Leap into WEB3 via ETHGlobal Hackathon
Let’s talk about the possibility of immersing yourself into the WEB3 world quickly. Sure it is always possible to study any technology in a calm, step by step manner, watch videos, join discussions and try to create prototypes.
But the fastest way to change yourself is to change your environment. That’s why, I would invite you to participate in some hackathons, dedicated to WEB3 and crypto-technologies. For now the project ETHGlobal will be one of the best choices.
Just a few words about a hackathon for those who have never taken part in it.
Basically, a hackathon is a 2–3 days event, aimed at a specific topic. The teams, which are formed during such hackathons, create prototypes of different instruments, products or services.
If you say that 2–3 days is not enough to create a prototype, you really should take part in a large-scale hackathon and see what can be done during it if you have a desire and aim. Of course, there are those who can relax and just enjoy themselves, but it makes getting prize-winning places practically impossible. Though, sometimes, this is not the main goal for teams.
Let’s view the detailed process of participation on the example of ETHGlobal hackathons. Before writing this article, I already participated in one of them, and right now I enrolled into the next one.
What do you need to know to take part in the ETHGlobal hackathon?
First of all, you need to register to the nearest hackathon, having completed a standard application. The only non-standard question is your crypto-wallet address in Ethereum. If you still do not have one, add it as an extension to your browser. For now, the most widespread is Metamask. After installing it you can use your public crypto-currency address.
Attention! Sharing your crypto-currrency public address is safe (from a cryptographic point of view), but any other information (wallet passwords, a recovery seed phrase) should not be passed to any third parties. Otherwise, your crypto-wallet assets can be stolen.
As soon as your application is filled in and accepted by a hackathon team, you get to the dashboard, where you need to connect your discord account and reserve your participation by sending a 0.003 ETH stake (about $8 at the time of writing). Let’s talk about these two points in more detail.
Discord Account. Discord is a platform for team communication. It was initially created for gamers, but now it is used for managing a community or team work. You can use it for messaging, voice communication, conferencing and much more. Discord is used by a lot of crypto-projects, so it can be considered as one of standart communication channels in Web3. At least in 2021–2022.
Having confirmed your account in Discord, you can participate in general ETHGlobal discussions. But to get access to a hackathon, you should send a stake for your participation.
Stake is a refundable amount if you reach the end of the hackathon. In order to send it you need a crypto-wallet. In most cases this is Metamask. There you can try to buy the necessary amount of ETH. You can also do it using third party exchange. To do it, sometimes it is necessary to pass KYC (Know your customer) procedure that aims at verifying your identity and protecting the system from illegal use of crypto tokens.
The only thing you should remember and know, that it is necessary to pay gas fees for all transactions in the blockchain.
At the time of the hackathon, the transaction looked the following way — I transferred 0.003 ETH, paying a bit more than 0.002 ETH for the transaction.
ETHOnline allows staking on Level 2 networks (Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon) because mainnet gas can be erratic. Should you have any questions concerning a stake transfer, you can ask them in hackathon discord channels.
After transferring the stake, you will get access to the hackathon channels.
What shall I do at the hackathon?
Well, there are different roles in a blockchain hackathon team. Surely, they could be combined:
- Blockchain developer. From smart contract development and deployment to … a new blockchain development (well, the last one is not really required for hackathons).
- Front-end developer. Integration of wallets int web pages, third party API integration (sponsors API as well), retrieving NFT information and so one
- Backend developer. It’s close to a Fronted developer but on the server side
- Graphical/Web designer. Art and design preparation
- 3D Designer. 3D models preparation.
- AI/ML Data Science Specialist. Data analysis. AI/ML Model Training.
- Team leader. A person who generates a main idea, leads a team, does all administrative stuff (project description, etc).
- …
During a hackathon your team should prepare:
- Project description
- Presentation or Demo Video
- Source code (on github/gitlab)
- Proof of Concept, Prototype or MVP
So, think what you could do and then build your own team or join another.
Building or joining a team at the hackathon.
At ETHGlobal teams from 1 (solo) up to 5 (five) persons are accepted. If you came with your own idea and want to find someone who will help realize it, think how to describe your idea to attract other participants.
If you came without any idea but you can code or draw, you should think how to describe your background to present yourself to the teams. Then join the team you most believe in.
During the hackathon, there will be an event on forming the teams, where participants will be able to pitch themselves or their ideas, so you can look for soulmates.
What shall I do, if I haven’t joined a team?
My advice is to make up your own idea and create a visual prototype (at least). At the same time make sure you attend all seminars at the hackathon. At the end, make a presentation of your project.
