The Road to Devcon hackathon will run from today, September 23rd, through October 4th at 11:59 pm EST. We have 6 awesome sponsors that are offering up to $50k in prizes for 20 unique challenges catering to a variety of skillsets. Devcon is only a couple weeks away – so whether you’re planning to attend or not – join us for a celebration of progress in Ethereum and blockchain broadly. We’re here to acknowledge and explore the advanced work that’s been done in the Ethereum ecosystem as well as to tackle the interesting challenges that lie ahead. There are still countless entrepreneurial opportunities in the blockchain space and high-level work to be done as we approach Eth 2.0. Use this hackathon as the place to showcase your skills to the leading companies in the industry and to contribute meaningfully to the future of blockchain.

Who’s participating?

We’ve already announced our premier sponsor Algorand and released a short blog post showcasing their technology, 3 challenges, and $5k in prizes. The Ethereum Foundation is another key participant, with challenges focused on growing the Ethereum ecosystem and Ethereum research. Gooddollar is back once again after taking part in the Ethereal Blocks hackathon and will offer over $2k in prizes for hackers building on the Gooddollar ERC-20 protocol. Bancor will also return after Ethereal Blocks with a brand new challenge. Finally, two circles from ConsenSys have provided interesting challenges and attractive prize pools. ConsenSys Labs has 95 ETH up for grabs in three different challenges around open finance, the news economy, and decentralizing research (UX focused!). ConsenSys grants will offer 5 different challenges for 1,000 DAI each, focused on social impact, infrastructure, security, dev tooling, and education. Keep in mind that some of these challenge specs are still being built and funded. Continue checking back as all challenges will be up in the next day or two.

How can you get involved?

You may have noticed the previous section skipped over the most important participant: you. These hackathons would be nothing without our dedicated community of hackers: devs, researchers, and designers. We treat each new hackathon as the next iteration of our product, adding tools to improve the flow around team formation, starting and submitting work, troubleshooting with sponsors, and more. Remember, any and all feedback on your hackathon experience is highly appreciated.

To begin, follow this link and click “Join the Hackathon”. You will be prompted to log in with Github and will get the opportunity to create a Gitcoin profile if you haven’t already. From there, you can view prizes, join Discord, and start/submit work through Gitcoin. We’ll be setting up a unique Discord channel for anyone who clicks “Start Work” on a prize, allowing you to form a team around your proposed project, so make sure to provide your username and join the Gitcoin Discord. If you have any questions for the Gitcoin team or the challenge sponsors, Discord is the best place to reach out.

Thanks for your interest and we hope you dive right in! The best submissions are almost always from the hackers that get started the earliest. We can’t wait to see the awesome projects the community comes up with. We’ll be presenting certain winners at Grow Open Source Day in Tokyo on October 6th, so if you’re attending Devcon we’d love to see you there. Good luck!