Welcome to Hackusama, the first-ever hackathon for the Kusama or Polkadot ecosystem. Hackusama is a 7-week online hackathon being launched for developers to "Build a Blockchain" or submit your wildest tools, visualizations, and ideas to the "Open Hack" category. A $30,000 USD prize pool is up for grabs. 

Watch the Introduction to Hackusama webinar for a complete overview and technical presentation about Kusama and Substrate. 

Kusama is a network built by Dr. Gavin Wood, Polkadot founder and cofounder and CTO of Ethereum. It's a risk-taking, fast-moving ‘canary in the coal mine’ built with nearly the exact same code as its cousin network, Polkadot. Kusama is a living, breathing, multichain ecosystem built to put the best tech in the hands of change agents to spark innovation, disrupt the status quo, and quickly push the limits of what’s possible.

 

Hackusama has two categories: Build a Blockchain or the Open Hack. Please note: Blockchains or Tools may be either newly created or updated by your team. Teams entering submissions that existed prior to the start of the Submission Period will be required to explain how their submission has been updated during the Submission Period.

For a full breakdown of the categories and a list of several ideas, see the Hacker Guide.

  1. Build a Blockchain: Developers can build custom blockchains in this hackathon using Substrate. These blockchains will have the ability to connect to the core ‘Relay Chain’ of Kusama in the near future using ‘Cumulus’, allowing for interoperability of data, value, and information. Since Polkadot and Kusama share a nearly identical codebase, these chains will also have the ability to connect to the Polkadot Relay Chain, if desired. Chains on Kusama could be fully fledged businesses, or even a platform hosting a multitude of businesses, especially for use cases not needing bank-like security, such as Gaming and eSports, messaging, DAOs, marketplaces, oracles, music, and social networking.
  2. Open Hack: The hackathon also offers another category, which will allow hackers to build tools, visualizers, or other creative projects to make it easier for developers to build on Kusama Network. For example, this could be tools for translating from one programming language to another or making it easier to test blockchain functionality on Kusama.

Eligibility

The Hackathon is open to: Individuals who are at least the age of majority where they reside at the time of entry (typically 18+), team of eligible individuals or organizations.

The Hackathon is not open to: Individuals or Organizations who reside, located, or incorporated in Syria, Iran, Cuba, Crimea or North Korea, or any other country or territory which, after the Effective Date, becomes the target of such comprehensive, country-wide or territory-wide Sanctions. Hackathon is not open to employees of Web3 Foundation or Parity Technologies.

For more information on eligibility, view the ELIGIBILITY section in the rules.

Requirements

What to build: Use Substrate to build/update a blockchain, or build/update any project in the Open Hack for the Kusama ecosystem.

For more details on the submission requirements, please see the Hacker Guide.

 

What to submit:

 

  • "Build a Blockchain" submissions are encouraged to be in one of the following formats: 
    • a live running site or running chain and provide an endpoint, if you are running a substrate chain (highly encouraged)
    • a Docker image (highly encouraged)
    • a Linux executable (discouraged)
  • If starting from a fresh Substrate project, please use rc3 or later. If building on existing work, participants are permitted to use another version.
  • Provide a way to access the project for judging and testing by including a link to a repo hosting the submission's code and any other deployment files and testing instructions.
  • Indicate which challenge you're participating in (all valid submissions will automatically be considered for the Community Choice prize).
  • Create a video that includes footage that clearly explains your App’s features and functionality through a comprehensive demonstration.
  • Please include a project name and 150 word description in your submission’s readme file. Teams entering submissions that existed prior to the start of the Submission Period will be required to explain how their submission has been updated during the Submission Period.

 

 

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$30,000 in prizes

⛓ Build a Blockchain Champion - $8000

- $8,000 (paid in DAI)
- Expedited pitch session for Substrate Builders Program
- Fast-track to discussion about funding ($30k-$100k) with Web3 Foundations Grants team
- 3 Ledger Nano X devices
- 2 hours of consultative phone calls from Web3 and Parity developers
- Polkadot and Kusama swag
- Feature in Polkadot social media

Open Hack Champion - $8000

- $8000 (paid in DAI)
- Expedited pitch session for Substrate Builders Program
- Fast-track to discussion about funding ($30k-$100k) with Web3 Foundations Grants team
- 3 Ledger Nano X devices
- 2 hours of consultative phone calls from Web3 and Parity developers
- Polkadot and Kusama swag
- Feature in Polkadot social media

⛓ Build a Blockchain 2nd Place - $4000

- $4000 (paid in DAI)
- 1 hour of consultative phone calls from Web3 and Parity developers
- Fast-track to discussion about funding ($30k-$100k) with Web3 Foundations Grants team
- Polkadot and Kusama swag
- Feature in Polkadot social media
- 3 Ledger Nano S devices

Open Hack 2nd Place - $4000

- $4000 (paid in DAI)
- 1 hour of consultative phone calls from Web3 and Parity developers
- Fast-track to discussion about funding ($30k-$100k) with Web3 Foundations Grants team
- Polkadot and Kusama swag
- Feature in Polkadot social media
- 3 Ledger Nano S devices

⛓ Build a Blockchain 3rd Place - $2000

- $2000 (paid in DAI)
- Polkadot and Kusama swag
- Feature in Polkadot social media

Open Hack - 3rd Place - $2000

- $2000 (paid in DAI)
- Polkadot and Kusama swag
- Feature in Polkadot social media

Community Choice Winner - $2000

One submission will be selected as a Community Choice winner by the DevPost community after a public vote.
- $2000 (paid in DAI)
- Polkadot and Kusama swag
- Feature in Polkadot social media

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Dr. Gavin Wood

Dr. Gavin Wood
Founder, Kusama and Polkadot | Co-Founder and former CTO, Ethereum

Adam Dossa

Adam Dossa
Head of Blockchain at Polymath

Aidan Hyman

Aidan Hyman
CEO at ChainSafe Systems

Alexander Ramsey

Alexander Ramsey
CEO & Co-Founder at FlexDapps, Gantree

Bedeho Mender

Bedeho Mender
CEO & Founder at Jsgenesis, Joystream

Cassidy Daly

Cassidy Daly
Token Design & Research at Centrifuge

Derek Yoo

Derek Yoo
CEO of PureStake

Dillon Chen

Dillon Chen
Co-founder at Commonwealth, Edgeware

Patrick Collins

Patrick Collins
Software Engineer and Developer Relations at Chainlink

Ruitao Su

Ruitao Su
Co-Founder of Laminar & Acala

Judging Criteria

  • Contribution to Decentralization and Web 3.0 Friendliness (25%)
    Includes how useful the blockchain or tooling is in the Kusama, Polkadot, and Web 3.0 ecosystem as a whole.
  • Originality, Creativity, and Innovation (25%)
    Includes how new and novel the submission is versus existing technologies.
  • Technical Difficulty (25%)
    Includes the level of skill or knowledge required to build the blockchain, tools, or other type of submission.
  • User Experience (25%)
    Includes how intuitive and understandable the submission is for potential users.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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