SUMMARY:
The Women in Web3 Hackathon, approved in September 2024, has been an exceptional initiative for fostering innovation, collaboration, and inclusion within the Web3 ecosystem. This event provided a platform for women and allies from across the globe to come together, share ideas, and create transformative blockchain solutions. With participants hailing from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the hackathon not only underscored the strength of international collaboration but also highlighted the diverse skill sets of developers, business strategists, UX/UI specialists, and legal professionals. The event demonstrated the immense potential of Web3 technology to drive meaningful change.
Dates and duration of the hackathon.
The hackathon took place over the following timeline:
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Hackathon Duration: From October 1st to November 1st, participants had one month to work on their projects.
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Project Submissions: All final projects were submitted on November 4th.
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Pitch Presentations: Pitches for the submitted projects were held online and live on November 6th and 7th.
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Winner Announcements: The winners of the different categories were announced on November 12th.
Organizers
CryptoConexión, launched on October 31, 2021, has been a vital educational platform for Spanish and Portuguese speakers. Our mission: Ensure that communities in Latin America have access to easy to understand content about Web 3 and blockchain. We are working to provide access via easy to understand information in these languages.
Our focus is to onboard leaders, support them in their journey and protect individuals from fraud. Our impact to date includes reaching more than 100,000 users across platforms, including our more than 74,000 users on CryptoConexión, in 2023. The top three countries from where we receive traffic are Mexico, Spain and Argentina.
Vottun, our co-organizer, offers a platform that allows Web2 developers to create Web3 solutions easily and efficiently. They developed RestAPIs that enable companies and developers to create Web3 applications without requiring deep knowledge of blockchain coding. In fact, Vottun identified a significant opportunity in the Web2 space and have successfully onboarded over 2,000 developers who are now developing blockchain solutions with Vottun APIs. Vottun APIs are both client-facing and server-facing.
Furthermore, at Vottun Ecosystem, users can find a wide range of blockchain templates for various use cases, such as NFTs, certificates, traceability, cryptocurrency payments, and sustainability that have been used by more than 150 big Web2 brands like Mediapro, ChupaChups, Naturgy, Borges and Grupo Bimbo.
Tracks or categories:
The tracks in our hackathon were designed to explore and encourage innovation in key areas of the Web3 ecosystem. Each track offered participants the opportunity to develop creative and disruptive solutions that address specific challenges, ranging from blockchain interoperability to the creation of tools for decentralized communities. Our goal was to foster talent and creativity, providing a space where ideas can thrive and contribute to the evolution of the blockchain landscape:
Tokenization Tracks:
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Digital Collectibles: Create unique NFT collections on Arbitrum Nova / Arbitrum One using ERC-721 or ERC-1155.
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Real-world Assets: Tokenize physical assets represented by ERC-20 Tokens on Arbitrum Nova / Arbitrum One.
DeFi Tracks:
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Decentralized Exchanges: Build next-generation DEXs that enable trading of assets on Arbitrum Nova / Arbitrum One.
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Lending and Borrowing: Create lending platforms that allow users to access credit on Arbitrum Nova / Arbitrum One.
Prizes offered:
Tokenization:
NFT Track:
1st place: $1,500 USD
2nd place: $750 USD
Real-World Assets (RWA) Track:
1st place: $1,500 USD
2nd place: $750 USD
DeFi:
Lending & Borrowing (L&B) Track:
1st place: $1,500 USD
2nd place: $750 USD
Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) Track:
1st place: $1,500 USD
2nd place: $750 USD
Additional Prizes (compatible with other prizes):
- Best Social Project: $1,000 USD
- Best Emerging Use Case: $1,000 USD
- Hackers’ Choice Award: $500 USD
Additionally, Vottun provided all participants with API licenses valued at over $30,000 USD, which include 6 months of professional subscription to Vottun APIs, allowing them to develop with Arbitrum Nova and other platforms.
Additionally, the winners will receive two advisory sessions to apply for grants, provided by CryptoConexión.
Each category and additional prize offers a great opportunity to stand out, innovate, and learn! Get ready to showcase your talent and creativity
Participation
Regarding participation, we can share the following:
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Number of participants: A total of 157 participants registered for the hackathon, with 11 hackers submitting completed projects. This level of engagement highlights both the enthusiasm and commitment of the participants.
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Diversity of profiles: Interestingly, in this hackathon, although developer profiles are the majority, we were surprised by the large number of participants with a business focus as well. But also the group included legal experts, and UX/UI specialists. This mix of skills provided a strong foundation for well-rounded, multidisciplinary projects.
