Big corporations and governments aren’t just going to put blockchain and AI technologies in users’ hands—to serve users’ interests and not their own.

 The user-owned future isn’t going to just happen.

 We’re going to have to hack it open.

 [REDACTED] is a global convergence to shape the future of User-Owned AI and Chain Abstraction—a future where technology belongs to the people, not corporations.

 The [REDACTED] hackathon is a call to developers, creators, and visionaries to take on the biggest challenges in Chain Abstraction and at the intersection of AI and Web3.

 Guided by expert mentors and using the best developer tools, you'll have the opportunity to build game-changing products alongside peers, unleash your creativity, and push the limits of AI x Web3.

 And oh yeah, take a shot at over $500k in prize money.

Here’s how it goes:

  • Right now: Register here to qualify.

  • September 5: The [REDACTED] hackathon begins. An eight-week virtual immersion with other builders with specific themes, workshops, tutorials, and experts to provide interactive builder support.

  • November 9-11: The hackathon culminates live in Bangkok, Thailand, at [REDACTED]. It's an event, a conference, an IRL movement. Hackers get the chance to join a gathering of 1,500+ like-minded devs, founders, creatives, and leaders, upskilling and connecting to build the user-owned future. (And because we really want you to be there IRL, we’re making travel scholarships available to qualifying hackathon participants.)

It’s time to reclaim your sovereignty. Are you in?

  • When Remote: Sept 5 - October 31, 2024
  • When IRL: Nov 9-11, 2024
  • Where: Bangkok, Thailand

Requirements

  • Register for the Hackathon by clicking the “Join Hackathon” button. To complete registration, sign up to create a free Devpost account, or log in with an existing Devpost account. This will enable you to receive important updates and to create your Submission.
  • Entrants will obtain access to the required developer tools and complete a Project described below in Project Requirements. Use of the developer tools will be subject to the license agreement related thereto. Entry in the Hackathon constitutes consent for the Sponsor and Devpost to collect and maintain an entrant’s personal information for the purpose of operating and publicizing the Hackathon.
  • Build a Project that meets the requirements of one of the below descriptions (each a “Track”), to be eligible for the relevant Prize (each a “Track Prize”).
    • Native track – New and substantially modified existing projects built using NEAR and/or NEAR adjacent technology

    • Chain agnostic track – New and substantially modified existing projects built using blockchain and/or AI technology.

  • Create a video that includes footage that explains your project’s features and functionality through a comprehensive demonstration.
  • Complete and enter all of the required fields on the “Enter a Submission” page of the Hackathon Website (each a “Submission”) during the Submission Period and follow the requirements below.

Submission Requirements

Submissions to the Hackathon must meet the following requirements:

  • should not exceed three (3) minutes

  • should include footage that shows the Project functioning on the device for which it was built

  • must be uploaded to and made publicly visible on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook Video, or Youku, and a link to the video must be provided on the submission form on the Hackathon Website; and

  • must not include third party trademarks, or copyrighted music or other material unless the Entrant has permission to use such material.

  • Select the Track the Project is being submitted into.

  • Be the original work of the submitter, be solely owned by the submitter, and not violate the IP rights of any other person or entity.

  • Access must be provided to an Entrant’s working Project for judging and testing by providing a link to a website, functioning demo, or a test build. If Entrant’s website is private, Entrant must include login credentials in its testing instructions.
  • Multiple Submissions: An Entrant may not submit more than one Submission

     

    Judges & Criteria

    Eligible submissions will be evaluated by a panel of judges selected by the Sponsor (the “Judges”). Judges may be employees of the sponsor or third parties, may or may not be listed individually on the Hackathon Website, and may change before or during the Judging Period. Judging may take place in one or more rounds with one or more panels of Judges, at the discretion of the sponsor. 

    Stage One) The first stage will determine via pass/fail whether the ideas meet a baseline level of viability, in that the project reasonably fits the theme and reasonably applies the required APIs/SDKs featured in the Hackathon.

