How do you experience a web3 hackathon? The winners of ETHBogotá and Infinite Genesis talk.

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As part of Devcon VI held in Bogota, Colombia, CryptoNews had the opportunity to interview members of two teams of developers who each won a hackathon during the days of the event. They told us about their experiences to understand a little better what it means to participate in and win competitions of this type.

A hackathon is a competition that brings together teams of specialists in various areas of computer science. Participants must create software or hardware that meets certain specifications in a given time.

These events usually last one to three days and participating teams usually include two to five participants. The word hackathon combines the terms “hacker” and “marathon.”Developers or hackers must work relentlessly until the idea they will eventually present comes to fruition.

Let’s meet the champions

The winners of the ETHBogotá hackathon.

A team of four Poles and one American was a finalist and winner of the best web3 video hack with Livepeer. Their proposal is called Betting Flowsa streaming platform that allows its users to pay for the content they watch and to bet in real time on the outcome of programming.

Another aspect of the winning design is that the viewer only pays for the content they watch, literally. For example, if the user only watched half of a game because they had another engagement, will only pay for the segment of time they used the streaming service..

One of the anecdotes told by the team of developers is that it took about five hours of brainstorming and some conversations with the event sponsors to arrive at a design idea.

As important as development and code are, I as a developer tend to underestimate the power and importance of marketing in general. Creating a story and a value proposition… I still haven’t figured out what that is. But we had a team with expertise in all these areas, both technical and marketing and creating the business side. That’s why it’s important that we came together and created a diverse team in terms of skills.

Pawel Zaremba, member of the winning team at the ETHBogota hackathon.

Despite having a diverse team, as Pawel said, there was a lack of a specialist in front-endSo their platform did not look very attractive. However, between the developers’ commitment to the functionality of the software and the presenters’ commitment to selling the proposition as effectively as possible, it was possible for them to achieve victory.

Winners of the Infinite Genesis hackathon.

Uruguayan developer Sebastián Luján was the winning team member of the Infinite Genesis hackathon that CriptoNoticias had the pleasure of speaking with. The project presented is called Fair Offer. This is a platform that uses the Dutch reverse blind auction method for selling goods and assets such as event tickets, artwork, etc. NFTetc.

The use of this platform is that each user proposes a price for the good to be obtained, based on what they think is fair or the amount they can afford. At the end of the auction, the system evaluates the highest bids, checks whether the potential buyer has a sufficient balance, and allocates the good for which he or she has bid. It should be noted that users cannot see how much others are bidding, so everyone will bid what they can or can afford to pay.

Sebastian’s particular story and how he got to where he is now is fascinating, although living through it must not have been easy. A young man who did not do very well in college and one day became self-taught, began to devote himself to programming.

Then, the Uruguayan managed to get in a couple of training camps to better prepare for distributed ledger technology (blockchain) and smart contracts. He now works as freelancerbut winning the hackathon has opened doors for him that he will have to evaluate based on what he thinks is best for his future.

Sebastian took the opportunity to share some advice to hackathon participants and developers in general: “Sleep is important.”. This was literally said by the computer scientist, who related an interesting anecdote he experienced during the hackathon.

There was a time when I was very frustrated and there was one day left. One of the organizers told me, “Go to sleep, you’re not working, you’re disconnected from everything.” I fell asleep. I must have slept for two hours. I came back with the solution that allowed us to win.

Sebastián Luján, member of the winning team of the Infinite Genesis hackathon.

What does it mean to participate in a hackathon?

Each hackathon has its own rules and the stories of those who participate can be very different from each other. However, there are some aspects that these events share or situations that can be very common.

Although one might think that these teams arrive well cohesive and with a clear vision of the type of project they will present, the opposite is true. Both the team that won the ETHBogotá hackathon and the team that won Infinite Genesis, were formed with members who did not know each other. previously or who did not plan to cooperate for this purpose.

Hackathons are races against time to prepare the project for presentation, can be stressful for participants. The days of a hackathon are days when there is little sleep and as little distraction as possible. This does not mean that it is forbidden to have some fun.

We had a lot of fun during the hackathon, but on the other hand we were also in top condition. The team developers stayed up until 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, waking up at 7:30 a.m. the same day to finish the product. I myself at 8:57 a.m. was making changes to the submission when the deadline was 9 a.m., so the struggle was real. Fortunately, we managed to get the award.

Marcin Kázmierczak, member of the winning team at the ETHBogota hackathon.

Prizes and what you can win at a hackathon.

Fortunately, all efforts are rewarded by winning the prizes available. It is worth noting that some hackathons have startup sponsors who offer extra prizes for integrating their technology into a particular team’s project. It is therefore possible that a team that did not take first place will not walk away empty-handed if they can find a new use for a sponsor’s software or hardware.

In addition to prizes, Another aspect that is gained in these competitions is knowledge and experience.. Many of these developers arrive with some level of experience, but often there are applications, software, and technologies that require them to learn something new or a new use of something they already knew.

Probably, this acquired knowledge would ultimately be. the most valuableThe most valuable thing is the friendships that can be created, because learning to work as a team is also crucial in this kind of competition.

Another type of award that winners of hackathons often receive are. proposals for work or funding for their project. This may allow them to refine some adjustments to their proposals, monetize through them, or eventually sell the finished project.