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Ecosystem
February 6, 2023
Announcing the first Flow Hackathon with $500,000 in prizes
Flow
Announcing the first Flow Hackathon with $500,000 in prizes

Flow is going big on hackathons in 2023 with over $3,000,000 in prizes throughout the year.

We’re excited to announce the first (“genesis”) Flow Hackathon – a global competition taking place virtually with over $500,000 in prizes from February 21-26. With support from Google, Animoca Brands, Circle, Evaluate, .find, DWF Labs, Coindesk, Flowverse, Flovatar, Flowns, and more, the hackathon will feature 12+ in real life (IRL) events worldwide. This will be the first in a series of hackathons on Flow throughout the year, with a committed total prize pool of over $3,000,000.

About the first Flow Hackathon

The hackathon’s main theme is innovating for mainstream Web3 adoption. From day one, Flow was designed for onboarding mainstream consumers – from its unique multi-node architecture to its developer-friendly smart contract programming language, Cadence. Along the way, it has attracted marquee brands and leagues including Mattel, NBA, NFL, Ticketmaster, and LaLiga. Most recently, the wildly popular Doodles franchise chose to expand its community to Flow, capitalizing on Flow’s easy onboarding, composability and scalability to incorporate dynamic identity into its Doodles 2 collectibles.

Regardless of if you’re a Flow expert or just learning about Flow for the first time, this hackathon offers an exciting opportunity for developers to showcase what’s possible on Flow. Leading up to the hackathon, there will be opportunities to engage in education and onboarding from February 10 to February 20. The hackathon submission period will take place from February 21 to February 26. An awards ceremony will be held once all submissions have been reviewed by the judges (approximately 2-3 weeks).

Whether you’re looking to build a mobile game, DeFi application, or create new experiences on top of existing apps like NBA Top Shot, everyone is encouraged to register and participate in this friendly competition packed with special prizes:

Primary Track

Best Overall ($100,000 in prizes): The Flow Hackathon’s primary track is dedicated to building innovative on-chain logic targeted to a mainstream audience. This means you can build anything you want, based on the guiding principle: would my friends enjoy using this app, even if they don’t know anything about Web3? Prizes will be awarded to the top three submissions.

Secondary Tracks & Bounties

Best Mobile Experience ($100,000 in prizes): Most of Web3 is still desktop dependent, and it’s time that changed. This track is all about meeting the users where they are – on their iPhones and Android phones (without requiring them to buy a specialized device). Whether you’re building a game, digital collectibles, or something never before seen, focus on creating a mobile Web3 experience that will delight users while feeling native, safe and intuitive.

Best Use of Walletless Onboarding ($100,000 in prizes): There is a new way to approach user onboarding in Web3: walletless onboarding (learn more about it here). Apps on Flow are now able to onboard via email or social identities and abstract the wallet completely, then seamlessly upgrade to self-custody when users are ready or as your app demands it. This is mostly uncharted territory, so use this hackathon as an opportunity to explore what the hybrid-custody onboarding experience should be like.

Extending the Ecosystem ($100,000 in prizes): Smart contracts make it possible to extend existing experiences or build entirely new experiences on top of existing ones. This composability is one of the most powerful features of building on-chain logic on Flow. This track is dedicated to any app extending or building on existing ecosystem projects.

Other prizes and bounties ($100,000+ in prizes)

Bonus: All participants are eligible for a free find.xyz domain name and a special proof-of-participation NFT.

Participants will also be able to build in person at a series of IRL builder sprints planned around the world in Tokyo, Hangzhou, Mumbai, Kolkata, and more. Check the full list of official events here.

Ready to dive in? To register now or learn more, visit hackathon.flow.com.