    Stage Two) All submissions that pass Stage One will be evaluated in Stage Two based on the following equally weighted criteria (the “Judging Criteria”):

    Entries will be judged on the following equally weighted criteria, and according to the sole and absolute discretion of the judges:

    • Technological Implementation (Does the interaction with NEAR demonstrate quality software development?)

    • Design (Is the user experience and design of the project well thought out?)

    • Potential Impact (Is the Project Open Source and how big of an impact could the project have on the NEAR ecosystem?)

    • Quality of the Idea (How creative and unique is the project?)

    • Project Sustainability (Is the plan for the Project thought out and realistic?)

    The scores from the Judges will determine the potential winners of the applicable Prizes. The Entrant(s) that are eligible for a Prize, and whose Submissions earn the highest overall scores based on the applicable Judging Criteria, will become potential winners of that Prize.

    Tie Breaking. For each Prize listed below, if two or more submissions are tied, the tied submission with the highest score in the first applicable criterion listed above will be considered the higher scoring submission. In the event any ties remain, this process will be repeated, as needed, by comparing the tied Submissions’ scores on the next applicable criterion. If two or more submissions are tied on all applicable criteria, the panel of Judges will vote on the tied submissions.

    See Rules for more on requirements.

 

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$310,000 in prizes
Native Track | Winner 1
Cryptocurrency logo
2 winners

Prize: $50,000 in $NEAR (1 winner)
Awarded to the top submission within the Native Track that demonstrates strong project potential and sustainability.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Native Track | Winner 3
Cryptocurrency logo
2 winners

Prize: $20,000 in $NEAR each (3 winners)
Awarded to the next 3 high-potential projects in the Native Track.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Native Track | Best of AI
Cryptocurrency logo
1 winner

Prize: $10,000 in $NEAR (1 winner)
For projects that combine AI and Web3 to enable a user-owned internet. Example ideas include autonomous agents on NEAR and AI-enhanced explorers.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Native Track | Best of Chain Abstraction
Cryptocurrency logo
1 winner

Prize: $10,000 in $NEAR (1 winner)
Awarded for improving UX across chains, enabling users to interact seamlessly without worrying about which chain they're on. Example ideas include cross-chain drops and multichain DAOs.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Native Track | Best tech
Cryptocurrency logo
2 winners

Prize: $10,000 in $NEAR (1 winner)

Best tooling or infrastructure project for builders, including RPC nodes, relayers, and bridges.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Native Track | Best DeFi
Cryptocurrency logo
1 winner

Prize: $10,000 in $NEAR (1 winner)

Awarded for innovative solutions in decentralized finance that push the boundaries of DeFi, such as cross-chain lending or on-chain liquidity management.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Native Track | Honorable Mentions
Cryptocurrency logo
7 winners

Prize: $5,000 in $NEAR each (up to 10 winners)
Up to 10 projects that stand out but don’t fit into the above categories.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Chain Agnostic Track | Bounty Winners
Cryptocurrency logo
3 winners

Prize: $20,000 in $NEAR each (up to 10 winners)
For the best projects not built on NEAR or its adjacent projects. Check ecosystem bounties for more information.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Aurora Consumer Dapps Bounty - 1st Place
1 winner

Prize: $65,000 in $AURORA and credits (3 winners)

Build a consumer-centric dApp that simplifies blockchain interactions.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Aurora Consumer Dapps Bounty - 2nd Place
1 winner

Aurora Consumer Dapps Bounty - 3rd Place
1 winner

Aurora Consumer Dapps Bounty - Wildcard 1
1 winner

Aurora Consumer Dapps Bounty - Wildcard 2
1 winner

Aurora Consumer Dapps Bounty - Wildcard 3
1 winner

Hacker's choice
Cryptocurrency logo
1 winner

Prize: $10,000 (1 winner)
Community voting will decide the winner, with a grand prize of $10,000. Promote your project and rally the community behind it.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Bitte - make-agent Bounty
2 winners

