Virtual Hackathon Encourages Developers to Test Out New Blockchains

BlockShow and San Francisco Blockchain Week have partnered with Gitcoin for a hackathon — with $15,000 in prizes to be won.

The event follows the success of the Unitize online conference, which ran from July 6 to 10 and attracted an estimated 10,000 attendees.

It is hoped that the Unitize Virtual Hackathon will allow hackers from all over the world to work together to achieve long-term blockchain adoption in a wide range of sectors, including decentralized finance and gaming.

Hurdles do remain to achieving widespread adoption, and according to Gitcoin, one of them is consistently providing a unique, compelling digital experience for users. To this end, hackers are being encouraged to work with the best in the business to generate scalable, long-lasting platforms that deliver high levels of engagement.

Ultimately, the hackathon’s ambition extends well beyond cash prizes and creating something cool. Sponsored workshops are being offered so that participants can learn new skills, and the event has the support of mentors from across the blockchain ecosystem. Even though the hackathon only runs until July 27, it’s hoped talented individuals will be able to connect with awesome collaborators, enabling them to cultivate working relationships that will last long into the future.

What’s being offered?

Seven sponsors are backing the Unitize Virtual Hackathon: Gitcoin Core, Chainlink, Tellor, Terra, Outplay Games, Nervos Network and NuCypher.

Each is offering bounties with cash prizes. For example, Chainlink is offering $250 to 10 winners who manage to connect smart contracts to price-referencing contracts. The overall best project that connects smart contracts to external data will receive $1,500 — and the judge’s pick in this category will walk away with $1,000.

NuCypher has an open-ended bounty of Ether (ETH) worth $4,000, with prizes awarded for the most interesting projects built using its technology. The judging criteria is simple: the novelty of the use case, the difficulty of technical implementation and the usefulness of the submission. Elsewhere, there’s a $1,250 bounty for those who create the best .io-style battle royale game using Game3.js.

Overall, the goal of this hackathon is simple: to encourage developers to test out various blockchain solutions while being incentivized for their time.

“Gripping workshops”

Since the Unitize Virtual Hackathon began on July 6, a “range of fascinating workshops” have been held — all of which can be viewed on the Gitcoin website.

Events included an introduction to Terra — a new platform for DeFi DApps — along with a deep dive into what can be achieved using Chainlink. Another workshop explored building on Tellor, with Terra also offering a presentation on the economics of stablecoins. NuCypher shared how its technologies can be used to share data in a private, scalable, trustless way.

Five simple steps have been offered to help participants make the most of what the hackathon has to offer: First, they can visit a prize explorer to check out the bounties offered by the event’s sponsors. Next, they can join the hackathon’s chat workspace in order to touch base with fellow hackers and ask questions of the Gitcoin team. Once a team is formed, they can start work on Gitcoin and begin building. Once a project is completed, work can be submitted through the prize pages devoted to each bounty.

With less than a week to go until the July 27 deadline, the clock is ticking, and creativity is in full flow. It looks like the judges will have an impossible task as they attempt to select worthy winners from a vibrant range of applicants.