🚀 Ideahacker’s Guide to IBC: An Interchain Ideathon
The IBC Ideathon is an opportunity for creative and inventive blockchain builders and users to pioneer the next generation of cross-chain innovation. It’s a hackathon just for ideas. No coding or software engineering required.
The best ideas will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Istanbul and part of the $30,000 prize pool.
🙋 Who is the Ideathon for? Anyone with a fundamental knowledge of how blockchains work is welcome to join the Ideathon. While developers are welcome, participants do not need to be one to join.
🏆 Prizes and Tracks
The best ideas will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Istanbul and part of the $30,000 prize pool in ATOM tokens. Each of the 5 tracks will have 5 prize winners:
- $3,000 first place
- $1,500 second place
- 3 third place winners at $500 each
For a detailed breakdown, visit the Prizes and Tracks tab.
🛠️ How Ideahacker’s Guide to IBC Works
The IBC Ideathon is a global, online competition designed to push the boundaries of cross-chain innovation using the world's largest and most widely adopted blockchain interoperability protocol, the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC).
The Ideathon is intended as an accessible event for developers and non-technical builders to explore the IBC protocol’s capabilities.
The difference between the IBC Ideathon and a traditional hackathon is that Ideathon participation takes much less time and energy than participating in a hackathon. Ideathon participants submit an idea rather than a Github code base or proof-of-concept product.
This being said, the winning ideas must be high-quality and genuinely innovative.
Participating is a simple process:
- Register as a hacker on Dorahacks.
- Use the IBC Idea Builder to visually map out your IBC idea.
- Export the JSON link for your IBC Idea. Add the link to your Dorahacks BUIDL.
- Add a write-up to your BUIDL.
- Submit your BUIDL on Dorahacks.
Make sure to read the eligibility criteria and idea submission instructions. Only high-quality, well-thought-out ideas will be eligible to win prizes.
🦾 Why IBC?
IBC is one of the most widely-adopted interoperability protocols in the world. Over 115 chains are IBC-enabled, and the protocol processes billions of dollars in asset transfers every 30 days.
IBC enables secure, permissionless, feature-rich cross-chain interactions, like token transfers and general message-passing. Unlike a token bridge contract that sits "on top of" a chain, IBC-enabled chains exchange data without a third-party intermediary.
IBC has several industry-leading features and functionalities beyond basic token transfers. Unique IBC features include:
- Interchain Accounts and Queries - Cross-chain account control and data queries.
- Cross-chain callbacks - Smart contracts and modules can be natively cross-chain enabled for adaptable workflows leveraging multiple smart contracts and applications.
- NFT transfers - Send and receive cross-chain NFT transfers.
- Cross-chain validation - A provider chain provides economic security to a consumer chain(s), so the consumer chains do not have to run their own validator sets.
- No in-protocol fees - The IBC Protocol does not charge fees for processing transactions. Users are only responsible for gas fees for the transactions they process.
📘 Participant Resources
Access beginner guides, advanced tutorials, documentation, and workshops on the Ideahacker resources page HERE.
🤝 Judges
A panel of leaders in the Interchain ecosystem will be judging the IBC ideas.
- Alix Keller, Chief Product Officer, the Interchain Foundation
- Aditya Sripal, Lead Protocol Architect for IBC, the Interchain Foundation
- Aaron Kong, Growth & Strategy Lead, Osmosis Labs
- Adi Seredinschi, Director of Product, Informal Systems
- Greg Osuri, Cofounder, Akash
- Jacob Arluck, Head of Strategy, Celestia Labs
- Jelena Djuric, CEO, Noble
- John Letey, Engineering Director, Noble
- Jonathan Berger, Head of Product, Strangelove Labs
- Josh Lee, Co-Founder, Kepler
- Omar Zaki, Co-Founder of Picasso and Mantis, Composable Foundation
- Zaki Manian, Co-Founder, Sommelier
View the judging criteria on the submission guide page.
🏛️ Ideathon Sponsor
The Interchain Foundation (ICF) funds the development and marketing of the Interchain Stack, an open-source suite of technologies for building blockchains. ICF funds the development of the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC).
🫂 Get Involved
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