from Oct 27-31, 2025. Sessions 1-3 were delivered Oct 28-30, 2025.
Lecture recordings
| Date | Lecture | Recording |
|---|---|---|
| 28 Oct 2025 | Intro to Stylus | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlSwDUHkxqM |
| 29 Oct 2025 | Working with Stylus CLI | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4hkhyUfRG4 |
| 30 Oct 2025 | Stylus Data Types | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQRF1137iCo |
Week 1 Student Evidence & PR Audit Trail: Invisible Garden: Arbitrum Stylus Tooling Residency - Student Content Proof - Google Sheets
Evidence pack format: Full session recordings were used as proof instead of short clips/screenshots.
TA notes (high-level): Primary support during Week 1 focused on environment setup, toolchain troubleshooting (Rust/Foundry/Docker), and helping teams adopt the weekly README + PR cadence.
Milestone 4: Second-half Sessions • Student Content Proof (Sessions 4-6, Week 2)
General deliverables: Student evidence for the second half of sessions. Associated repos/links and short recaps.
Internal annex: Execution Log & Evidence Pack (Sessions 4-6): attendance, per-session checklists, code links/PRs, screenshots, short recordings, blockers & TA notes, rubric alignment.
Outcomes: Week 2 ran from Nov 3-7, 2025. Sessions 4-6 were delivered Nov 3, 6, and 7, 2025.
Lecture recordings
| Date | Lecture | Recording |
|---|---|---|
| 03 Nov 2025 | Uniswap fork in Stylus (coding-based) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG402NwdjI8 |
| 06 Nov 2025 | Stylus speedrun (1) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO4bidk7sRM |
| 07 Nov 2025 | Stylus speedrun (2) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NstxDEWnP9E |
Week 2 Student Evidence & PR Audit Trail: Invisible Garden: Arbitrum Stylus Tooling Residency - Student Content Proof - Google Sheets
Evidence pack format: Full session recordings were used as proof instead of short clips/screenshots.
TA notes (high-level): Week 2 support centered on integration triage, dependency drift, and making project updates auditable and reproducible via README/PR discipline.
Attendance: Summarized as a per-team % (link placeholder for the final attendance table will be inserted in the final report).
Milestone 5: Students’ Projects (Project List + Closure + Demo Day)
General deliverables: Project list, repos, and key merged PRs. Project closure & mentorship, plus Demo Day summary.
Outcomes: Over 37 projects were initiated, 26 were formally shortlisted for graduation, and 10 were submitted to the Stylus track, and 6 qualified under Stylus criteria.
Demo Day: Invisible Garden Demo Day 🌺 · Luma (78 attendees)
Recordings: Day #16_IG_Demo Day_15/11/25 - Google Drive
Week 1 → Week 3 PR overview spreadsheet (Submitted/Qualified/Demoed/Shortlisted): Invisible Garden: Arbitrum Stylus Tooling Residency - Student Content Proof - Google Sheets
Projects Shortlisted for Graduation can be found here: Invisible Garden: Arbitrum Stylus Tooling Residency - Student Content Proof - Google Sheets
Qualified projects with qualification criteria notes + one-line descriptors
| # | Project | Qualification notes | One-line descriptor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heirloom Inheritance Protocol | strong top-tier candidate [DEMOED] | Secure inheritance pattern: client-side encryption + on-chain lineage primitives designed for reuse. |
| 2 | Confidential EVVM (zkEVVM) | technically sound; confidential execution direction [DEMOED] | Explores confidential execution patterns on Stylus with Rust-native cryptography at the core. |
| 3 | ZK Wallet | functional demo + commit history; ZK principles on Stylus | End-to-end ZK wallet flow with on-chain verification on Stylus, backed by working demo/commits. |
| 4 | ZKPJWT (Zero-Knowledge Proof JSON Web Token Protocol) | validated implementation; shows ZK pipeline understanding | ZK authentication pipeline centered on JWT semantics, demonstrating proof generation → verification workflow. |
| 5 | Lancer Private Voting System | private voting mechanics aligned with Stylus requirements | Private voting prototype emphasizing verifiability and clean separation of proof/verification logic. |
| 6 | Torresm | content-rich; needs further commit-level verification (baseline qualified) [DEMOED] | Rich submission with substantial content; flagged for deeper commit-level verification. |
Project closure & mentorship (summary notes)
The cohort demonstrated practical Stylus development through a range of privacy- and cryptography-oriented prototypes. Several submissions emphasized verifiers, proof workflows, and “hybrid compute” patterns, where heavy logic resides off-chain or in specialized circuits, while Stylus verifies and coordinates on-chain state.
