Here’s how to participate in Gitcoin’s Ethereal Blocks virtual hackathon:

Step 1: Register and Join Discord

Before you jump in, please register for the hackathon here, whether this is your first Gitcoin virtual hackathon or you are already a veteran.

This helps us get in touch with you throughout the hackathon, do matchmaking between potential teammates, understand where people are hacking from, and helps us shape future events based on what people want to build and the skills they bring.

Next, join the Gitcoin Events Discord server. This is where you can chat with other hackers, ask sponsors and the Gitcoin team questions, and communicate in real-time with your team by chat or voice. Feel free to reach out to sponsors on their dedicated channels, ask general questions about the hackathon in the #questions channel, share your skills and ideas in the #find-a-team channel, and share your progress and requests from the community in the #general channel.

Step 2: Check out the prizes

Visit the prize explorer to check out the prizes posted by our hackathon sponsors. You can click each prize to show important details, including the submission requirements, submission deadline, etc.

Each prize has an ETH/ERC-20 bounty associated with it. Follow Step 4 below to learn how to “Start Work” when you begin working on your project and “Submit Work” before the hackathon ends to be eligible to win.

Step 3: Create/Find Teams on Github

When you have viewed the prizes and you are ready to create or join a group it’s time to head over to the Ethereal Blocks team creation Github repo. Create a new issue and choose “Project” to share a new project idea and find collaborators or “Looking For Team” to share more about your skills and interests to let other people reach out to you. You can also browse existing projects to get involved with a team.

In addition to posting your project ideas and interests/skills formally in the Github repo you can also post in the #find-a-team channel in Discord. Introduce yourself, list the skills you want to use during the hackathon, and share your project ideas, prizes you’re interested in, or kinds of teams you want to work with.

When you have a team together ping @vivek or @KuhnChris to create a Discord team channel for you to communicate. We can make this channel public (visible to everyone, in case you want others to help out) or private (only visible to teammates you add, the Gitcoin team and sponsors, but not other hackers).

Step 4: Start/Submit Work via Gitcoin

When your team is formed please have one of your teammates navigate to each prize page you plan to compete for and click the “Start Work” button. This helps the Gitcoin team and sponsors track who is working on which prizes, making it easier to support everyone and plan for judging.

Then, when your project is completed and you have created a pull request or set up a repository with your code and deliverables, it’s time to submit work! Submitting work allows judges to review see your work along with other submissions, and helps them pay you and your teammates out directly. Submit your work by clicking the “Submit Work” button on the prize page, right where the “Start Work” button was before (shown above). Note that you should have already clicked “Start Work” earlier for the “Submit Work” button to appear. Be sure to include your teammates’ Gitcoin addresses in your project’s readme/front page so that judges can pay them out, too.

And that’s it! Your submission will be reviewed by judges and, if you are the winning submission, you and your teammates will be paid the prize amount in cryptocurrency directly to the ETH address associated with your Gitcoin profile.

Good luck, and happy hacking!

~Gitcoin Team