logoHackFS 2023

Key information

  • Project submission deadline is on Sunday, June 18th 2023 at 12:30 pm EDT

  • Project submission is done on your Hacker Dashboard

  • You apply for partner prizes on the last step of the project submission form

  • All project submissions must include a demo video between 2 and 4 minutes that explains your project

  • Instead of doing the demo live during judging, we will show your video

  • Submitting your project does not automatically qualify you for Finalist Judging on Monday, June 19th 2023 at 12:00 pm EDT

  • All projects looking to attend Finalist Judging will first be reviewed by the judges asynchronously in round 1, and only projects that meet the requirements for Finalist Judging will proceed to round 2 and be allowed to present their project live to the panel of judges

    Qualifications for round 1 include:

    • Video presentation and quality
    • Project live demo quality
    • Proper use of git commit history
  • If you project makes it through the screening, we will email you with the details about presenting to the judges. Your Hacker Dashboard will also reflect the next steps.

  • ALL Partner judging will take place async - no action required here

Rules

🚨 Note: You should not be working on your projects before the event officially begins. This includes coding, designing assets etc. Each hack submission will be judged solely on the quality of the work completed during the duration of the hackathon. We require everyone starts building from scratch - if there is a situation where a project / team are porting or continuing existing projects then the result is that you may continue to participate but you won't be eligible for Partner prizes or being a Finalist.

🚨 Note: In order to ensure that no pre-existing work makes its way into the submission, you must also use version control for your code throughout the course of the event. Any repositories with single commits of large files without proper history will be default assumed to be unqualified unless proven otherwise

Using open-source libraries & boilerplates

  • In order to keep the event fair to all participants - we require hackers to start their projects when the event begins so that no individual or team has a head-start
  • You are however, welcome to use any open source libraries, starter-kits/boilerplates, or designing a spec of your hack
  • Your submission page will ask you to share the source code (GitHub Repo, Figma, etc.) and show that work wasn't done before the event
  • You must make a clear distinction between starting to code/design and updating pre-existing projects

Submitting your project

You have two options when submitting your project on the hacker dashboard:

1. Top finalist & partner prizes

  • All projects looking to attend Finalist Judging will first be reviewed by the judges asynchronously in round 1

  • Only projects that meet the requirements for Finalist Judging will proceed to round 2 and be allowed to present their project live to the panel of judges

  • You are still eligible for partner prizes if you select this option

  • If you project makes it through the round 1 screening, we will email you with the details about presenting to the judges. Your Hacker Dashboard will also reflect the next steps.

  • Partner judging will take place async - the only thing you are required to do here is to select the partner prizes you are applying for in your submission form

2. Partner prizes only

  • If you choose this option you will not be attending the Finalist project judging
  • All partner judging takes places async
  • The only requirement from you is to select the partner prizes you are applying for in your submission form

Attending a judging session

  • If your project passes the round 1 review by the judges and meets all the requirements for Finalist Judging, you will be all set to present your project to the panel of judges
  • We will email you with the details about presenting to the judges. Your Hacker Dashboard will also reflect the next steps.
  • Links to join your judging check-in room will appear on your hacker dashboard 30 min before the session begins
  • Once you have passed all the judging checks you will be sent to your official judging room
  • Each team has 7 minutes at the judging session (4 min for the video and 3 min for Q&A with judges)

Some Questions to Expect

  • Explain the motivation behind your project
  • What types of tools did you use, and why?
  • What was your inspiration?

Judging criteria

Each project will be ranked by our judges on the following 5 categories:

Technicality - What is the complexity of problem being addressed, or their approach to solving it?

Originality - Is the project tackling a new or unsolved problem, or creating unique/creative solution to an existing problem?

Practicality - How complete/functional is the project? Is it ready to be used by their intended audience?

Usability (UI/UX/DX) - Is the project easy to use? Has the team made good effort in removing friction for the user?

WOW factor - Catch-all for other factors the previous categories may have missed

Partner judging details

  • Partners will be given a list of all the projects that are applying for their prize
  • Partners might set up additional 1:1 calls or meetings with teams applying for their prize
  • Partners will use the critera from above to decide the winners
  • ETHGlobal will announce partner prize winners during the event finale

Tips for a good demo video

To record the video you can use tools like Loom, Zoom screen-share, or QuickTime Player on Mac

  • The minimum video length is 2 minutes
  • The maximum video length is 4 minutes
  • DO NOT speed up your video to fit the time requirement. If judges can't understand what you're presenting, they won't be able to give effective feedback.

How to present your project

  • Speak slowly and clearly
  • Do a few practice takes, pace yourself and avoid filler sounds like "uhm"
  • Avoid echo-ey soundΒ β€” a good microphone can help, or try a different room with better acoustics, maybe even a closet
  • Keep introductions and project summary to be less than 20 seconds β€” don't spend too much time on backstory
  • Crop out any needless waiting time e.g., Metamask TX confirmations
  • If you need to fill out a form or switch between views, keep them ready in multiple tabs
  • Use slides to summarize key information
  • Don't use more than 4 bullet points per slide

Common mistakes to avoid on your demo video

We see a lot of these mistakes during submissions which requires a team to re-submit their video in order to qualify for judging. Please be mindful of these common patterns if you'd like to be considered for prizes. If we see 1 or more of these items on your submission you will be asked to re-submit the video.

  1. 🚨 DO NOT export the video in any resolution less than 720p
  2. 🚨 DO NOT exceed the 4min submission length
  3. 🚨 DO NOT speed up the video to fit under the time limit
  4. 🚨 DO NOT play music with text on the video describing your project (instead of talking)
  5. 🚨 DO NOT use mobile phones to record the video submission
  6. 🚨 DO NOT use a text to speech synthesizer

Previous examples of good projects

  1. Iris - Iris, messenger of the gods. Twitter x Patreon x Twitch x TikTok, built on Lens

  2. Splits - Automatically route funds from one address to set of addresses

  3. Ollie Verse - NFT Trading Card Game that allows player to create and mint their own trading cards

  4. Cadbury - Open, neutral, border-less, decentralized, and censorship resistance meetings

  5. Umbra - Umbra is protocol for enabling stealth payments on the Ethereum blockchain

  6. Sunset Supreme - A Google sheets plugin for MultiBaas (a REST API for Ethereum) to allow display, interaction, and analysis of data on the blockchain

  7. DeFi777 - Use DeFi protocols from any wallet! Wrapper tokens let you use Uniswap, Aave, Balancer & Set in normal wallets without a dapp browser

  8. Oya Market - Oya is a decentralized ecommerce protocol owned by its users and run by smart contracts