About Taiko
Taiko is a type-1, Based rollup that scales Ethereum in a manner that emulates Ethereum as closely as possible - both technically and non-technically. More specifically, Taiko is an Ethereum-equivalent ZK-Rollup, scaling Ethereum by supporting all EVM opcodes in a layer-2 architecture that is decentralized, permissionless, and secure.
The Grant Factory Hackathon
Welcome to The Grant Factory, where innovation meets opportunity in the Taiko Ecosystem. This hackathon invites new and existing projects to bring groundbreaking features to life across three dynamic tracks: Work Hard, Play Hard, and Do Good. By the end of this event, teams will have deployed a project on Taiko and crafted a polished grant proposal for submission.
We want to inspire and support teams to build projects that last well beyond the hackathon. That is why throughout the event we will not only be giving you technical support, but also guidance on how to build projects with sustainable business models in the web3 space. On top of that, our grant committee will be providing advice and feedback on the proposals you will be submitting so you will be well positioned to win a hackathon prize AND additional funding that will carry the project to the 6-month mark post hackathon.
Tracks & Prize Pool
Total Prize Pool: $100,000
The prize pool is split across three tracks, with Quadratic Funding (QF) decided by the community distributing a third of the prize money for each track and special awards distributed to standout teams.
Projects can be submitted to the following 3 general Tracks:
Work Hard
- This track will focus on areas such as DeFi, AI, RWAs, DAOs, etc.
- See Work Hard Ideas
Play Hard
- This track will focus on areas such as Gaming/NFTs, TG Bots/Discord, Prediction Market, SocialFi, etc.
- See Play Hard Ideas
Do Good
- This track will focus on areas such as Social Impact, ReFi, Public Goods, UX, etc.
- See Do Good Ideas
Each Track will have $30,000 allocated to it and will use the following Prize Distribution:
- Allocated by the Judges:
- 1st: $10,000
- 2nd: $6,000
- 3rd: $4,000
- Allocated by QF:
- 1st: $5,000
- 2nd: $3,000
- 3rd: $2,000
Note: 50% of the prize money will be released immediately, with the remaining 50% distributed upon completion of grant milestones (split as 50%/25%/25%).
Special Awards
An additional $10,000 is set aside to be awarded to teams that excel in the following categories ($2,000 each):
- Best Business Idea
- Most Community Support
- Most Impressive Grant Proposal
- Best Pitch Presentation
- Most Innovative Idea
Non-Financial Rewards
- VC Community Connections: Potential funding opportunities
- Public Recognition: Honourable mentions on Twitter/Blog
Partner Bounties
- $3,000 for utilizing their technology.
- $3,000 for utilizing their technology.
Timeline
Week 1 (Sept 25):
- Introduction to Taiko
- Bounty Explanation
- Team Formation/Idea Pitch
Weeks 2-4 (Sept 30 - Oct 28):
- Partner Workshops
- Business Talks
- Grant Workshops
Weeks 5-6 (Oct 28 - Nov 11):
- Grant Check-in & Feedback
Weeks 7 (Deadline Nov 17):
- Final Grant/Project Submission
Winner Announcement will take place within 2 weeks of the hackathon conclusion. Date TBA
Qualifications
To qualify for prizes, teams must:
- Deploy their project to the Taiko mainnet (or Hekla testnet if required features are not yet available on mainnet).
- Submit a complete grant application with milestones outlining deliverables for the six months following the hackathon.
- Participants must be over 18 years of age and winners must submit to KYC for prizes.
- Submissions must include a detailed project description outlining key details such as the problem being solved, how the project solves that problem, and the overall expected impact. Additionally, teams should provide a demo video of the project in order to make it to the live judging session.
- Projects are expected to adhere to ethical standards, respecting privacy and data protection laws, and avoiding any harmful or malicious intent. This also includes plagiarism or undeclared fair use of other's code.
Existing projects
- Existing projects are welcome to participate in The Grant Factory, however, we will need to see that you have added new features to your project and deployed them to Taiko first in order to be eligible.
Note: Taiko Labs reserves the right to withhold any portion of the prize pool if there are not enough qualifying teams.
Judging
Judging will happen over a few phases:
The first phase will be an initial screening of projects to ensure the basic criteria were met, such as deployment to Taiko, a finished grant proposal, Ethical standards have been adhered to and the project submission includes all required information including a demo video.
If the project passes through phase 1, they will be invited to present their projects live in front of the relevant judges panel during which teams should be prepared to answer follow-up questions after their presentation. (Final time allotment and structure for this phase will be communicated before the project submission deadline.)
Presentations in front of the judges will be recorded and posted publicly for the community to use as a part of their decision making process when voting during the QF round.
The final decisions of the judges will be collected alongside the decisions of the community and the winners will be announced and receive their prizes upon completing KYC.
All projects including those that do not win a top 3 prize will then be considered for additional funding based on the merits of the Grant proposal they submitted. So even if you don't receive a Hackathon prize you can still be awarded grant funding.
Judges
The judging panel will be announced closer to the end of the hackathon but will consist of the following:
- Taiko Founder(s)
- Core team members
- Ecosystem team
- Potential Investor(s)
They will be judging projects using the following criteria:
- Functionality (30%)
- Innovation (25%)
- User Experience (20%)
- Technical Implementation (15%)
- Documentation (10%)