Hackathon Brings Value to XDC Network

Over the course of six weeks in Fall 2022, XDC Community and XDC Foundation teamed up with Coinbase, HackerEarth, and other sponsors to host BUIDL the Future: A Global Hack for Web3.

The hackathon created a space for developers to leverage the power of Web3. Through the event, XDC Community worked closely with event participants to accelerate the expansion and development of Layer 2 projects across the XDC Ecosystem and facilitate network adoption for real world utility.

Teams registering for the hackathon could choose one of six participating networks, including XDC Network. A prize pool of $50,000 was available through various bounties, and teams had the potential to pitch to a VC firm for an additional $100,000. 

The XDC Network had a great turnout and received 44 entrants. Submissions were evaluated for minimum requirements, and the project pool was reduced to 25 for official judging (see full list here) in one of three categories:

Throughout the entire hackathon, teams provided access to workshops, real-time project updates and support, and a collaborative Discord community — the participants took full advantage of these resources.

The team involved in the project evaluation process brought a vast amount of knowledge, experience and respect across the XDC Network ecosystem and Web3 as a whole:

And the well-rounded judging criteria included the following considerations:

And the winners are . . .

The Web3 Wallet category winner was xDapp, a project built to establish a Web3 solution for low-income earners and small business owners in Kenya for their communal savings program. Known as Chamas, informal cooperative investment groups can now be established through the xDapp platform, creating a borderless, customer-centric tool for users to pool their funds for a rainy day need or to expand their business at some point. The ease of use and low transaction cost on the XDC Network assisted the platform in delivering to those people who may not otherwise have access to more expensive financial products. This project scored very well in the impact judging category.

The Open Ideas category winner r3plica will provide Web3 gamers with complete data ownership over their assets and experiences, overcoming one of the biggest obstacles in Web3 gaming — understanding the complexities of the Web3 ecosystem. The r3plica fSBT token will be used by gamers to acquire assets and complete quests within a game, and there will be a simple “Transfer fSBT to my wallet” button to complete the transaction. This project also scored well in the impact category and demonstrates a much-needed smooth Web3 onboarding experience that is similar to that of Web2 gaming. 

Stable Borrow won the DeFi category and establishes a unique lending protocol where decentralization and an over-collateralized stablecoin borrowing platform are its primary features. The Stable Borrow stablecoin token STC can be borrowed against $XDC in an overcollateralized manner, which keeps STC strong as a stablecoin and keeps its price pegged to $1.00. In the GameFi realm, the project also establishes a unique debt regulatory protocol where users possess an NFT that is used to regulate STC borrowing via a gaming platform. This project blends several components of Web3 finance through its focus on decentralization, stablecoins, gaming, and NFTs. Both protocols are managed by smart contracts on the XDC Network. 

Here are the other innovative prize winners:

While the project winners had outstanding and executable concepts, all teams and their projects bring notable contributions to the network and the XDC ecosystem. From here, the project teams will continue development to include testing and will ultimately launch their projects on the XDC Network. 

The diversity among these projects contributes to the XDC Network’s expanding and vibrant community of developers, users, participants and utility. Through this and other hackathons, XDC Community and XDC Foundation aim to accelerate the expansion and development of Layer 2 projects on the network, enabling opportunities for increased total value locked (TVL) on chain and facilitating XDC Network adoption for real world usage.

XDC Community and XDC Foundation are extending the network’s hackathon reach and are highlighting some exciting opportunities upcoming for developers:

To keep up to date with hackathon events, please follow XDC Community on Twitter.

Congratulations to all the hackathon participants, and thank you for building on the XDC Network!

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