Hackers League Hackathon: Winter 2024

Hackers League Hackathon: Winter 2024

Apply for the $3M TON Hackathon

By TON Society

What is Hackers League?

👀 Hackers, founders, developers…

This is an open call for you to join a $3M TON Hackathon.

TON Society is announcing Hackers League — an ecosystem-wide winter competition for early stage founders that will begin in October and end with a winners announcement in December.

Featuring:

  • $3M prize pool
  • 19 IRL 3-day bootcamps
  • Key ecosystem projects tracks

Apply by clicking a button below.

Offline Bootcamps

Hackers League Bootcamps are a series of 3-day developers events in 20 cities worldwide in support of the Hackers League Hackathon.

Get ready for the full immersion into the TON ecosystem, featuring workshops, lectures, and fun entertainment activities. Don't miss the opportunity to learn from industry experts, TON representatives, and collaborate with other builders. Each bootcamp will conclude with a wrap-up party to celebrate the experience.

Three top teams at each bootcamp will share a prize pool of $5,000.

Find your city here 👉 Click

Title sponsors

  • TON Apps
  • Gate Ventures
  • DeDust
  • AEON

Diamond Sponsors

  • GSR
  • Bybit
  • Arkham
  • Adsgram
  • MEXC Ventures
  • Foresight Ventures
  • Curve Finance

Capital Partners — 2.1M in funding for projects

  • TON Ventures
  • Gate Ventures
  • Kenetic Capital
  • Foresight Ventures
  • MEXC Ventures

Judges from

  • TON Foundation
  • TON Ventures
  • Pantera Capital
  • Foresight Ventures
  • MEXC Ventures
  • Curve Finance
  • Gate Ventures

Hackathon Schedule

  • Hackathon registration begins: 12/09/2024

  • Hackathon building phase: Start 5/10/2024, Finish (Code freeze) 23/11/24

  • Bootcamps: 11/10/2024 — 17/11/2024

  • Semi-finalists Selection (Demo Review – Add jury’s Githubs, open source smart contracts by this date to avoid being disqualified): 23/11/2024–5/12/2024

  • Finalists Selection (Code Review): 5/12/2024 — 15/12/2024

  • Live Judging Sessions: 16/12/2024 — 17/12/2024

  • Winners judging: 18 — 19/12/2024

  • Winners Announcement: 20/12/2024

Hackathon Tracks and Prizes

Total cash prizes for 5 tracks — $485,000

DeFi

sponsored by Curve

$185,000 total for the track

  1. $35,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  2. $25,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  3. $20,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  4. $15,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  5. $15,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  6. $15,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  7. $10,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  8. $10,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  9. $10,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  10. $10,000 + $5,000 Tg ads credits
  11. $5,000
  12. $5,000
  13. $5,000
  14. $5,000
Social Web3 & Utility

$75,000 total for the track

  1. $35,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
  2. $25,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
  3. $15,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
GameFi & Onboarding sponsored by Adsgram

$75,000 total for the track

  1. $35,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
  2. $25,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
  3. $15,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
On-chain Data Analytics sponsored by Arkham

$75,000 total for the track

  1. $35,000 + $10,000 Telegram ads credits
  2. $25,000 + $10,000 Telegram ads credits
  3. $15,000 + $5,000 Telegram ads credits
Interoperability sponsored by GSR

$75,000 total for the track

  1. $35,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
  2. $25,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
  3. $15,000 + 10,000 Tg ads credits
Ton Apps Track: Building with TON API

Participants will have the chance to win TON API credits, which can be redeemed for access to our service, allowing winners to continue developing and scaling their projects beyond the hackathon.

  1. $5,000 + TON API credits
  2. $3,000 + TON API credits
  3. $2,000 + TON API credits

đź‘€ + a secret prize, TBA.

Gaming & Mini apps sponsored by Gate Ventures

$20,000 grant from Gate Ventures for the Top 3 projects:

  1. $10,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  2. $8,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits
  3. $2,000 + $10,000 Tg ads credits

🚀 Gate Ventures additionally commits $500,000 capital to the selected hackathon projects.

Capital Soft Commitment

*2.1M Committed Capital from Top TON focused VCs

  • TON Ventures
  • Gate Ventures
  • Kenetic Capital
  • Foresight Ventures
  • MEXC Ventures

Terms

  • Capital partners have committed to allocate this funding within 12 months of the winners being anounced.
  • Warm intro from TOn Society to all Capital partners will be made for all Finalists
  • Intro can be activated up to 12 months after winners ceremony
The Open League Incentives

The Open League Incentives for top projects selected to join in the size of $500,000.

Bootcamps Prize Pool

Join one of the 3-day offline events in 20 cities around the world and compete for $5,000 on the spot. Total prize pool is $90,000.

What exactly should you build?