Demo Day lineup (as presented)
- KOKI’O (Alumni Highlight)
- Quiproof
- Heirloom Inheritance Protocol (Stylus Track)
- Confidential EVVM (zkEVVM) (Stylus Track)
- Dreamteam zkgame
- Torresm (Stylus Track)
- Multi-point KZG Proof Verification for the EVM
Milestone 6: Lecture Videos (Final Cut)
General deliverables: Workshop videos (raw + final cut), slides, and materials. Video descriptions with chapter timestamps and links to code; there were no new repos committed by the mentor, only live lessons.
Outcomes: Final cuts are published as a single YouTube playlist. Each video includes a complete description, which is timestamped with chapter markers where applicable.
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDQrbdlvR_eEKv42YTC1DNzgdbv-x_NOs
Materials/slides used (titles + dates):
-
Intro to Stylus, 28 Oct 2025
Materials Used: -
Working with Stylus CLI, 29 Oct 2025
Materials Used:-
Code Used: Hello World • Stylus by Example
-
Stylus Data Types, 30 Oct 2025
Materials Used: -
Uniswap fork in Stylus, 03 Nov 2025
Materials Used: -
Stylus Speedrun (1 & 2), 06–07 Nov 2025
Hosted without slides following these Stylus Speed Run Challenges:
Milestone 7: Final Report
1) Executive Summary
What is Invisible Garden?
- A university-like experience for Ethereum devs
- A focused pop-up city for neurodivergent builders
- A collective of world-class mentors
- A community fostering deep, lasting connections
- A registered NGO dedicated to Public Goods
What Invisible Garden is NOT
- A crypto holiday with no tangible outcomes.
Summary of Achievements & Impact on Arbitrum
Invisible Garden delivered 6 public Arbitrum-focused lectures (≈1.5 hours each) plus on-demand mentorship sessions, supporting 53 selected builders through a structured learning + shipping loop for Arbitrum Stylus (Rust/C++ smart contracts interoperable with Solidity). The program culminated in a public Demo Day and produced an auditable set of open-source artifacts: a public GitHub org, standardized project templates, progress labels, and public session recordings. Half (3/6) demo day-selected projects were part of the Arbitrum Stylus track.
How the Grant Funding Helped
The $25,000 grant enabled Invisible Garden to run a focused Stylus residency and to:
- Deliver structured sessions (academic content + hands-on mentorship),
- Maintain public evidence artifacts (repos, templates, labels, and recordings),
- Support the student project pipeline and incentives (including Stylus qualification + prizes).
2) Performance Against KPIs
| KPI / Output | Projected (from proposal) | Actual (from delivered info) | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshops (Arbitrum-focused) | ~9 sessions | 6 public lectures (~1.5h each) + on-demand mentorship sessions | Academic Schedule - Google Sheets |
| Target attendees (builders) | ~65–75 | 54 builders in attendance (+ external guests; e.g. 78 at Demo Day) | Builders Daily Check-in - Google Sheets |
| Expected projects | ~20–25 | 37 projects initiated; 26 general submissions accepted; 10 formally submitted to the Arbitrum Stylus track; 6 qualified (of which 3 demoed) | Invisible Garden: Arbitrum Stylus Tooling Residency - Student Content Proof - Google Sheets |
| Repo engagement | ~100 stars/forks (aggregate expectation) | 33 forks + 7 stars (40 cumulative) | Forks · invisible-garden/arg25-Projects · GitHub |
| Student evidence packs | Sessions S1–S6 with proof | Evidence available via each project’s weekly progress sections (Week 1 & Week 2) and milestone proof sections; PRs traceable via repos listed in M5 | Invisible Garden: Arbitrum Stylus Tooling Residency - Student Content Proof - Google Sheets |
| Public lecture content | Sessions recorded + final cut | Final-cut playlist published publicly | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDQrbdlvR_eEKv42YTC1DNzgdbv-x_NOs |
3) Qualitative Impact & Community Feedback
Most Significant Non-Quantitative Outcome
The cohort validated Arbitrum Stylus as a production-ready environment for high-performance cryptography through implementations spanning Groth16 verifiers, Noir/UltraHonk proofs, and hybrid architectures using Stylus as a low-cost verification layer for heavy logic while retaining EVM interoperability.
