Introducing Supernova, the First Global Internet Computer Hackathon

Up to $6 million in prizes and seed funding will be awarded to projects in SocialFi, GameFi, metaverse and NFTs, DeFi, and more.

The Internet Computer is the third major blockchain innovation — the world’s fastest and most affordable blockchain for building and deploying Web3 dapps, DeFi, games, NFTs, social media, and metaverse projects that can scale to millions of users, all entirely on-chain.

The DFINITY Foundation is excited to announce Supernova, the Internet Computer’s inaugural global hackathon. Supernova is six weeks long, running from May 10 to June 20, 2022. Teams are welcome to submit projects anytime in advance of the June 20 deadline at 11:45 PM Pacific Time.

The total prize pool for the hackathon is up to $6 million, including specified track prizes, grant funding, and funding opportunities from partners. Sponsors and judges include Polychain Capital, Electric Capital, Huobi, Foresight Ventures, Tomahawk.VC, and Animal Ventures.

• For more details about Supernova, visit the Supernova website.
• To register for Supernova, visit the Devpost.
• To ask questions about Supernova, contact supernova@dfinity.org.

Prize Tracks

There are six categories for the Supernova hackathon:

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!

For each of the six main categories above, the prizes are as follows:

• 1st Prize
  — $45,000 + 4 Tickets + $50,000 Grant*
• 2nd Prize
  — $30,000 + $25,000 Grant*
• 3rd Prize
  — $20,000 + $25,000 Grant*
• 4th Prize
  — $15,000 + $5,000 Grant*
• 5th Prize
  — $10,000 + $5,000 Grant*

In addition, there will be a GRAND CHAMPION award for the hackathon submission deemed by the judging panel to be the strongest of all the submissions. The GRAND CHAMPION award recipient team will receive $75,000, as well as a $100,000 grant*.

There will also be a COMMUNITY CHOICE award for the hackathon submission that receives the most votes from the community. The winner of the COMMUNITY CHOICE award will receive $10,000, as well as a $5,000 grant*.

The participants are also eligible to receive a percentage of $4.2 million in direct or indirect funding by DFINITY Foundation, its partners, affiliates, associates, and other core contributors and investors involved with the Hackathon.

*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.

Supernova Timeline

Following below is a timeline of important events and milestones for the Supernova hackathon.

The hackathon will include a series of educational workshops that teach participants to build decentralized applications on the Internet Computer. Each workshop will occur twice: once during a time amenable to those who live in UTC -7 to UTC +3 time zones (e.g., Americas, Europe) and once during a time amenable to participants in the remaining time zones (e.g., Asia). Links to attend the workshops can be found on the Devpost.

**Click here to add all workshops to your calendar.**

• Tuesday, March 29: Registration opens on Devpost
• Tuesday, March 29 (9:00 AM Pacific Time / 6:00 PM Central European Time): WORKSHOP #1: Introduction to Building on the IC — Motoko & Rust (Option 1)
• Thursday, March 31 (11:30 AM India Standard Time / 2:00 PM China Standard Time): WORKSHOP #2: Introduction to Building on the IC — Motoko & Rust (Option 2)
• Tuesday, April 5 (9:00 AM Pacific Time / 6:00 PM Central European Time): WORKSHOP #3: Frontends on the IC (Option 1)
• Thursday, April 7 (11:30 AM India Standard Time / 2:00 PM China Standard Time): WORKSHOP #4: Frontends on the IC (Option 2)
• Tuesday, April 12 (9:00 AM Pacific Time / 6:00 PM Central European Time): WORKSHOP #5: Build an Encrypted Notes Dapp (Option 1)
• Thursday, April 14 (11:30 AM India Standard Time / 2:00 PM China Standard Time): WORKSHOP #6: Build an Encrypted Notes Dapp (Option 2)
• Tuesday, April 19 (9:00 AM Pacific Time / 6:00 PM Central European Time): WORKSHOP #7: Mint an NFT (Option 1)
• Thursday, April 21 (11:30 AM India Standard Time / 2:00 PM China Standard Time): WORKSHOP #8: Mint an NFT (Option 2)
• Tuesday, April 26 (9:00 AM Pacific Time / 6:00 PM Central European Time): WORKSHOP #9: Build a DeFi use case (Option 1)
• Thursday, April 28 (11:30 AM India Standard Time / 2:00 PM China Standard Time): WORKSHOP #10: Build a DeFi use case (Option 2)
• Tuesday, May 3 (9:00 AM Pacific Time / 6:00 PM Central European Time): WORKSHOP #11: Build a DAO (Option 1)
• Thursday, May 5 (11:30 AM India Standard Time / 2:00 PM China Standard Time): WORKSHOP #12: Build a DAO (Option 2)
• Tuesday, May 10: Supernova hackathon virtual kickoff event
• Monday, June 20: Supernova submission deadline (11:59 PM Pacific Time)
• Thursday, June 30: Supernova Demo Day & Awards Ceremony

Judging Criteria

All Supernova submissions will be graded according to the following five criteria:

1. Technical Excellence: Is the code well-written, efficient, and/or technically innovative?
2. Usefulness: Does this project solve a real-world problem? Can people use it?
3. Impact: Does this project have the potential to affect the world in a meaningful way?
4. Completeness: Is this project a complete working product for end users?
5. IC Factor: Does the project demonstrate a unique trait of the Internet Computer?

We look forward to seeing the innovative dapps and use cases that you’ll build during the Supernova hackathon!

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Start building at smartcontracts.org and join the developer community at forum.dfinity.org.