Funding & Grants - The Avalanche Foundation has announced the second cohort of Retro9000 grantees [1] - Over $250 thousand in retroactive funding is being awarded to Avalanche builders [1] - The funding comes from a $40 million pool [1] - 8 projects have been awarded retroactive grants [1] Project Focus - The grants recognize teams shipping Avalanche L1s (Layer 1 blockchains) and infrastructure tooling live on mainnet [1] - The program rewards projects already live on mainnet with new L1s and developer tooling [1]

Core Argument - In the age of AI-driven software development, the ability to precisely communicate intent through specifications is paramount, surpassing the importance of coding itself [1] - Specifications, rather than prompts or code, are emerging as the fundamental unit of programming, positioning spec-writing as a critical skill [1] - Rigorous, versioned specifications serve as the single source of truth, compiling into documentation, evaluations, model behaviors, and potentially code [1] Technical Focus - The industry emphasizes the need for executable specifications in AI systems to align human teams and machine intelligence, drawing a parallel to the US Constitution [1] - OpenAI's Model Spec is presented as a real-world example of executable specifications [1] Future Implications - The industry anticipates a shift in developer tooling, where communication becomes the most important artifact in engineering [1]