Highlighted Stylus-focused Student Projects (Qualified)
From Milestone 5, 6 submissions qualified under Stylus-focused criteria:
- Heirloom Inheritance Protocol: strong top-tier candidate
GitHub - DaroMacs/arg25-Projects at heirloom-inheritance-protocol - Confidential EVVM (zkEVVM): technically sound; confidential execution direction
GitHub - sebastianlujan/arg25-Projects: ZKEvvm fork - Invisible Garden Arg25 - ZK Wallet: functional demo + commit history; ZK principles on Stylus
GitHub - Jonatan-Chaverri/arg25-Projects at zk_wallet - ZKPJWT: validated implementation; shows ZK pipeline understanding
GitHub - DevCristobalvc/arg25-Projects at zkpjwt - Lancer Private Voting System: private voting mechanics aligned with Stylus requirements
GitHub - 0xDarioSanchez/IG25-Submission at lancer - Torresm: content-rich; flagged for deeper commit-level verification (baseline qualified)
GitHub - thiagorochatr/arg25-Projects at thiago-torresm
Twitter/X Highlights
- Grant completion/bounty announcement:
https://x.com/invisiblgarden/status/1994071813203055047?s=20 - Grant announcement thread (start of grant):
https://x.com/invisiblgarden/status/1983659440009035823?s=46
Testimonials/Participant Feedback (2-3)
Testimonials and recap video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qjg7SNcDCihbOh3txm1VydmkddWb4Vde/view?usp=sharing
4) Financial Summary
Grant size: $25,000 USD
High Level Utilization
| No. | Category | Utilization % of the Grant | Total Amount (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Event venue & utility rent | 16% | 4,000.10 |
| 2 | Builders accommodation | 25% | 6,222.03 |
| 3 | Organizer team | 27% | 6,832.44 |
| 4 | Mentor Engagement - Accommodation | 7% | 1,856.40 |
| 5 | Event supplies and content production | 5% | 1,188.21 |
| 6 | GCC Grant for Chinese builders | 0% | 0.00 |
| 7 | Arbitrum bounty | 20% | 5,000.00 |
| TOTAL | 25,099.18 |
Note: This is approximately 22% of total actual program expenses (~$100k).
Meaningful Differences vs. Original Plan
- Reallocated a portion of the “Mentor Engagement - Accommodation” budget to “Content Production” to ensure high-quality recording of academic sessions for public consumption.
- Increased the allocation for “Mentor Support” to cover dedicated office hours for the Rust/Stylus transition, which proved more hands-on than anticipated.
- Consolidated bounty pools to reward the highest-quality “Stylus-native” implementations (Rust/C++) rather than spreading thinly across generic dApps.
5) Future Plans & Continued Ecosystem Alignment
Next Steps Post-Grant
- Continue publishing and indexing reusable educational resources (sessions, labs, homework, examples) so they remain usable for new Arbitrum builders.
- Continue supporting the open-source student project pipeline (issues, PRs, maintenance notes, follow-up improvements).
- Day 30 (Consolidation): Finalize the “Stylus Reference Index”, a clean documentation site that points to specific code snippets (e.g., ZK verification, encryption) in the student repositories for easy community reuse.
- Day 60 (Education): Publish 2–3 technical “Deep Dive” articles breaking down the architecture of the winning projects (specifically Heirloom and Confidential EVVM) to serve as case studies for new Stylus developers.
- Day 90 (Integration): Integrate recorded lectures and “Hybrid Compute” patterns into the core curriculum for the next Invisible Garden cohort, ensuring Stylus is a default, not an option.
Continued Engagement in Arbitrum
Invisible Garden functions as a “permanent itinerant home” for Arbitrum developer growth. We don’t just run a cohort and leave; we maintain the alumni network as active contributors. Future cohorts will build directly on top of the open-source repositories created here (e.g., extending the Heirloom Protocol with new recovery mechanisms), creating a compounding library of Stylus-native tooling that grows with every residency.
Follow-on funding/partnerships
Follow-on partnerships and co-funding opportunities between Invisible Garden and Arbitrum in 2026 could involve our signature devcity (“hard-mode”), plus lightweight, year-long collaborations across multiple touchpoints to engage our builders alumni network online and in-person. We will continue hosting a core residency in India ahead of Devcon 8, where Arbitrum could become one of our lead partners, and we’ll host smaller specialized events (e.g., masterclasses) leading up to it. Our main value offer is steady developer engagement and a recurring feedback loop around what builders actually struggle with as they continue to ship.
6) Additional Remarks
Program Scale (context)
IG Chiang Mai 2024
- 830 applications → 160 developers accepted
- 80 on-site developers from 15+ countries
- 83 workshops, 40+ mentors
- 34 open-source projects; 22 graduated
IG Buenos Aires 2025
- 1038 applications → ~300 accepted
- 54 on-site developers from 25+ countries
- 57 academic sessions (~46 hours), 40+ mentors
- 43 open-source projects initiated; 65% graduated
IG Buenos Aires’ Arbitrum Stylus (zoom in)
- ~50 on-site developers from 25+ countries
- 70+ external guests signed up for Demo Day; 700+ for the closing ceremony; plus additional attendance across three weeks of open sessions
- 6 academic sessions with lead mentor Alok Kumar (GitHub: surfer05)
- ~9 hours of content (subset recorded and published)
- Dedicated mentoring sessions to builder teams
- 10 Stylus-focused projects initiated; 6 formally qualified under strict Stylus-native criteria (Rust/C++)