NEARCON hackathon is a 48-hour IRL hacking session for those who want to team up, get familiar with NEAR, build a prototype for their project, pitch it, and win.
This hackathon could be a great start for something amazing, or a way to fail fast with an unsuccessful hypothesis. We appreciate both, because the best way to build the next big thing is to fail enough times to find just the right idea.
Requirements
What to build?
Submit a solution for one of the sponsored challenges!
The hackers are expected to build on NEAR and present an MVP of a product that focuses on one of the 7 NEARCON’s panels:
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Future of finance – DeFi apps and features
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Sustainability – blockchain solutions for green tech and environment
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Governance – decentralizing NEAR protocol; making DAO useful in real world
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Future of work – edu tech on blockchain; job market solutions for Web3 professionals and beyond
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Web2 to Web3 – bootstrapping “traditional” apps and tools on blockchain
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Technical content – tooling, documentation and tutorials
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Creators – utility on top of NFTs
The submission must be created or substantially modified during the hackathon. At least one of the team members must be present at the hackathon in person to consult the mentors and pitch the project during the finale. The code of the submission must be open source – please check the rules or ask a mentor if you have any questions!
How to win?
The judges will be looking for technical excellence, bright ideas, bold approach, and solid team spirit. We’re looking for committed builders who understand their market and are intended to stay in the NEAR ecosystem long term.
Our mentors will be tracking the teams’ progress to make sure that the winners have the energy and experience to keep building when the hackathon is over.
Finally, top-10 teams will be invited to a pitch competition to crashtest their ideas in front of a live audience of founders, VC’s and core ecosystem experts.
Incentivized hacking
We want the best builders, not best managers to win, and that’s why we agiled the structure of the hackathon. Each team will receive an incentivized checklist to guide them through the submission process earning some tokens along the way.
The items on this checklist aren’t obligatory, but in order to win and successfully pitch their projects, the hackers are invited to follow through, report their progress at daily checkpoints, run their presentations during the pitch drill, and earn a participation bonus regardless of their final score.
The checklist includes:
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Forming a team
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Making a GitHub repo
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Creating a pitch deck from template or scratch
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Attending mentor sessions
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Visiting Pagoda’s workshop
…and more items to make their work at the hackathon effective, and meaningful.
Prizes
$182,300 in prizes
Prizes paid in cryptocurrency
1st Place Winner
2nd Place Winner
3rd Place Winner
Future of finance track winner
Sustainability track winner
Governance track winner
Future of work track winner
Web2 to Web3 track winner
Technical content track winner
Creators track winner
Pagoda bounty winner
(2)
Mintbase bounty winner
(3)
Covalent bounty winner
Roketo bounty winner
Ref finance bounty
Dragon's Den – Best Pitch winner
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges

Marieke Flament
CEO, NEAR Foundation

Illia Polosukhin
Co-Founder, NEAR Inc

Julie Bissinger
CEO, Pagoda

Sasha Hudzilin
Co-creator, Human Guild

Kirill Abramov
Team Leader, Aurora

Carolin Wend
COO, Mintbase

Taras Dovgal
CEO, Kikimora Labs

Yuliia Skofenko
COO, Near UA

Sampson
Sr. DevRel Specialist, Brave

Didier Pironi
Product Manager, Ref Finance

Paul Veradittakit
Partner, Pantera Capital

Janice Chok
Ecosystem Growth, Covalent

Warren Jones
Sail GP, Director of Technology

Matt Lockyer
Developer Relations Engineer, Proximity

Vasilisa Versus
CTO, Roketo

Ben Kurrek
Developer Relations Engineer, Pagoda
Max Harpunsky
Developer Relations Engineer, Pagoda
Vlad Frolov
Developer Relations Engineer, Pagoda
Dorian Crutcher
Developer Relations Engineer, Pagoda
Guillermo Gallardo
Developer Relations Engineer, Pagoda
Judging Criteria
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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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