Interchain Track: The Inter-Blockchain Experience 🎸

Join the Interchain Track Support group on Telegram.

Background

The Interchain Stack comprises five components: the Cosmos SDK, CometBFT, IBC, CosmWasm, and CosmJS. These tools allow developers to create modular, sovereign, and scalable decentralized applications. What distinguishes the ecosystem as an Internet of Blockchains, or the interchain, is the interoperability component of the Interchain Stack: Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC), which enables seamless cross-communication among web3 applications.

We challenge you to develop novel and exciting implementations of the Interchain Stack, focusing on IBC. Expand the interchain and show what’s possible in both the User Experience/Dev Experience and the incredible capabilities of the Interchain Stack.

With IBC Eureka on the horizon, the wealth of possibilities for IBC expansion is greater than ever!

Good luck, and have fun!

Prizes (ATOM, priced in USD)

Total Prize Pool $30,000
1st Prize $10,000
2nd Prize $6,000
3rd Prize $3,000
Bonus Prizes
Best Interchain First-timers Hack $2,000
Most Innovative Solution $2,000
Best User/Dev Experience Design $2,000
Best Use of IBC $2,000
Honourable Mentions
Honourable Mention 1 $1,000
Honourable Mention 2 $1,000
Honourable Mention 3 $1,000

Ideas List

Interoperability

  • IBC Expansion with EVM: Leverage and build implementations of the EVM with the Interchain Stack, to aid cross-chain interoperability between the existing interchain and the land of EVM (or other ecosystems, such as Solana and rollups).
  • Zero-Knowledge: Bring privacy to the fore with ZK IBC implementations and circuits, or implementations with the ZK Cosmos SDK module.
  • IBC Circuit Breaker: Construct a mechanism to facilitate incident response by verifying and halting malicious or erroneous transactions.
  • Interchain Accounts, Interchain Queries: Leverage Interchain Accounts and Interchain Queries for novel uses of cross-controlling assets and transactions, think Cross Chain Name Service.
  • Relayer Incentivization / Marketplace: Design innovative mechanisms to incentivize relaying, and consider the tokenomics and experience of relaying for users and relayer operators.

Tooling

  • Interchain Stack Monitoring: Develop tools and interfaces that provide real-time insights into IBC transactions, CometBFT performance, and other critical metrics across the Cosmos SDK.
  • Fuzzer: Build a tool that generates and sends random or malformed transactions to a network to assist in identifying potential vulnerabilities and edge cases.
  • Better UX & UI: Simplify getting started with smart contracts, IBC, relayers, upgrades, and interaction. Further improve user stack debugging with better errors and resources to narrow issue scope.

Applications

  • Social Networks & Moderation: Build decentralized social networks and explore innovative approaches to content moderation using the Interchain Stack - which can be implemented in a gaming format.
  • Censorship Resistant Content: Create resilient web platforms that are immune to censorship, ensuring content availability and user access across networks.
  • Cross-chain NFT Products and Applications: Build platforms that enable seamless transfer and trading of NFTs across different IBC-connected chains - think: novel, non-financial IBC implementations - gaming, digital collectibles, etc.
  • Randomness: Develop a secure randomness service that leverages cross-chain data and operates on a publish/subscribe model for decentralized applications requiring verifiable randomness.
  • Distributed Vote Incentivization: Develop models or tools to increase participation in governance across the ecosystem.
  • CosmWasm: Many of the Applications and Interoperability ideas can be implemented with the dynamic on-chain code of CosmWasm, use it you Rustaceans!

Eureka

  • Bring IBC Eureka to new VMs: such as Solana, Rollups, Move, ZK, etc.
  • IBC Light Client Implementations: Build new light clients to prove IBC state on more chains and consensus mechanisms: Bitcoin, Rollups, Solana, and more.
  • For the bold of you - IBC EVM App: Build a new IBC application on the IBC Eureka EVM implementation from the cosmos/solidity-ibc-eureka repository.

Wild Card

Anything you can dream up with the latest releases of the Interchain Stack and expanding the interchain!

Support

We will have four introductory workshops in the afternoon of Day 1 - these can help you get moving! Mentors will be on hand for the Interchain Stack Hack Track to support you and provide more resources.

Community Resources

Judges

Ainhoa - Zondax, Cosmos SDK Operations

Gjermund - IBC Software Engineer

Dan - Cosmology, CosmJS Head

Simon - Confio, CosmWasm Head

Mentors

  • Anmol
  • Anton
  • Daniel
  • JPB
  • Juan
  • Lucas
  • Mary
  • Nico
  • Ollie
  • Pinò
  • Reece
  • Serene
  • *judges will also mentor!

Workshops

We have 4 workshops as part of the Interchain Track during Hackmos - specifically designed to get you moving quickly and to be beneficial for your hack time; more details in the links:

  • Reece - Interchain Intro with Spawn

Sign up here: https://lu.ma/8nwn058d

  • Gjermund - IBC Workshop

Sign up here: https://lu.ma/t57knia9

  • Dan - Client-side Workshop

Sign up here: https://lu.ma/e1z4x010

  • Robin - CosmWasm and Abstract SDK (guest)

Sign up here: https://lu.ma/ftef27gy

Remember

  • Emphasize User and Developer Experience
  • Think IBC, and use the latest versions of the Interchain Stack
  • Keep in mind the pain points of your developer experience to give feedback for us to make it better - give feedback to this Google Form - it will be required to be judged <3
  • Teams with members from IG, Binary Builders, Confio, Zondax, Amulet, Strangelove, or Cosmology will be ineligible for prizes (you are still welcome to join and hack for fun and be highlighted as successful projects!).