Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was among the judges at the hackathon, while wearing a Bufficorn costume. Source: Twitter/@EthereumDenver
30 ETHDenver hackathon finalists who pitched their ideas to a team of crypto veterans and competed for up to €5000 in prizes, primarily focused on solving common problems in various segments of the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem.
Let's take a closer look at some of the projects that competed in one of the biggest ETH community events last week.
In the DeFi category, the four submissions included IdentDeFi, SlowSwap, DustSweeper, and Skew You.
DustSweeper, for example, is working on a solution that allows users to exchange small amounts of tokens (“dust”) for ETH without expensive gas transactions, while SlowSwap aims to avoid MEV (lesser extractable value).
Meanwhile, IdentDeFi aims to create a privacy-preserving Know Your Customer (KYC) architecture using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to maintain user anonymity.
In the NFT category, projects like Bunker.finance, an NFT-backed lending protocol that aims to offer instant liquidity through pooling, Mimicry Protocol, which focuses on DeFi derivatives protocol for NFT collections, and Loudverse, a two-way market for hard- to quantify the artwork, makes the final list.
Going further, Background Network, a decentralized help center, and AcademyONE, an educational platform for projects to incentivize the creation of high-quality learning materials, were among the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)-focused submissions with the goal of use these experimental entities to solve real-world problems.
Also, in the infrastructure and scalability category, projects like Cannon ("a Hardhat plugin for declaring chain dependencies") and Deus Ex Securitas (which uses machine learning to automatically audit smart contracts) provided their own solutions to infrastructure constraints.
MoonScape, Funbugᵍᵐ, and INDAO were submissions in the games and metaverse categories. They offer a number of benefits, including performance opportunities and support for NFTs.
Another interesting introduction, in the new boundaries category, was ZKmaps, which allows users to test their location within a bounded area, geofencing, eliminating the need to divulge their exact location. Also among the finalists was Meditation Quiz, which aims to inspire people to meditate and take better care of their health and emotional well-being.
Cannon, Dustsweeper, Proof of Meditation, Deus Ex Securitas, and Loudverse were announced as the winners of the hackathon.