Is This the Smartest Hackathon to Join Before May 2025? LUKSO is closing out its multi-phase Hack the Grid hackathon, offering developers a final chance to build decentralized applications using its Universal Profiles and smart contract stack. With over $150,000 in LYX grants at stake and submission deadlines approaching in early May, the event positions itself as a testing ground for programmable accounts and gasless user experiences. LUKSO Hack the Grid Unlike traditional hackathons focused on launching tokens or simple dApps, Hack the Grid centers on identity-first applications, permission control, and composable account architecture. Developers can apply here: lukso.gitcoin.co. lukso.gitcoin.co What Are Developers Building With? At the core of LUKSO’s smart contract ecosystem is the Universal Profile, a programmable account standard that replaces externally owned accounts (EOAs) with modular, smart contract-based identities. These profiles are built using components from the LUKSO Standard Proposals (LSPs), including: Universal Profile LUKSO Standard Proposals (LSPs) ERC725X/Y – For logic execution and metadata
LSP6 – Fine-grained permission control
LSP1 – Reactive interactions with external contracts
LSP17 – Support for modular, upgradable extensions
LSP25 – Enables gasless (relayed) transactions ERC725X/Y – For logic execution and metadata ERC725X/Y LSP6 – Fine-grained permission control LSP6 LSP1 – Reactive interactions with external contracts LSP1 LSP17 – Support for modular, upgradable extensions LSP17 LSP25 – Enables gasless (relayed) transactions LSP25 Universal Profiles are deployed as smart contracts and compatible with standard EVM tools such as Foundry or Hardhat. For example, a DAO could assign spending permissions to a contributor through a Universal Profile, or a wallet could relay a user’s transaction without them holding ETH. These are not conceptual blueprints; they are live on LUKSO’s production mainnet and ready to be tested under real conditions. Grant Tiers: What Can Developers Win? The hackathon offers three grant tracks based on project maturity (Origin, Core, Prime), followed by a fourth round: Community Grants on Gitcoin, where the public votes on top submissions: Level 1–3: Direct Grant Awards Level 1–3: Direct Grant Awards Prime Grants: 2 projects × $9,000 in LYX
Core Grants: 3 projects × $5,000 in LYX
Origin Grants: 4 projects × $2,250 in LYX Prime Grants: 2 projects × $9,000 in LYX Prime Grants: Core Grants: 3 projects × $5,000 in LYX Core Grants: Origin Grants: 4 projects × $2,250 in LYX Origin Grants: Developers submit their projects, and the LUKSO team assigns them to the appropriate grant tier based on technical scope and quality. Winning submissions from these rounds move into Level 4: Community Grants, with a $24,000 prize pool distributed through quadratic funding. This allows the LUKSO community to vote on which projects receive support, the more contributors a project attracts, the more funding it unlocks. Level 4: Community Grants quadratic funding 📌 Submit here: https://lukso.gitcoin.co Submit here https://lukso.gitcoin.co 📚 Best practices guide: Medium article Best practices guide Medium article What Kinds of Projects Can You Build? Developers are encouraged to explore themes that reflect the real capabilities of Universal Profiles: Social dApps: Token-gated feeds and community-managed treasuries
Identity tools: Persistent profiles that tie NFTs, roles, or credentials to users
Walletless onboarding: Relayer-based systems that abstract away gas fees
DAO tooling: Profiles that can act as programmable agents for treasury management or voting Social dApps: Token-gated feeds and community-managed treasuries Social dApps: Identity tools: Persistent profiles that tie NFTs, roles, or credentials to users Identity tools: Walletless onboarding: Relayer-based systems that abstract away gas fees Walletless onboarding: DAO tooling: Profiles that can act as programmable agents for treasury management or voting DAO tooling: Unlike EOAs, Universal Profiles allow for more granular, composable features, like assigning delegate permissions or integrating app logic directly into accounts. For example, one past project created a DAO-owned Universal Profile that dynamically issued NFT rewards based on proposal activity. Another built a gasless onboarding system for creators that embedded licensing metadata directly into profile-bound NFTs. Developer Resources and Support To support adoption, LUKSO provides detailed documentation, GitHub repositories, and dev tooling. Projects are evaluated on functionality, UX, innovation, and how well they showcase the potential of the LUKSO smart contract standards (LSPs). Developer support includes: Access to workshops and office hours
LSP smart contract repositories: github.com/lukso/lsp-smart-contracts
Mainnet deployment capability for real testing
Milestone-based grant payouts to reward working prototypes, not just ideas Access to workshops and office hours LSP smart contract repositories: github.com/lukso/lsp-smart-contracts github.com/lukso/lsp-smart-contracts Mainnet deployment capability for real testing Milestone-based grant payouts to reward working prototypes, not just ideas Why This Matters Account Abstraction (e.g. Ethereum’s ERC-4337) has yet to reach widespread adoption. LUKSO’s approach, already live on mainnet, implements many of these concepts, including permissioned control, metadata-rich identities, and native gasless UX without waiting for ecosystem-wide support. By using smart contract-based accounts as first-class identities, LUKSO allows dApps to become more user-centric. Developers can build experiences where contracts interact on behalf of users without depending on wallet plugins or browser extensions. If you're building with or exploring tools like ENS, Farcaster Frames, or ERC6551 (Tokenbound accounts), LUKSO offers a complete, working implementation that expands on those ideas. My Final Take LUKSO’s Hack the Grid is a serious experiment in how user accounts could evolve in Web3. It’s not just another token launchpad or NFT marketplace sprint. The value lies in prototyping systems where users own identities, control permissions, and move away from the constraints of EOAs. For developers, the incentive structure is meaningful and the architecture is interesting enough to build something unique that may be hard to prototype elsewhere. The window to apply is closing, and for those looking to push smart contract logic and UX design into new territory, this is a well-resourced opportunity. Don’t forget to like and share the story! Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYO Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYO Vested Interest Disclosure: Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYO business blogging program business blogging program

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

The writer was physically present in relevant location(s) to this story. The location is also a prevalent aspect of this story be it news or otherwise.

Ethereum

Why COTI Joined Saudi Arabia’s $140B Tech Bet on AI, Blockchain, and Real-World Assets

Join Imua Ignite: $1M Accelerator for Verifiable Trust Machines 

Read My Stories

Too Long; Didn't Read

Make resilience your competitive advantage

Hackathon: LUKSO's Final Hackathon Round Offers Devs $150K to Build Gasless, Programmable Accounts

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Untitled Story

$2M Backing and a Vision: How GAM3S.GG is Reshaping Web3 Gaming

(1/100) Crypto Countdown: Golem

A Research Report on the Trader $JOE DeFi Platform

07/03/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

05/02/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

$2M Backing and a Vision: How GAM3S.GG is Reshaping Web3 Gaming

(1/100) Crypto Countdown: Golem

A Research Report on the Trader $JOE DeFi Platform

07/03/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

05/02/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps