Compete for $100K Prizes: Join The Bitcoin Olympics Hackathon Now

Bitcoin Startup Lab, a leading pre-accelerator in the Bitcoin ecosystem, has launched the Bitcoin Olympics Hackathon.

Right now, entrepreneurs and builders are being invited to join the online hackathon which is offering over $100,000 in prizes to teams that build transformative technologies that pioneer and advance the bitcoin economy.

As well as one of the largest prize pools in Bitcoin hackathon history, participants also get access to indispensable support from a range of experts including core contributors to Rootstock, the world’s first Bitcoin Sidechain, and the creators of other bitcoin aligned technology.

Alongside the bitcoin technology agnostic main prize of $30,000, there is up to $25,000 available for builders that choose to build on Rootstock, the EVM compatible Bitcoin Sidechain.

Enrollment is taking place from August 9 to September 22, and the brief is simple: create transformative technologies that broaden Bitcoin's horizons.

Sign up to the Bitcoin Olympics Hackathon

The Bitcoin Olympics Hackathon

A whole series of classes and lectures are taking place throughout September — giving competitors a grounding in how to build projects that matter, the Bitcoin technologies that can bring their proof of concept to life, and how to launch it on a testnet.

Pioneers in the space — who have played an instrumental role in establishing everything from Ordinals to BRC-20 tokens — have also been sharing their founder origin stories, offering a dose of inspiration to participants.

“The essence of this event is to support, reward, and celebrate the innovative spirit of founders and builders on Bitcoin, pushing the boundaries of technology and creativity. Significant achievements on Bitcoin, be it setting new records or first-time-ever accomplishments, drive the innovation frontier of Bitcoin.”

Albert Liang, BTC Startup Lab CEO

For solidity developers interested in building on Bitcoin, Rootstock is fully EVM compatible with a comprehensive__developer resources__, developer course and Discord community. Developers can use the same Solidity tools and libraries they are accustomed to when building on Ethereum, including Hardhat, Truffle, web3.js, and ethers.js.

Timelines and Registration

To be eligible for a hackathon prize, only original code committed to GitHub after August 26 will be considered. Registration for contestants and final submission close on September 30.

The registration must include a concise, impressive three-minute presentation that highlights the project's team, the problem that's being solved, a demonstration of the product, and the traction it's built on social media since inception.

Prizes and Awards

There will be two levels of prizes:

1. Part 1: Protocol/tech specific prizes. Over $50,000 in prizes

2. Part 2: Title sponsor prize of $50,000 (distributed to 1st to 4th place). The top prize winners of other prizes will qualify as well as Bitcoin innovation categories that did not have prizes. If a prize winner from Part 1 gets the same score as a Bitcoin innovation category that did not have any prizes yet, then the later prevails.

   
   

Learn more about the timelines and prizes here.

Rootstock Strategic Grants Program

On top of the $100k prize pool from this Hackathon, all entrants that choose to build on Rootstock will be eligible to apply to the Rootstock Strategic Grants Program where teams can pitch to receive a share of a $2.5 million fund.

Established products and protocols with existing user bases can apply directly to Rootstock’s Grants Program without taking part in a hackathon first — especially if they're driven by a goal of building Everyday DeFi applications that help everyday consumers.

Grants are awarded every quarter, and the application form is on the Rootstock website.

The Future of Rootstock

A major barrier holding DeFi back from greatness is this: too many blockchains are ill-equipped to bring a freer, fairer future of finance to the masses. Rootstock changes this — and brings together the best of both worlds. As well as enabling EVM-compatible smart contracts to be deployed, it leverages the security of the Bitcoin network, the blockchain that started it all.

The end result? Creating exceptional DeFi solutions that can benefit the billions of people who are unbanked or underbanked — stretching from Latin America to Asia, and beyond. Rootstock is rapidly becoming known as the home of DeFi on Bitcoin where people around the world interact with protocols helping them to save, send, lend and spend in a freer and fairer way.

Interested in building the future of Web3? Sign up for the Bitcoin Olympics Hackathon here.