Inicio do Evento

O evento começou cedo, às 8h, e nossa equipe partiu de Santos com bastante expectativa. Contudo, o tempo de deslocamento acabou sendo maior do que prevíamos, o que consumiu parte importante das primeiras horas. Num hackathon de 24 horas, cada minuto conta, e esse foi um dos primeiros desafios que enfrentamos.

Hub Privilegiado e Desvantagens Iniciais

Outro ponto que nos colocou em desvantagem foi o sistema de perguntas iniciais que, aparentemente, dava vantagens a equipes que acertassem mais respostas. Nossa equipe, que não teve um bom desempenho nessa etapa, acabou sendo alocada em um espaço comum, enquanto outras equipes tiveram acesso a salas privadas.

Reuniões de Líderes

Uma característica curiosa desse hackathon foi a exigência de que cada equipe elegesse um líder para participar de reuniões de checkpoints a cada quatro horas. Apesar da boa intenção de monitorar o progresso, essas reuniões acabaram sendo contraproducentes, atrapalhando o ritmo do desenvolvimento. Além disso, informações estratégicas que coletamos junto aos mentores acabaram sendo reveladas nessas reuniões, o que minou nosso esforço e nos causou frustração.

Problema Simples, Soluções Iguais

O desafio proposto no hackathon acabou sendo mais simples do que esperávamos. Basicamente, o objetivo era melhorar a comunicação entre a APS e a ABTRA, o que não proporcionava muitas oportunidades de inovação. Isso resultou em um cenário onde as soluções das equipes eram muito semelhantes. Com pouca margem para criatividade técnica, nos concentramos em vender bem a ideia no pitch.

O Pitch: Aguardando em Excesso

O momento do pitch, sempre aguardado com muita expectativa, foi prejudicado por problemas técnicos. O passador de slides, fundamental para a apresentação, apresentou falhas, o que acabou comprometendo o andamento e nos impediu de terminar a tempo. Além disso, o longo tempo de espera antes do pitch — com várias premiações para patrocinadores — adicionou uma camada extra de desgaste, especialmente considerando o nível de cansaço acumulado.

Feedback Privado

Por fim, uma das maiores frustrações veio com a ausência de feedback detalhado. Após tanto esforço, seria extremamente valioso receber um retorno dos jurados para entender onde poderíamos melhorar. Infelizmente, essa informação foi privada, o que limita o aprendizado dos participantes.

Conclusão

O Porto Hack 2024 foi, sem dúvida, uma experiência enriquecedora, mas alguns aspectos poderiam ter sido melhor estruturados. Desde a logística inicial até o problema proposto, a sensação foi de que o evento poderia ter sido mais bem planejado para maximizar o potencial de cada equipe. Hackathons são sobre inovação, agilidade e aprendizado, e pequenos ajustes poderiam garantir que esses elementos brilhassem ainda mais em futuras edições.

Travelling abroad
While in Switzerland, I embarked on a three-hour journey to Albania, a country whose name I didn’t even know. When I arrived at the airport with my friend, who was also taking part in the hackathon, we realised that there were no buses available at that time. That’s when we decided to hire a car and head for our hotel.

Getting to know Albania

Before the hackathon began, we took the opportunity to explore a little of Albania. Getting to know the country where we were going to compete gave us a unique perspective and helped us relax before the event.

Arriving at the Hackathon

When we arrived at the event, we were in for a surprise: the hackathon would be in Albanian. And we ask ourselves:

How can we perform well if we don’t speak Albanian?

That’s when we thought:

Let’s team up with an Albanian who speaks English

Team Building

Luckily, we met two Albanians who spoke English and we formed a team with them. This was fundamental in overcoming the language barrier.

Choosing the Challenge

We opted for the electric car challenge, which consisted of developing an app to find recharging points. Our Albanian colleagues already had some knowledge of the subject, which gave us a head start.

Start of Research, Backlog and MVP

We organised ourselves to define each other’s tasks and began documenting the application. After prioritising, we started developing the MVP. The design was somewhat labour-intensive, but we managed to complete it quickly. However, we didn’t expect the MVP to be 100% functional.

Development period

First, we defined the project’s architecture. With only two developers on the team, we worked intensively through the night. It was curious to realise that we were the only foreigners at the hackathon, and we even received a tribute on Instagram: ‘Brazilians work hard’. That made us very happy.

Finalising Development and Starting the Pitch

After about three days of not sleeping properly, we finalised the development and started preparing the pitch-deck to present to the partners.

Results

The evaluation was different from what we were used to, being decided by public vote. Although we didn’t reach the podium, we did manage to get a very good position. But best of all was the networking we did with the other participants and the experience of getting to know a new country.

Taking part in the Junction X Tirana Hackathon was an enriching experience. We learnt about new cultures, overcame challenges and strengthened our knowledge and skills in a collaborative and innovative environment.

About Hackathon…

Start Hack 2024, a renowned hackathon in Switzerland, brought together more than 500 people from all over the world. As well as being an independent event, it took place at the same time as the Start Summit, one of Europe’s biggest entrepreneurship events.

International Trip

My journey to get to the event was an adventure in itself: after about 16 hours of flying, with connections, I arrived at my destination. The anticipation of the experience to come made the long journey worthwhile.

Team Building

On discord, I noticed that there were few Brazilians, totaling around 3 to 4 participants in the entire event. With time pressed, I formed a team with two students from the University of St. Gallen and a Brazilian I met there, totalling a team of four people. Interestingly, I was the only developer in the group, surrounded by more business-oriented profiles.

Arriving at the event…

When I arrived, I was impressed by the quality and infrastructure of the venue. We were welcomed with credentials, gifts and T-shirts, and I could see that the event had been planned to comfortably accommodate the 500 participants, with leisure areas such as video games and stands for the cases.

Challenger Syngenta

Among the 9 cases presented by internationally renowned companies, the challenge proposed by Syngenta captured our attention. After taking part in workshops and mentoring sessions, we decided to focus on this case.

Start MVP…

Initially, we thought about creating a superapp, but we soon realized that this solution could be too complex for farmers. We changed the focus to something more accessible and, on the penultimate day, I proposed the idea of ​​developing a kind of Airbnb for land, aiming to help small farmers. The idea was well received by the team and Syngenta.

With less than 24 hours for development, and after days of little sleep, we managed to create a functional, albeit simple, MVP to present at the hackathon.

Results and Feedback

Although we didn’t win the case, the teamwork and networking we established with Syngenta and other participants was incredible. We received very positive feedback from the partner company, which left us satisfied with our performance and the results achieved during the 3-day event.

This experience at Start Hack 2024 not only tested our skills and creativity under pressure, but also provided us with a valuable learning and networking opportunity.

Let’s start by talking about Arteris, Arteris is a company that takes care of worker safety.

Challenger…

There were 3 challenges, but which one do we focus on? We focus on getting workers off the road to avoid the risk of accidents

Where do we start?

We started coming up with crazy ideas, like using drones, but it didn’t make sense because it would be too expensive…

So I thought, why not see what works outside the country?

We look far away… to Switzerland

There is a testing system in Switzerland for vertical signaling called Hagner Universal Photometer Model 52 used in dynamic inspections.

With that, we started to think of ways to implement in Brazil!

But we didn’t want to just rely on that

So we thought about integrating artificial intelligence and with the cars that Arteris was already installing in them, thus making the cost even cheaper.

Feedback from mentors…

The mentors were impressed and moved by our solution, because in addition to the challenge, we were saving lives!

The victory announcement…

We weren’t expecting it, because there were many good projects, more than 30 projects… But when he announced it, the emotion was so great that everyone screamed.

But none of this would be possible without great teamwork.

Github: https://github.com/bellujrb/hackathons/tree/main/arteris

Demo: https://youtu.be/QZ7p5jYURL8

Article Continued: https://medium.com/@bellujrb/my-experience-at-the-first-satsconf-hackathon-and-the-biggest-100-bitcoin-event-in-brazil-491b123d2c47

Starting with the act of classification…

I was startled when I came across almost 70 teams with innovative projects. Most of our team didn’t have much of a grasp of bitcoin against our opponents.

But…

We were confident with our national idea and that we were really solving a delicate problem that was the difficulty of the MiniScript language of Smart Contracts.

What were our steps for an almost month-long hackathon?

1. We focused on improving our visual identity, which was very raw.
2. Improving our artificial intelligence.
3. Developing the Flowchart.
4. Integrating NOSTR Login and Lightning.
5. Payments in Lightning.
6. Integrate everything into our cross-platform app (Android, IOS, Mac, Windows, Web).

Website Review

Artificial Intelligence for MiniScript

Flowchart

NOSTR Login and Lightning

Payments in Lightning

Problems with AWS…

We had major problems with AWS, our talented DevOps Victor studied a lot and received mentoring from industry experts to be able to integrate everything!

Problems in artificial intelligence model…

When we were preparing for training last week, the code that had been working perfectly throughout the project stopped working. This week was marked by exhaustive testing, experimentation with different libraries and countless variations in an attempt to resurrect a feature of the code. Despite our best efforts, we found ourselves in a frustrating cycle of trial and error, with no apparent resolution in sight. The coding gods seemed to be in complete abandonment, leaving the Middle Team unsettled. — Brenorb

But…

Just when it seemed that all hope was lost, the same code that had inexplicably failed before inexplicably started working again. Despite being exhausted and drained, we thanked the coding gods for their mercy. With the code back in working order, we now face the task of training and deploying the AI LLM model in just one day while in a 16-hour bus trip back home. — Brenorb

Problem in Flowchart API…

Breno, I don’t know Python, I won’t be able to create the API to integrate — Bellu (Software Developer Expert)

I trust you! You can! — Brenorb

Having less than 24 hours… Breno was right! The API was developed with flowchart and ready to be integrated

Note, before this hackathon most of the team didn’t know what NOSTR or LIGHTNING was! We stayed up all night to learn and fortunately we succeeded!

It’s time for the pitch to be finalized…

We were delighted with how lively the pitch was, Bruno, our talented Designer Wizard, did an excellent and well-explanatory job.

The big day has arrived, the big moment…

On the day of the announcement, most of the opposing teams spoke highly of our solution, saying that MiniScript was really confusing and would help a lot.

We were anxious for the result, the victories of other categories were coming in and nothing from us, until… in the last category it appeared that MiniMaxis, won in the Bitcoin Finance category, being the first Brazilian team to achieve such a feat.

We can’t help but forget Vinteum, who gave us this opportunity by winning the national championship and congratulated us!

Do you want to check line by line the codes developed by this talented team? Check out: https://github.com/minimaxis

With that, I end my article by telling you! Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t because you don’t have much knowledge about it, go deep, with effort we can all do it!

In the midst of some thoughts, I came to the doubt…

Would it be possible to take part in simultaneous hackathons and win both?

That’s when I decided to try it out at the campus party hackathon, where there were two simultaneous hackathons.

Start of planning

I started organising myself, to be as productive as I could be.

1. Organize Teams
2. Priorites Tasks
3. Problem research (Both)
4. Prototype Figma
5. Coding

Problems on the way

I was very overwhelmed with the tasks, because I had to develop figma and on top of that code the application… I didn’t sleep at all, I stayed from Friday to Sunday with very little sleep

A qualified team makes a difference!

With the help of my team, we were able to deliver both projects on time. In the final minutes!

We eagerly await the result

Thanks to a lot of dedication, we ended up winning the IDEIAGOV Hackathon and the Post Office Hackathon at Campus Party.

Push your limits, be different and fly! — Bellu

What is Questrade?

Questrade is a Toronto company focused on the world of finance

The start of the hackathon…

I was surprised at first, as the hackathon was much more technical than about ideas.

Our challenge was to create a “loan system”.