Prize: $15,000 (up to 5 winners)

Build agent plugins for the Bitte AI-driven wallet to expand blockchain interaction options. Up to $3,000 per accepted submission.

https://docs.bitte.ai/

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Calimero - Data Privacy Bounty - 1st Place
1 winner

Prize: $13,000 (3 winners)

Build privacy-focused applications on Calimero Network. Tracks include AI privacy-preserving tools, payroll management, and DAO privacy solutions.
The top 3 best projects overall will be awarded prizes.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Calimero - Data Privacy Bounty - 2nd Place
1 winner

Masa - Build AI Agent with FREE Masa Twitter Data
1 winner

Prize: $3,000 (1 winner)
Create an AI agent using real-time Masa Twitter data for innovative use cases.

For detailed instructions on the Masa bounty, please refer to https://bit.ly/MasaQuickStart1

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

ZettaBlock - AI/Web3 Bounty
2 winners

Prize: $2000 (2 winners)

Build AI-related dApps using Web3 data, such as a live blockchain news digest agent or an on-chain trading fraud detection tool.

For full details on all bounties, please refer to http://bit.ly/3Y45duX

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Jarrod Barnes

Jarrod Barnes
Head of Ecosystem | NEAR Foundation

Benjamin Kurrek

Benjamin Kurrek
Co-founder | Keypom

Min Qian Lu

Min Qian Lu
Co-founder | Keypom

Laura Cunningham

Laura Cunningham
Head of Product | NEAR Foundation

Eric Weiner

Eric Weiner
CTO | Pagoda

Amie H

Amie H
Co-founder | PublicAI

Bob Xu

Bob Xu
Founder | Questflow

David Vilela Freire

David Vilela Freire
Senior Software Engineer | Valory

Gabe Hamilton

Gabe Hamilton
Staff Software Engineer | Pagoda

Aidan Witeck

Aidan Witeck
AI Engineer | ZettaBlock

Petr Volnov

Petr Volnov
Co-founder | HERE Wallet

PlugRel aka Web3Plug

PlugRel aka Web3Plug
Head of Public Goods | NEAR Foundation

Alan Estrada

Alan Estrada
Protocol’s Governance Advocate | Meta Pool

Sandi Fatić

Sandi Fatić
Co-founder | Calimero

Alex Shevchenko

Alex Shevchenko
CEO | Aurora Labs

Slava Karkunov

Slava Karkunov
DevRel | Aurora Labs

Armand Didier

Armand Didier
Product Manager | Aurora Labs

Kendall Cole

Kendall Cole
Co-founder | Proximity Labs

Steph Orpilla

Steph Orpilla
Nillion

Brendan Playford

Brendan Playford
Co-founder | Masa

Calanthia Mei

Calanthia Mei
Co-founder | Masa

Robert Yan

Robert Yan
Technical Due Diligence, MetaWeb VC

Maria Yarotska

Maria Yarotska
NEAR DevHub

Lyudmil Ivanov
NEAR DevHub

Damian Parrino
NEAR DevHub

Garik Besson
NEAR DevHub

Matias Benary
NEAR DevHub

Kiskesis

Kiskesis
NEAR DevHub

Luis Freitas
Bitte

Nate Geier
Co-founder | Bitte Protocol

Judging Criteria

  • Technological Implementation
    Does the interaction with NEAR demonstrate quality software development?
  • Design
    Is the user experience and design of the project well thought out?
  • Potential Impact
    Is the Project Open Source and how big of an impact could the project have on the NEAR ecosystem?
  • Quality of the Idea
    How creative and unique is the project?
  • Project Sustainability
    Is the plan for the Project thought out and realistic?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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Hackathon sponsors

Ecosystem Bounty Sponsors

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