I am sure that after doing everything in such a way, you will learn a lot you didn’t know before, and after getting acquainted with other teams’ results, you will broaden your horizons.
How to find the idea for the project?
When I mentored startups, one of the approaches to look for new ideas was called “Picnic in the Graveyard”. It’s meaning is the following — look for startups or companies, which have tried to realize some idea in the sphere or industry we are interested in during the last 10/20 years but failed. Some companies launch their ideas “too early” when the market is not ready yet. Why not borrow them?
To do it in a simple way I would recommend investigating the projects, which participated in the previous hackathons. You can check them at https://showcase.ethglobal.com/ and get inspiration. Maybe you can combine several ideas in one or improve one of them significantly.
Working on the project during the hackathon
While working on the project, the best idea is to do the things familiar to you. In any case, you will have to study new technologies, libraries and API, which enable creating WEB3 projects. Moreover, some prizes, provided by sponsors, will be tied to definite technologies and awarded to the projects, which use specialized API or blockchains. You will have to learn something new, but that’s what you came to hackathon for, yes?
If you want to do something absolutely new, think how quickly you can study documentation and use it in the project. It’s hard for a designer to become a programmer and visa versa. But it happens during the hackathon. When a team lacks some skills and faces limited resources, the brain starts working at full capacity, generating the ideas you would never create in an ordinary situation.
Possible results of the hackathon
Any project has several stages, which it passes. Here, I will list the following:
- Idea
- Concept
- Proof of Concept
- Prototype
- MVP
- Ready product
On the stage of Idea you have nothing but a short description. Basically this is what you have at the start of the hackathon. Several sentences, a short drawing. If it takes one page, basically you are at this stage.
Concept. At this stage you may just have a presentation (from 5 to 10 slides is enough). For some hackathons, this stage is enough. But in terms of ETHGlobal it will be necessary to demonstrate what you’ve done technically. The description itself will be necessary, but not so detailed as for pitching it to future investors. Nevertheless, it is important for someone to think about this description, especially if you are going to continue, developing your idea after the hackathon.
Proof of Concept is a demonstration that your Concept can be practically realized. If you create a visual prototype only and then record the video with the presentation of your concept and demonstration of the result, it can be considered a minimal result of the hackathon.
Prototype realizes one or several functions of the idea. It’s a draft implementation of the future product. It may be made ineffectively, with bugs and work in a limited number of scenarios. Basing on the prototype, you can see how the future product will be designed. For most hackathons a prototype will be enough. Whether it will be closer to the Proof of Concept or MVP depends on the size of project and the team you’ve gathered.
MVP — Minimum viable product is an abbreviation which is worth remembering. Basically, this is the first version of the product, which functionality is enough so that users can use it and provide feedback for further improvements. Within the hackathon, MVP is rarely reached. It happens, but for simple ideas (which, nevertheless, get prizes)
Ready product. Here we mean both technical development and associated infrastructure, with support service, backup servers and everything else the user can not see.
Finally, you will need to record a 4 minute (or less) video, including both, the description of the concept and demonstration of your results.
Judging the results
The judges have a very difficult task. Hundreds of projects have to be studied and the most interesting ones should be chosen. At the same time they have to select both the main winners and the ones who will get prizes from the sponsors.
Only the result obtained at the hackathon will be evaluated. If the project started before the hackathon, you should demonstrate only what was developed during the hackathon.
In order to get a prize it is important to show the value of the project, and if possible the project should have a WOW effect. I have participated in hackathons is different roles (as a participant, an organizer and a mentor) and I would recommend to think over the following criteria:
- Scalability. How can a project contribute to other industries? How global is it and does it solve a global issue?
- Simplicity. How clear is its idea to a common person? How simply do you deliver the value?
- Visualization. It might be creative graphics, or 3-d objects. Or is your product aimed at AR/VR?
Imagine how interesting your project can be for a big auditorium. The more people can understand its value and get WOW effect from the results, the higher is your chance to get a prize. Though it depends.
Even if you haven’t got a winning place, don’t get upset. It’s really difficult to award all good projects. I know this, because I used to be a judge myself. The fact that you’ve participated is already a victory.
P.S.
Imagine that you will immerse into a new ecosystem for a few days. You will discuss and work on a new idea, attend topical webinars, try to realize a prototype or an already working product. You will pitch your results and get feedback or a new job offer.
You will definitely learn something new and save several weeks or months of studying in a relaxed way.
If you have some far reaching goals on your idea, a hackathon is a good place to speed up (boost) your idea/project. Also get some feedback from an independent audience on your project. The next stage of developing your idea might be an invitation to an accelerator, where you’ll manage to advance further.