Read more details about the tracks and prompts for the projects below:

Ton Apps Track: Building with TON API

The goal of the hackathon track is to create cutting-edge decentralized applications (dApps) that integrate seamlessly with Wallets. We encourage developers to explore the wide range of possibilities that TON API offers — building innovative financial tools, games, social dApps, or other blockchain-based solutions.

What We Are Looking For: We are particularly interested in projects that:

  1. Utilize the TON API to develop and launch new products.
  2. Create apps that add unique user engagement features.
  3. Build services that can attract new users to the TON blockchain and retain them through seamless user experiences.
  4. Explore creative ways to integrate with other apps and ecosystems within the TON blockchain.

Who Can Participate: This hackathon track is open to both individual developers and teams who have an interest in blockchain technology and experience with building dApps.

Whether you're a seasoned blockchain developer or new to TON, this event is a great opportunity to learn, collaborate, and showcase your skills.

Join us in shaping the future of TON blockchain and build the next generation of dApps with TON API!

Gaming & Mini apps sponsored by Gate Ventures

Projects should illustrate their potential to transform the gaming industry through innovative blockchain integration, highlighting distinctive features that set them apart from conventional gaming solutions. Additionally, they should incorporate considerations of scalability, robust tokenomics, and long-term user engagement.

What will we be looking for: GameFi, Game studio and Mini apps on TON

Qualifying requirements:

Strategic Alignment: Projects must align with Gate’s strategic goals, including fostering innovation, enhancing community engagement through Gate’s CEFI and Wallet Mini Apps, potential integration with Gate wallet and contributing to the overall growth of the Gate ecosystem. Clear articulation of how the project supports these goals is essential.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Participants should have developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that effectively showcases their concept. The MVP should be functional and user-friendly, allowing judges to evaluate the project's core features.

Tokenomics and Blockchain Gaming Value Accrual Mechanism: Participants should demonstrate a solid understanding of blockchain gaming principles. This includes presenting a comprehensive project plan that outlines the game's mechanics, tokenomics design, reasonable vesting schedules and value accrual flywheel

Monetization Model: A clear and viable monetization model should be presented, illustrating how the project will generate revenue while providing value to users. This could involve in-game purchases, subscription models, or unique blockchain-based economic structures.

Disclaimer:This event is for professional knowledge sharing and networking purpose only, and does not constitute any offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any products or services. Please note that [Gate Ventures/Gate.io]may restrict or prohibit the use of all or a portion of its services from restricted jurisdictions. For more information, you should read its applicable user agreements.

DeFi

Collateralized Debt Position (CDP) / Synthetic Assets. This track focuses on building or enhancing CDP protocols, where users can lock collateral to mint stablecoins or other assets. Projects in this track should explore innovative mechanisms for over/partial collateralization, soft liquidation, and stability, ensuring the secure and decentralized nature of minted assets. Participants can create tools, services, or entire CDP platforms that improve capital efficiency, user experience, and TON utilization.

References and Inspiration:

Yield Farming. This track invites participants to design or optimize yield farming protocols, allowing users to maximize crypto asset returns. Projects can focus on creating innovative farming strategies, boosting liquidity pools, or developing tools that automate and optimize yield generation. Emphasis should be placed on sustainability, security, and user accessibility while leveraging advanced DeFi mechanisms such as auto-compounding and multi-asset farming. Solutions should provide users with higher returns, transparency, and risk management.

References and Inspiration:

Algorithmic Stablecoins. In this track, participants are tasked with designing or improving algorithmic stablecoins—digital currencies that maintain price stability through algorithms and smart contracts rather than traditional collateral. Projects can explore new stabilization mechanisms, peg maintenance strategies, and governance models to ensure resilience against volatility. The goal is to create or enhance algorithmic stablecoins that are scalable, decentralized, and efficient while price volatility and withdrawing liquidity.

References and Inspiration:

Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker. This track challenges participants to build or enhance concentrated liquidity solutions, where liquidity providers can allocate their capital more efficiently within specific price ranges. Projects can focus on developing advanced market-making algorithms, optimizing liquidity pools, or creating tools that allow users to maximize returns while minimizing capital exposure. Please consider that Uni V3 Implementation wouldn’t work on TON because it is impossible to implement CLMM architecture with Ticks.

References and Inspiration:

New DeFi Primitives on TON. This track invites participants to design innovative DeFi primitives that fully exploit the TON blockchain's unique capabilities. Projects may explore new financial instruments, decentralized protocols, or smart contract solutions that enhance the TON ecosystem's functionality, scalability, and sharding. The focus is on building foundational components that can serve as crucial building blocks for the next generation of DeFi on TON.

Cross-Shard Coincidence of Wants (CSCoW) Protocol. Design and implement a CoW swap-like protocol that efficiently matches and executes trades across TON's sharded architecture, leveraging asynchronous messaging to aggregate liquidity, reduce slippage, and optimize capital efficiency.

Asynchronous Periodic Auctions (APA) Protocol. Adapt CBOE's periodic auctions for TON's asynchronous environment to improve liquidity and price discovery.

