Updates

Hack-a-TONx Onboarding week is coming! Starting from Jan 30th, there will be a series of "going from 0-1" live workshops and Q&A sessions to help you join the ecosystem building (and get funded).

You’re invited to ask questions and win coupons during the live sessions.

[Important] Please put your questions at https://t.me/hackatonx/3078 (NOT via Binance Live comments!). You’ll be able to win AWS coupons!

Introduction

The Open Network (TON) is a fully decentralized layer-1 Proof-of-Stake blockchain designed by Telegram and continued by the open-source community to usher in the next era of Web3 conversion and onboard billions of users. TON supports dynamic sharding, Turing-complete smart contracts, and upgradable formal blockchain specifications. It boasts ultra-fast transactions, low fees, and mobile-friendly dApps. TON aims to offer Web3 solutions via decentralized sites, proxy, and storage solutions on the blockchain rail.

New protocol. New opportunities. New Freedom.

Welcome to the first Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks. Hack-a-TONx is a series of hackathons that brings together Web2 and Web3 developers, technologists, and cypherpunks to prototype new blockchain-enabled products on TON. Talented developers across the world, including Telegram team, is choosing TON as its Layer-1 of preference (e.g., Fragment). Whether you are a group of independent developers building a new use-case, or a seasoned venture builder team in search of a scalable blockchain with massive distribution potential for a Web3 enabled service, come explore and push the boundaries on TON.

Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks is TON Foundation’s first global hackathon with a total prize pool of $300K and fast-track to $250M Ecosystem Fund. In order to participate in the hackathon, teams will need to build for TON mainnet or if bridging over projects, build a new model tailored for the TON ecosystem. More details below.

Below are the objectives of Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks:

  • Find dapps with killer use-cases and provide post-hackathon continued funding via grants and investments
  • Provide ample time (8-weeks) for newcomers to onboard, learn, and build on TON
  • Hold parallel in-person sessions in strategic locations all over the world with our Buidl Partners for an opportunity to code together, share ideas, and network with the local TON builder community
  • Introduce TON ecosystem to those who are curious about our developer environment and funding opportunities
  • Educate the Web2 and Web3 developer communities about the potential to access massive dApp distribution (750 million MAU on Telegram)
  • Grow our developer community and streamline efforts around GitHub commits, share our ethos around open-source, and kickstart the service layer development engine

Why you should join:

  • $300,000 in prize pool (including $50K sponsored from DWF Labs)

  • Fast track to $250M TONcoin Fund, the premier Ecosystem Fund on TON

  • Fast track to additional grants

  • Security audit subsidies from TON Foundation w/ our partners (Certik/Quantstamp/and more)

  • Chance to meet TON Foundation and VC/Investors on TON with an all-expense paid travel to our operations in Dubai

It’s Time to Build on TON.

Schedule

Key Dates

Events

Dec 21 (Wed)

Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks opens

Jan 30 (Mon) 

Dev Onboarding Week Kickoff (see details)

Feb 5 (Sun)

Dev Onboarding Week Finish (see details)

Mar 12 (Sun) 11:59PM GMT 

Deadline for teams to open-source or private share closed-source 

Mar 17 (Fri) 11:59PM GMT

Last Day of BUIDL Submission

Mar 24 (Fri)

Top-5 Teams Announced

Mar 28 (Tues)

Day 1 of live judging (2-3PM GMT) ( YouTube >, Binance Live > )

Mar 29 (Wed)

Day 2 of live judging (2-3PM GMT) ( YouTube >, Binance Live > )

Mar 31 (Fri)

Winners Announcement + Closing Ceremony

Additionally, an in-person meetup will run parallel with the online hackathon in the following weekends:

11-12 Feb, 2023

18-19 Feb, 2023

19-20 Feb, 2023

24-25 Feb, 2023

25-26 Feb, 2023

This is an opportunity for Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks participants to come together to brainstorm, network, and buidl together. Highly selective teams will receive invites from the partners.

More information will be provided to participants and local communities by our partners leading up to the physical meetup.

Tracks

  • Fi+ (DeFi, Social, Gaming)

    • The great unlock of Web3 is the alignment of incentives - between builders and users, organizations and individuals, and more. Supercharge your idea with Fi+ by aligning the incentives peer-to-peer, removing the complete reliance on profit-taking aggregators. Even better, unlock ways for these Fi+ services to be offered to the masses via TON Sites and Telegram Web App front-end.
    • Current examples: TON Play, TON.Place, STON.fi, Megaton Finance

  • Decentralized Digital Identity

    • Empower individuals to take ownership of their digital identity via user-friendly ways to manage and upkeep data. Whether this comes in the form of exploring the possibility of building a DID stack on top of Telegram usernames (which are tradeable on TON blockchain) or enabling 3rd party authorization with blockchain-enabled SSO, we are just getting started.

