HACKATHON TRACKS

The hackathon has six super impactful tracks that place participants at the forefront of Web3. You choose which category you wish to compete in:

1 SocialFi. Your submission must be decentralized social media that incorporates tokenization ("social media" is defined broadly). For example, you might give out tokens to users that refer other users to your service, who post content that is appreciated, help with moderation, or do something else that is helpful. Show the world how good next-generation social media owned by its community can be!

2 GameFi. Your submission must be a decentralized game that incorporates tokenization ("games" is defined broadly). For example, the game experince could be built from JavaScript, or an engine like Unity, and served from the Internet Computer into the browser, then interacting with backend blockchain code running on the Internet Computer. The game must involve tokens as incentives or prizes. It could be a multi-player card game, or space invaders that pays out bitcoin when the high score is beaten. You should have a plan to defeat cheating, for example using dynamically inserted CAPTCHAs. Help make sure Web3 gaming is game on!

3 Metaverse and NFTs. Your submission must incorporate a system or code framework that supports building decentralized metaverses ("metaverse" is defined broadly). If you want to take on laying the foundations for an actual decentralized metaverse, of course you can do that too! For example, you could submit a system that sells online real estate as NFTs, or enables multiple players to interact inside a virtual space. Or you could show how a powerful gaming engine can be repurposed for use in the metaverse. Join the grand mission to make sure the metaverse is decentralized and open!

4 Asynchronous DeFi. When a blockchain transaction invokes a smart contract on old-school blockchains, and it calls another contract, which calls another, and another, the functions of the different contracts run on a single call stack. This makes them very insecure thanks to re-entrancy, which has been one of the biggest sources of hacks on blockchain to date. Another problem is that transactions must be run in sequence, which creates a firm upper bound on transaction throughput. On the Internet Computer, smart contract calls run in parallel, because smart contracts (called "canisters") are "software actors". This removes a key security vulnerability, and provides for the unbounded, efficient scaling of blockchain computation. Now create a 100% on-chain and scalable auction house for NFTs, or a decentralized exchange for tokens. Or create a software library that helps others with the new way of coding DeFi. Or write code that interacts with other blockchains. Be a trailblazer for a new DeFi paradigm!

5 Public Good / Social Impact. Tokens create powerful incentives that can help new services and ventures succeed. But blockchain is not just about "success" in the conventional sense. The world faces many difficulties, including climate change, pollution, war, oppression, economic inequality, and fake news. This is your chance to build something that makes a difference, in whatever field you choose!

6 Blue Sky. Are you feeling constrained by the foregoing categories? Compete in this category and build anything you like, as long as it involves the Internet Computer!

JUDGING CRITERIA & PROCESS

All projects will be reviewed by the Supernova Hackathon Team to determine whether the project submissions meet the minimum level of viability with respect to theme and submission requirements according to the hackathon rules. Each project submission must include a video demonstration of what your team built. Each video must be a minimum of 5 minutes. You must also provide access to your repository of code by uploading your files to Devpost.  Once approved, these projects will post to the Devpost project gallery. If you need any help uploading your project submission, please contact us.

The panel of judges will review all submissions that are approved to the Devpost gallery of projects based on the equally-weighted judging criteria detailed below. Prizes are awarded to winners based on the scores assigned to their projects by the judges. 

• X Factor and Potential: What is the wow factor of the idea? Does it have potential?
• Technical Competence: What is the quality of the technical designs and source code?
• Social Impact: Does this project solve a real-world problem? Can people use it?
• Progression: Can a library be used? Is a service actually usable? How far did you go?
• IC Factor: Have you managed to leverage and demo a unique platform capability?

In the event of a tie, the tied submission with the highest IC Factor score will be considered the higher scoring submission. If two or more submissions are tied on the IC Factor score, the panel of judges will vote on the tied submissions.

PRIZES & GRANT AWARDS

Category 1st Place
$45,000 cash prize, $50,000 project grant* and 6 tickets to Internet Computer Devcon

Category 2nd Place
$30,000 cash prize, $25,000 project grant*

Category 3rd Place
$20,000 cash prize, $25,000 project grant*

Category 4th Place
$15,000 cash prize, $5,000 project grant*

Category 5th Place
$10,000 cash prize, $5,000 project grant*

Grand Champion Prize
Awarded for the hackathon submission deemed the strongest of all the submissions by the judging panel.
$75,000 cash prize, $100,000 grant* and  6 tickets to Internet Computer Devcon

Community Choice Prize
Decided by community votes. Devpost users can participate in a Community voting system in which they can vote for 1 project they like. $10,000 cash prize, $5,000 grant*. More details on How-To vote is coming soon!

Additional Seed Funding
Up to $4.47M in additional seed funding by the DFINITY Foundation, its affiliates, partners, investors, associates, and further core contributors involved with the Hackathon, to be awarded within twelve (12) months from the final day of the Hackathon.

OVERALL PRIZE POOL
$765,000 in cash prizes + $765,000 in Grants* + up to $4,470,000 in seed funding opportunities

* Grant awards are not automatic or immediately guaranteed. Hackathon winners become eligible for participation in the DFINITY Developer Grant Program and entitlement to the full grant award amount is subject to meeting specified milestones and satisfying all terms and conditions of the DFINITY Developer Grant Program. Please review the DFINITY SUPERNOVA HACKATHON TERMS AND CONDITIONS for the full extent of these rules.