Goodbye, HackBoston 2022. Hello, highlights.
See what student developers from Harvard, MIT, and Boston universities built on The Blockchain OS.
From thriving new Web3 & developer communities in Brazil to the heart of Crypto Valley in Switzerland, next on The Blockchain OS’ stop was Harvard University’s campus, for a 36-hour hackathon!
Co-hosted by EasyA, Reach, and the Harvard Blockchain Club, we were proud to sponsor HackBoston and add to the $100k prize pool alongside major blockchain projects such as Algorand, BNB Chain, and Telos to name a few. With a mission to make blockchain accessible to all, we were excited to join and onboard budding student developers to The Blockchain OS.
With over 500 students participating, 61 projects deployed, and teams from 28 universities such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, want to hear what projects were built on The Blockchain OS? Well, keep reading…
Hello, hackathon kickoff.
From the get-go, the energy on campus was unmistakable. It was fantastic to not only see the impressive student turnout, but also the level of curiosity that filled every event, from workshop to panels — all throughout the hackathon.
Starting things off with a fireside chat, Cartesi Business Development Manager Max joined blockchain leaders and founders from Fidelity, Telos, Algorand, and Klaytn to chat about building a brighter future with blockchain. We loved all the questions asked by the students and enjoyed ending off the first day by getting into even deeper conversations over a networking dinner.
Hello, new Web3 generation.
Stepping into blockchain isn’t an easy journey, even for developers with years of experience behind them. So, what if you could build on the blockchain without learning Solidity? Use your favorite Python libraries in blockchain? Well, on The Blockchain OS, it’s all possible, even if you’re a first-time coder for blockchain.
Core Cartesi Developer Gabriel led a fun, hands-on workshop introducing The Blockchain OS to students, showing how they can easily build decentralized Linux apps with Cartesi. We loved how this resonated with students and seeing their light-bulb moment when they realized the immense potential of building a fully decentralized application with the tools already familiar to them.
Core Cartesi contributors, Max, Omran, Carlo, Lyno, and Zach were also on hand providing mentorship to students, listening to soft pitches from a variety of teams, and helping them solidify their ideas before they got their knees deep into coding.
P.S. Have you joined the Cartesi Discord? We’ve set up a dedicated channel for #hackboston pioneers & experimental builders. This is a great chance to reconnect with peers and have a direct line to the Cartesi team. Send a message to the team to get added to the private channel after you’ve joined:
Hello, easy entry into blockchain.
So what tools can developers use to make their journey into blockchain easy peasy? Cartesi’s Director of Developer Relations, Omran took to the stage in a panel discussion with EasyA, Klaytn, and Northeastern Blockchain Club to chat about how Cartesi is making blockchain easy, less intimidating, and more accessible for developers of all kinds.
It was awesome to see the number of students interested in exploring blockchain with The Blockchain OS — we were happy to receive so many questions from different teams and chat deeper about different ideas for decentralized applications.
Eat. Hack. Refuel. Repeat.
At every hackathon comes the moment when the day’s activities start to catch up with you. Fatigue, frustration, even doubts come creeping in and before you know it, team morale is falling fast. That’s where Cartesi came in, offering a fuel night to boost everyone’s system, mentally and physically.
We packed a vitamin bar with fresh juices made from fruit, ginger, vegs, berries and superfoods to get students looking fantastic, feeling fabulous and bouncing off the walls with energy. Achieving your daily fruit & veggie intake? Checked!
We know how sore muscles can get from intense coding sessions spent over a laptop, that’s why we provided massage chairs so students can recline to zero gravity position, turn on the heating therapy and reduce stress immediately.
And how about an oxygen bar with twelve different oxygen-infused aromas to clear the mind and invigorate? We provided that too! Alongside our invigorating hackathon essentials, our core contributors were also out in full force, providing one-to-one support well into the early hours of the morning (…hello, 4am tech talks) — even after other projects had already tapped out for the night.
Hello, up-and-coming future-proof DApps.
With 5 teams joining our track for HackBoston, it was certainly a tough decision to pick a winner. After some very serious consideration, take a look at which teams took the top spots:
1st prize goes to… Team Immunity Boost (Northeastern, Tufts University):
Hello, fully on-chain bot vs bot fighting game.
Want better crypto games in terms of entertainment factor and full decentralization?
Seeing that the majority of crypto games run most of their logic off-chain, Team Immunity Boost, used their knowledge of Python, React, Go, Lua scripts, JSON files, Cartesi Rollups, and API calls to the Ikemen GO game to create a fully on-chain fighting game where viewers can place bets on the winner.
“Cartesi Rollups were integral to the functionality of our project, as we were able to have a layer of abstraction that allowed us to run the Ikemen GO logic and place bets on the chain.”
And 2nd prize… Team 3F1J (MIT): Hello, Quantum Computer on Blockchain
How about the best of two worlds? The power of quantum computers and the integrity, privacy, and decentralization of blockchain.
Team 3F1J used Cartesi Rollups to implement a simulation of quantum circuits — useful for statistical and computational applications. Providing a successful demonstration of potential, Team 3F1J’s project paves the way for even more developed technology to enable quantum computers to be ‘linked’ to blockchain — allowing for fast solutions to specific computational problems (like factoring).
It’s a great initial step towards quantum-resistant cryptography and further enhancements and modifications to the current system when quantum computers become ubiquitous.
“The convenience of being able to build through any language allowed us to experiment with a more fun project as we didn’t have to struggle with a language we were less familiar with. It also helped us to bridge gaps between Python, Qiskit, and IBM quantum machines in order to effectively build the project. The fluidity of development provided uniquely by Cartesi made the project possible in a relatively short time.”
And finally… 3rd prize goes to Team Frens (NEU): Hello, common layer for games, networks, communities.
What if there was a fully decentralized version of Steam?
Students from NEU presented Frens protocol — a user-owned, open social platform that any game can plug into, instantly creating value for their players by helping them easily discover their friends and the newest and latest games. They’re the trust layer between games/games and games/users, tackling the issue that current games do not have a common layer for establishing trust and communication for on-chain assets/data.
“Since we are building with Cartesi Rollups, we use their Cartesi Machine layer to run an SQLite database and store all the data like friends, games, and inventories. etc. Users of the Metaverse can connect with friends, share assets and identities between games and even chains — Cartesi helps make that really easy.”
And that wraps up an awesome 36 hours! Congratulations not only to the winners but also to all the teams who submitted their innovative ideas to the Cartesi track.
Thank you to Easy A and Reach for hosting a phenomenal event and most importantly, a huge thank you to all the students who showed up and wowed us with their ideas. We’re welcoming you all to make your home on The Blockchain OS.
Spot yourself in the crowd? Join us over on Discord where we have a dedicated channel exclusively for #hackboston pioneers & experimental builders. Reconnect with peers and have a direct line to the Cartesi team:
Want to learn more as a Web3 developer? Make sure to sign up for The Blockchain OS workshops at upcoming events:
From hands-on workshops to help you build your first blockchain application with Cartesi technology, to inspiring panel discussions, take a look at upcoming events you can catch us at:
- Cartesi Hacker Home: October 6th-15th
- The Blockchain OS workshop: October 7th, 5:00PM
- Cartesi Hacker Home: October 6th-15th
ETH San Francisco — 4–6 Nov 2022
- The Blockchain OS workshop
About Cartesi
The Blockchain OS is a decentralized layer-2 infrastructure that supports Linux and mainstream software components. For the first time, developers can code scalable smart contracts with rich software tools, libraries, and the services they’re used to, bridging the gap between mainstream software and blockchain.
Cartesi is enabling millions of new startups and their developers to use The Blockchain OS and bring Linux applications on board. With a groundbreaking virtual machine, optimistic rollups, and side-chains, Cartesi paves the way for developers of all kinds, to build the next generation of blockchain apps.
Welcome to The Blockchain OS, home to what’s next.
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