It's been almost 3 years since I participate in Project Catalyst - the DAO in the Cardano ecosystem. It grew in my eyes. The last couple of months there was a calm period in Catalyst but now Fund10 started and its overall budget is 50 million ADA. There is still time to submit your proposal (till July 13, 2023) and you can also participate as Community Reviewer (and also receive rewards) and as a voter (if you hold ADA).
Also, there is a new site for Project Catalyst https://projectcatalyst.io/ you can find all the basic information there.
Let's check which categories are available for proposals in this Fund and what is the budget for them (it's in ADA but I will take today's (8 July 2023) rate in $)
F10: Development & Infrastructure
8,685,600 ADA == $ 2 489 093
F10: Startups & Onboarding for Students
394,800 ADA == $ 113 376
F10: Products & Integrations
9,080,400 ADA == $ 2 607 655
F10: OSDE: Open Source Dev Ecosystem
3,158,400 ADA == $ 906 970
F10: SPO Tools & Community Projects
4,737,600 ADA == $ 1 360 455
F10: Developer Ecosystem - The Evolution
6,316,800 ADA == $ 1 814 012
F10: DAOs ❤ Cardano
3,158,400 ADA == $ 906 970
F10: Atala PRISM: Launch Ecosystem
3,158,400 ADA == $ 906 970
F10: dRep improvement and onboarding
394,800 ADA == $ 113 376
F10: Building on NMKR
394,800 ADA == $ 113 376
F10: Catalyst Open
1,400,000 ADA == $ 402 247
Catalyst Fund Operations
2,140,000 ADA == $ 614 863
Catalyst Systems improvements
3,570,000 ADA == $ 1 025 721
So you can see that even during the bear market - there are funds to work in cryptocurrency industry, and there are ways to start your own crypto-company or crypto-project.
The best way to start with Cardano Project Catalyst is to sign up at Ideascale https://cardano.ideascale.com/ and visit weekly townhalls each Wednesday.