In the run-up to the Summit, the first ever Cardano Summit Hackathon will challenge participants to develop tech-driven solutions for the theme of Transparency for Governance. The worldwide Hackathon will be held online and an expert jury will decide who takes home the main prize to bring their ideas to life, with the winner announced during the Gala Awards Dinner on day 2 of the Summit.

This Hackathon is supported by Demeter by TxPipe. Build and deploy your dApp on a single platform. No need to setup your own node or other infrastructure components. Simply start coding. Participants can sign up to access Demeter services via this link.

Lead Organizer:

The Cardano Foundation is an independent, Swiss-based not-for-profit organization, working to advance and anchor the public digital infrastructure Cardano as a utility for financial and social systems, thus empowering the digital architects of the future to solve problems in new ways. The Foundation develops infrastructure tooling—including where there may not be an immediate commercial use case—plus strengthens operational resilience, and drives diversity of on-infrastructure use cases as well as the development of sound and representative governance.

Prizes

The Cardano Summit Hackathon winner will receive $10,000 plus a travel and accommodation allowance of $5,000 for their trip to Dubai.

Timeline

10 August - Hackathon Start & Registration
10 August - Recording: Kick-Off Webinar | Cardano Summit Hackathon
15 August - Recording: Workshop | Intro to building on Cardano & Smart Contracts with Aiken
Slides from Workshop 1 can be found here
22 August -Recording: AMA Session | Cardano Summit Hackathon
31 August - Sprint Session | Cardano Summit Hackathon
18 September 12:00 PM UTC - Submissions Deadline 12:00
18-29 September - Project Judging
2 October - Winners contacted
4 November - Winners announced at the Gala Awards Dinner
4 November - Prize Collection

Judges

Frederik Gregaard, CEO, Cardano Foundation
Mel McCann, VP of Engineering, Cardano Foundation
Sebastian Bode, Director of Engineering, Cardano Foundation
Nikhil Joshi, COO, EMURGO
Takashi Hayashida, Managing Partner, EMURGO Ventures

Judging Criteria

Innovation & Necessity (30%)
The idea itself: Evaluates the uniqueness of the proposal and if it solves a critical need within the Cardano ecosystem.
Product & Tech Maturity (30%)
The technical execution of the idea: Assesses the robustness and readiness of the solution, considering the technology used, the degree of completion, and the fitness for deployment.
Usability & User Experience (20%)
The product’s presentation layer: Studies the accessibility of the created solution, its design, and how it addresses the needs of blockchain users, namely security, ease of use, and visual appeal.
Go-to-Market Strategy (10%)
How the team sells the idea: Looks at the plan to introduce the product to the market, the user acquisition strategy, and the paths for growing the product’s community, assessing their viability and potential effectiveness.
Team (10%)
The team behind the idea: Examines the skills, experience, and composition of the team, focusing on the team's ability to execute the project and bring the product to market. It will also appraise how the team performs in presentations and during interactions with the Hackathon org team.