  • Utility NFT / SBT

    • Explore opportunities for creating universal digital containers for social constructs: from achievements for participating in the current Hackathon (more recursion to the Gods of Recursion) to working on platforms providing SBT diplomas or access to coworking spaces.

  • DAO

    • The ability for users to pool together resources, opinions, and call for action will change how governance is enabled in Web3. For example, DAOs will be able to band together to buyout usernames on Fragment and create unique sustainable use cases for such channels via TON Payment, subscriptions, and more.

  • Web3 Services

    • Opportunity to participate in the development of a wide range of innovative web3 technologies. Verticals and applications include infrastructure, artificial intelligence oracles, web 2.5, web3 interfacing, distributed computing, telegram web apps (TWA), telegram api, developer tools, interoperability, web2/3 connectors, node as service, layer 0, decentralized development, real time multilingual communications and quantum proofing.

  • Web 2.5 (The Ultimate Challenge)

    • This track will have a focus on Metaverse, but a greater emphasis placed on mass adoption (introduction of Web 2.5). Innovative architecture and dedication will be necessary in order for a team to achieve success.

    • The challenge at hand: A port of Webaverse into the TON & Telegram ecosystems including technological adaptations of web3, social interactions, communications, tokenized assets and 3rd party integrations. Webaverse Docs

      Source Code

    • The application and integrations of various SDKS and APIs will be required in order for Webaverse/TON/Telegram to interact with each other seamlessly in a “Web 2.5” fashion. Such as tdweb, MadelineProto, telegram-react, ton-wallet, lite-client, Telegram API and Telegram Web Apps (TWA) to name a few.

Prize Pool: Standard Tracks

TON price determined as trailing 30-day average as of a set-date. We will be track-agnostic (to avoid instances where projects w/ low track submissions win by default), however the judging criteria will be tailored for each track.

$225K in TON for Top-5 teams:

  • 1st - $110K (including $10K sponsored from DWF Labs)
  • 2nd - $60K (including $10K sponsored from DWF Labs)
  • 3rd - $30K (including $5K sponsored from DWF Labs)
  • 4th - $15K
  • 5th - $10K

Prize Pool: Web 2.5 (The Ultimate Challenge)

Web 2.5 is a high difficulty track for teams pushing the boundaries of metaverse into the TON & Telegram ecosystems. We have allocated an additional prize pool to incentive builders.

$75K in TON for Top-3 teams:

  • 1st - $45K (including $15K sponsored from DWF Labs)
  • 2nd - $20K (including $5K sponsored from DWF Labs)
  • 3rd - $10K (including $5K sponsored from DWF Labs)

Outside of the prize pool, the winners will receive future security audit subsidies, fast-tracked grants, ecosystem fund investment opportunities, and a chance to fly out to Dubai, UAE to meet the TON Foundation and investors.

Entry Requirements

  • Projects are built for TON ecosystem and in the FunC language
  • Teams can close-source GitHub repo during the hackathon, but are required to open-source after the last day of BUIDL submission deadline. Teams can opt for open-source under BSL 1.1, which stipulates that the codes cannot be used for commercial purposes by other parties.
  • dApp must support ton-connect 2.0 standard
  • Entrants undertake to submit projects that do not violate relevant laws and regulations, infringe any intellectual property or other rights of any third parties, or will otherwise be disqualified
  • Teams must be online and in attendance during the award announcement to win a prize

Judges

  • Justin Hyun - Head of Incubation at TON Foundation
  • Shahar Yakir* - Software Engineer at Orbs
  • Roman Krutovoy* - Developer Onboarding Manager at TON Foundation
  • Oleg Illarionov* - Co-Founder of Tonkeeper
  • Bill Qian - Cypher Capital Chairman (TON Foundation Board Member)
  • Karan Gandhi - Cypher Capital Senior Investment Associate
  • Alessia Baumgartner - DWF Investment Analyst & BD Manager
  • Daniel Yang - Director at Ozys
  • Juno Im* - ChainLight Lead at Theori
  • Chia Jia Ho (not a judge) - BD Analyst at TON Foundation (@jahouiz)

*Technical judges who will evaluate GitHub repo and code

Judges GitHub/GitLab Directory:

  • krigga
  • shaharyakir
  • brainpicture
  • SwiftAdviser
  • juno@theori.io
  • tonkongz