Hackers Shine: Moonshot Commons Web3 Hackathon Concludes Successfully

Moonshot Commons, a global Generation-Z Web3 builder community backed by 10+ top-tier investors, successfully concluded its winter hackathon themed “Rethink, Restate, and Recharge.”

The winter hackathon was the 7th Hackathon that Moonshot Commons has hosted, as the Web3 builder community celebrates its second anniversary in January. Speaking on the occasion, the founding team said, “even amidst crypto winter, Moonshot is still determined to support smart, scrappy, and globally-minded builders, founders, and researchers in the crypto space.”

More than 1000 participants, in 216 teams, building in fields such as infrastructure, SocialFi, open finance, and DAO tooling responded, resulting in 22 projects being crowned and demo-ed their projects to 50+ participating VCs and receiving credits and prizes from sponsors and partners like KCC, Mask Network, Mirror World, Chainbase, Signum Capital, UOB Vnetures, and AWS. All of them also have the opportunity to receive post-hackathon incubation support as batch 5 members of Moonshot’s founder community.

From Team Selection to Apollo Demo Day

The Hackathon was conducted in three weeks - from Dec. 19, 2022, to Jan. 9, 2023. Starting with opening addresses from speakers including Sequoia China partner Xing Liu, Mina Protocol CEO Evan Shapiro, HKUST Professor Kani Chen, and Mask Network Founder Suji during the event inauguration, hackers were provided with “closed-door workshops” led by industry mentors, cohort office hours organized by Moonshot community members, and personalized pitch preparation sessions supported by top-tier investors. On Jan. 14, 2023, 22 teams were selected to enter the final battlefield “Apollo Demo Day” and showcased their creativity and innovation to 50+ VCs, funds, and media companies from across the globe.

Unlike many hackathons which are usually backed by a single sponsor and require hackers to only build on the sponsored network, Moonshot's biannual hackathons aim to provide an open platform for Web3 project development and thus do not limit participants to a specific chain.

The founding team believes that it is far more important to onboard the next generation of developers to the Web3 world rather than fight over which chain they build on or which solution they adopt to accelerate project growth. Kevin, the Founder of Moonshot Commons, expands upon the team’s vision to Hackernoon:

“According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, the number of monthly active Web3 developers reached over 23,300 as of December 2022, compared to over 20 million Web2 developers in the world. Through our hackathons and other initiatives, we want to break down the barriers for Web2 developers and establish Moonshot as the gateway to the Web3 world.”

One way that Moonshot supports participating projects is by hosting “closed-door workshops” led by industry mentors. This winter, Moonshot saw strong and active engagement from its founder community and brought 30 of them to interact with fellow hackers live. Sample topics and speakers include:

• “Cold start and GTM strategies for Web3 applications” by Galxe Founder Charles
• “Product design of Web3 decentralized application layer” by Quest3 Founder Chess
• “Opportunities and applications of zero-knowledge proof” by Manta Network Co-Founder Victor
• “The future and opportunities of the Move ecosystem” by Momentum Safe Founder Wendy
• “The spread of Web3 innovation in a decentralized world” by ChainIDE Founder Wu Xiao
• “Web3 community building and marketing promotion” by Cyberconnect Founder Wilson

Following three weeks of intense hacking, learning, and networking, Moonshot’s “Apollo Demo Day” took place on Jan. 14, 2023. The event featured an opening address by Hash Global founder KK and a closing address by ByteTrade founder Dr. Lu, in addition to active participation and live Q&A from representatives of 50+ VCs including Sequoia China, HashKey, Zhen Fund, IOSG, Matrix Partners China, and Redpoint Ventures.

Meet the Top Project Teams

These 22 teams emerged victorious:

• Chataverse: an NFT-gated messaging app
• ST World (System Terminal): a UGC platform that combines 3D and AI, allowing users to create, share, and monetize virtual environments and AR decorations with ease
• Org3: a decentralized organization and community management tool based on the ENS subdomain
• Kommunitas: a decentralized crowdfunding ecosystem governed by $KOM token
• Symposium Lab: a decentralized open science community powered by blockchain and AI
• Ladder Protocol: a decentralized NFT AMM, enabling instant NFT swaps and better price discovery
• Eigen Network: privacy-focused zkVM for developers
• Caldance: a Machine-Fi fitness-to-earn application project
• Lewk: helps Web3 builders create user-owned professional identities and warm intro networks using SBTs and verifiable credentials
• Ascendant Network: a decentralized Web3 metaphysics platform
• Winner: a decentralized NFT marketplace that supports leverage trading, Share2Earn, and Play2Earn
• xCast: a next-generation on-chain podcasting platform that aims to make the spread and evolution of ‘sound civilization’ more free and diverse
• The Reader: Kindle in the Web3 era - come to The Reader and invest in the next “The Three-Body Problem”
• ZK MPC Wallet: easy-to-use next-generation digital wallet
• Descrypto: trust-worthy and security measurement platform for Web3 projects
• MemeBook: a Web3 intelligent investment research community
• Tristan Alliance: a Web3 marketing and loyalty management platform based on account abstraction and brand NFT
• DrinkUP: brings beverage brands and consumers together via NFTs with gamification and socialization features to build a digital community centered around beverages
• Gameland: provides gamers with a high-quality decentralized game social open platform to help game producers gather players and users
• Avault: a disruptive way to interact with an array of Web3 Defi dapps
• Discoverse: an SBT-based open social network
• Scale Protocol: provide users with clear and transparent dealmaking derivatives trading
• Ghost NFT: a non-ownership-transferred, collateral-free, protocol
• Solas: allows anyone to send subjective, relational, or programmable SBT based on social layer protocol

Find details about all Moonshot Commons’ 2022 Winter Hackathon winners and their video pitches in the pamphlet. If interested in any of the projects above, please fill out this Typeform or reach out to [email protected] to be connected.

About Moonshot Commons

Moonshot Commons, based in Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York, we’re a global Gen Z Web3 builder community backed by HashKey Capital, ChainIDE, Mask Network, Hash Global, Zhen Fund, and more. Within two years, our founders raised over $100 million from VCs — with many more launching soon.