However, it came to my mind…

With so many senior developers participating, how could we stand out? — Bellu

I thought about a problem that my grandmother had…

Loan for elderly people, currently it is very difficult to get a loan. If there was a way to help these people?

With that, the idea of ​​the Joint Loan came up!

Our idea was for an elderly person to be able to take out a loan with the guarantee that a relative could pay if something happened.

Start with the development stage!

I started by designing Figma to have a good appearance, then my back-end Luiz Cavina was creating the back part. Then I started intense development of the mobile application

We think what can we do to stand out?

We dedicate ourselves to making it 100% functional and we also host it on AWS!

Problems…

AWS was a difficult path, there were several problems! But we managed to host it.

A curious fact…

My back-end and I were in perfect sync, in the final minutes we finished the development together!

Our application 100%…

We managed to get the app 100% working!!

Demo: Youtube Link

Code: Github

Architecture Project

My first pitch!

I was thinking, how can I do it? I studied other sales pitches. Followed, a simple structure

1. I started with the name
2. Our pair
3. Problem
4. Solution
5. Conclusion
6. Team

With that, we submit the project..

One week for the results to come out. And when it came out, we found that… Only two students ended up winning in a hackathon with several senior developers participating!

Thanks Questrade!

This was one of the hackathons where my back-end team and I learned the most. It was a highly technical and intense experience.

This was one of my biggest challenges, at that time I was not that experienced, few hackathons participated.

Let’s start with registration, more than 300 registrations and a few selected… Anxiety was great! Why the prize was nothing more, nothing less than a trip to Austria.

I was approved…

Approved together with a friend of mine Thiago Henrique Silva and Pedro Kenzo where we started recruiting for the team

We found a talented designer and a guy who is very good at business

The Challenger…

It was challenging, the main theme was “How can we connect Brazil with Austria?”

We did research to identify possible problems

Choice of challenge

We chose challenge 3.

Mentoring starting…

The mentors were mostly from Austria, the mentoring was enriching, they all had command of English

Halfway through…

Hackathon Brasil team raffled off pizzas and guess what? I was selected!

After a lot of research…

We decided to focus on an HR platform to connect Brazilians with Austria and from there development began

The development journey…

Unfortunately, due to the research time, I, as a developer on the team, had very little time to develop, it took less than 12 hours, but fortunately, I managed to finish it on time.

Demo Click

After that…

The pitch was made and successfully submitted on the platform, we await the result…

We won second place!

Unfortunately, this time, we didn’t reach the podium! But we were happy with the team’s performance, being one of the first international

Starting with registration…

I came across something very interesting… At the time of my presentation I was informed that there wasn’t much to do with web3 and bitcoin, where the term “web3” is not very well regarded in the bitcoin community.

Support material offered by Vinteum

The material offered was very rich, but there was a lot that I still didn’t understand, what would a Lightning Network be? What was a Miniscript?

I had doubts…

Is this Hackathon really for me? Will I be able to contribute? Will I be a burden on the team?

I was almost giving up on participating… Until something unexpected happened

An extremely out-of-the-box guy with high knowledge of bitcoin and machine learning invited me to his team

He asked me the following

Tell me something, how much do you know about bitcoin, miniscript, lightning, etc? no pressure, just curiosity

— Brenorb (AI engineer, Bitcoin-only shepherd)

Look, to be very honest, none! I’m a mobile developer.

— Bellu (Developer Mobile)

The next day, the hackathon starts

On the first day, I was very confused, it seemed like another world to me, everything there was English, no mentor spoke Portuguese even though I was in Brazil.

The mentors were from another place in Brazil.

How did I manage to proceed?

With Breno’s guidance, we began to see the problem he addressed about Miniscript and study more about it, with this, we focused on developing the idea.

What was our idea and the problem to be solved?

1. MiniScript (Smart Contracts for MiniScript).
2. Problems understanding language that was created to be simple.
3. We did a local search, almost no one understood Miniscript.