References and inspiration:

Anti-Jeet Memepad with Progressive Dev Unlock

Design a token launch pad with a smart contract based progressive unlock mechanism for dev allocations, incentivizing long-term project growth.

Other features ideas:

  • Jeet tax
  • Max Buy Per Wallet
  • Token (%) for liquidity
  • Required amount to crowdfund for launch
  • Token Tax
  • Restrict sell during price curve stage

Baseline Inspired Memecoin Stabilization Protocol

Create a stabilization mechanism for memecoins inspired by the Baseline Protocol, using market forces to maintain price stability.

Ref: https://docs.baseline.markets

Bubblemaps for TON Memecoins Implement a TON-native version of Bubblemaps for visualizing token holder relationships and transfers, enhancing transparency in the memecoin ecosystem.

Interoperability

Enhance TON blockchain through interoperability solutions.

Develop bridges, cross-chain swaps, and liquidity protocols to connect TON with other networks. Improve TON's TVL and transaction volumes while expanding its use cases. Your contributions can significantly advance TON's multi-chain capabilities.

References & Inspiration:

  • Cross-Chain Swaps: LayerZero OFT Apps (StarGate, Radiant Capital), THORChain
  • Cross-Chain Liquidity: Everclear (prev Connext), Multichain
  • Oracles: Pyth, RedStone
Social Web3&Utiliies

This category is mostly about B2C or B2B2C applications inside Telegram with a clear vision of how to use the social potential of the messenger, onboard web2 audience, achieve virality and retain the user. It includes SocialFi, Utility apps, Community & Brand management tools, E-commerce and other similar subcategories.

Teams applying to this category are encouraged to experiment with:

  1. Leveraging the current Telegram functionality (channels; boosts for channels; giveaways; gated chats and gated content; stories; reactions) and strengthening it through introducing web3 elements.

  2. Combining the functionality of Telegram and other social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, Youtube, etc.

  3. Offering new opportunities for communications inside the messenger with the use of blockchain.

  4. Sharing and referral mechanics.

  5. Onboard and engaging entire communities rather than individuals through group mechanics (competitions, squads, challenges, etc).

References and inspirations from The Open League Summer Hackathon finalists:

On-chain Data Analytics

Every modern blockchain has enormous amount of data and all this data is publicly available providing full transparency and traceability. But to achieve it one need to be able to dig deep into the data, to utilize advanced analytical approaches and visualisation techniques. In this track we encourage the projects to build in one of two directions:

  1. Analytical tools. Some ideas to start with: automatic honeypot jettons detections, lightweight indexers and ETL pipelines, mini-apps with easy to use TON ecosystem metrics visualisation, etc…
  2. Research. Unveil hidden facts about new tokens holders, try to find sybil botnets or make a research about TON usage patterns compared to the other chains (just examples, feel free to find your own topic!)

References and inspiration:

GameFi and Onboarding

The GameFi track invites teams to create gaming experiences on Telegram. While there are no restrictions on the type or genre of games, innovative gaming and reward models are encouraged. General recommendations for game developers include:

Leverage the social power of Telegram for game distribution. Reward users with tokens, NFTs, or SBTs to enhance engagement. Utilize Telegram Stars for in-app purchases of digital goods within your games.

What You Can Build

We encourage the development of mid-core and hybrid-casual games. We expect the next generation of games on Telegram to strike a balance between casual and hardcore gaming in terms of complexity, depth, and time commitment. These games should be more engaging and challenging than casual and hyper-casual options, requiring players to invest more time, effort, and funds (Telegram Stars). However, they should remain accessible to a broader audience. Examples of suitable genres include strategy, role-playing, and action games that can be enjoyed in shorter sessions.

References and inspiration:

  • FarmVille
  • Gatto

Exploring New Mining Mechanics

While mining mechanisms have proven effective for attracting and retaining users, many successful games have relied on tap-to-earn models that lack sybil resistance. We believe there are alternative approaches to ensure fair and transparent token distribution, and we encourage testing these innovative mechanics.

Gamification of Social Interactions on Telegram

With numerous channels and group chats where communities engage daily, there is significant potential for gaming experiences tailored to these communities.

Final Recommendation

We highly recommend against creating yet another tap-to-earn game with a different style or narrative.

Requirements & eligibility

Submitting pre-made code is not allowed. All the apps must be built during the hackathon timeframe from scratch, and can not be started earlier than the first public announcements.

Existing team and existing naming/branding can be used at the hackathon.

Building a new feature, new development, new implementation for an existing product is allowed and eligible for the prizes.

In order to be eligible for the prizes, projects must fulfill the following requirements by the submission deadline (23/11/2024):

  • DeFi: launched on mainnet;
  • Gaming & Onboarding, Social Web3 & Utility: fully launched on TON with on-chain mechanics;
  • Interoperability: full launch.

Projects submitting for the DeFi, Gaming&Onboarding, or Social&Utility tracks must submit a working Telegram Mini App.