Currently the miniscript looks like this:

and(pk(A),or(pk(B),or(9@pk(C),older(1000))))

Our solution

1. Artificial Intelligence to answer questions about miniscript

2. Flowchart Generate

How do we develop this artificial intelligence?

In just two days we made more than 200 MiniScript examples:

How was the development of the demonstration?

There were hours and hours of development, with the need to redesign the application several times. Even though it was late at night, the work wasn’t done yet. I just finished the demo in Uber on the way to the event.

Words from the doorman at the event building…

We told him about the tournament he told us

They look like a champion, will definitely win

— (Doorman)

We arrived at the event and the Pitch presentation began.

All the projects appeared to be at another technical level, we were impressed!

What made ours stand out among 20 projects?

The person who was going to make the pitch, brenorb, had the brilliant idea of ​​starting the pitch with a question…

Who doesn’t know how to program in Miniscript?

— Brenorb (AI engineer, Bitcoin-only shepherd)

Out of curiosity, the majority raised their hands, including some jurors

After all the presentations…

We returned to the house, as the result would happen at SatsConf (Biggest bitcoin event)

Arriving at Satsconf…

The entire event only accepted bitcoin to eat or buy anything! It was incredible, we received several gifts and it was packed.

A funny curiosity… I didn’t have sats to buy a drumstick at the bitcoin event, but a teammate from another team gave me sats and I sent him the PIX

After enjoying the event, we anxiously waited for the winners to be announced until we discovered…

The team that most of them didn’t know what bitcoin was… WINNER OF THE BIGGEST 100% BITCOIN HACKATHON IN BRAZIL

We were very happy and surprised, and we were qualifying for the Bolt-fun Bitcoin Global!

What was our difference?

According to some judges, the way we present the pitch means we have a demonstration running!

How did we do overall?

We won in the Bitcoin Finance category! But I’ll leave that story for another day!

Now some advice for you at the end of this experience.

Face challenges, don’t let yourself get discouraged because you haven’t yet gained knowledge on a subject, leave the confrontation zone and go for it! — Bellu (Winner of 16 national and international podiums)

First, what is Hackathon?

A hackathon is a collaborative, short-duration event, typically held over a weekend, where individuals come together to work intensively on projects, often in the field of technology and programming. The term is a combination of “hack” and “marathon,” signifying a hacking marathon. The concept of hackathons originated in 1999 during a Sun Microsystems event.

Did you know that Hackathon and Linux are similar?

The parallel between hackathons and the Linux operating system lies in the similarity of the “open-source” spirit. At hackathons, developers share and collaborate openly, reflecting Linux’s open source philosophy.

I’m a developer, how should I behave at a Hackathon?

In a hackathon, developers transcend mere programming, taking on the role of true artists who breathe life into the art of the product. They are more than just coders; they are problem solvers, creative thinkers, and collaborators.

This guide will provide insights and valuable tips on how to thrive in a hackathon as a developer, exploring effective strategies to maximize collaboration, innovation, and the delivery of impactful solutions within a short timeframe.

Explore the challenger problem with Team

Anyone who thinks that only business people identify problems is mistaken. In fact, developers play a crucial role in this regard, as they face and solve problems on a daily basis. Your ability to identify technical challenges and find innovative solutions.

Set priorities for the MVP

Don’t aim to create a fully functional replica of Medium in just three days; be realistic. Focus on the essentials first, and use any remaining time to add additional features.

Accept feedback from the team

Teamwork in a hackathon is essential, it’s not enough to be a good developer.

Prioritize networking and participate in mentoring

In technical hackathons, mentoring can be essential for your development as a developer, more valuable than any award and what you learn in each hackathon.

Take care of the project readme

A good readme makes it clear how the project works, remember, the judges don’t have all the time in the world to see code by code.

Don’t forget to leave the github link public

In my first hackathon, I made this mistake myself, and it could be fatal. Always check the links.

Hackathon is more than just an event, an opportunity for developers to evolve

As a developer, in the midst of so many hackathons I say that they were essential for my personal and professional development. — Bellu (Winner of 16 national and international podiums)