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International collaborations: Women from different regions, including Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, participated in the hackathon. This international presence fostered cross-border collaboration, with teams gaining from the unique insights and approaches brought by participants from diverse cultural and regional backgrounds.
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Networking and community: To encourage collaboration and community-building, we provided multiple channels for participants to connect, including a dedicated Discord server and a private Telegram group for allied communities. These channels facilitated team formation, supported mentoring, and enabled ongoing knowledge sharing, creating a dynamic environment for participants to exchange ideas and work together effectively.
Milestones
Milestone 1: Pre-Event Setup
In this initial phase, the foundation for the hackathon was established, ensuring all essential elements were ready to deliver a seamless experience.-
Finalize Event Infrastructure: We completed the configuration of the Dorahacks platform, allowing participants to register and interact effectively. Simultaneously, we introduced hackers to the Vottun platform, a key tool for their projects. Additionally, the Discord server was meticulously organized, creating dedicated group channels for each participating team and private channels for organizers and mentors to facilitate streamlined communication and coordination.
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Confirm Partnerships, Mentors and Judges: We solidified the team of mentors, ensuring diverse expertise to guide participants effectively. Partnerships with allied communities and sponsors were also secured to enhance the event’s support and resources. Moreover, the selection and confirmation of a panel of judges were completed, ensuring a fair and thorough evaluation process for hackathon projects. Check them all:
Mentors:
The Hackathon Women Web3 was a remarkable event, made even more impactful thanks to the invaluable contributions of our incredible mentors. These professionals brought their expertise, insights, and passion to guide participants throughout the hackathon journey. From brainstorming ideas to executing projects, the mentors provided support, answered questions, and inspired participants to fully embrace their potential in the Web3 space. Their dedication not only enhanced the learning experience but also strengthened the community of women in technology and blockchain.
Our incredible mentors were: Waleska Cerpa, Cristina Loustaunau, Stella Achenbach, Bianca Buzea, David G and Amanda Wick
Allied communities:
We are proud to highlight our allied communities, a network of passionate individuals and organizations dedicated to fostering collaboration and innovation. These communities play a vital role in supporting our mission and enhancing the overall experience for all participants. Together, we are building a stronger ecosystem that encourages growth, knowledge sharing, and creativity. Let’s take a moment to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of our allied communities:
Zona Tres, Mujeres en Crypto, WeDAO Latam, Web3 Familia, Warmi Circle, Si3, Women in Web3 Switzerland, Crypto Manada, Cryptobrunch, Crypto Chicks MX, HER DAO MX, 3sBlockchain, MKT Community, Frutero Club, Web3 Preneur and Web3ladies.
Judges:
We are thrilled to present our panel of judges, an exceptional group of experts who brought vast experience and knowledge in their respective fields. Their commitment to innovation and passion for technological development were crucial in evaluating and guiding participants in this challenge. Let’s meet our distinguished judges: Mónica Talán, Marta Vallés, Alex López, Ana Belén G., Matthew Hamilton and Alejandro Acuña.
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Launch Marketing Campaign: Cryptoconexión and Vottun jointly rolled out an extensive marketing campaign across social media platforms. This phase of the campaign included daily posts encouraging hackers to join the hackathon and promoting its unique opportunities. The promotional efforts continued until the winners were announced, ensuring sustained engagement and visibility throughout. You can check our social networks to see the campaign that we launched, and attached you can see some of the posts at the end of this document.
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Conduct Workshops: During this milestone, we finalized the scheduling and content for a series of workshops held over the month-long event. These workshops were designed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge required to excel in the hackathon, aligning with the event’s objectives. You can check the workshops that we organized in Milestone 2.
This milestone was completed successfully, setting the stage for an engaging and productive hackathon experience.
Milestone 2: Hackathon Execution
During this phase, the hackathon transitioned into full execution mode, encompassing participant support, mentor engagement, and facilitation of a seamless judging process. The timeline for this milestone spanned from October 1st to November 1st, ensuring that all activities were aligned with the hackathon’s goals of fostering innovation and collaboration.
Activities and Accomplishments:
- Real-Time Support for Participants, Mentors, and Judges:
- Dedicated support channels were maintained on Discord to address technical, logistical, and event-related inquiries.
- Assistance was provided for navigating and utilizing Vottun platform, ensuring all participants were equipped to manage their submissions and progress effectively.
- Mentors received structured guidelines to help them better support teams during the ideation and development phases. Judges were oriented on the scoring system and criteria to ensure fair evaluations.
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Workshops Delivered:
To empower participants with the knowledge and skills needed for their projects, the following workshops were conducted (We organized these workshops through various events on Luma, allowing all hackers to sign up and participate). Please, check all the wokshops on this link: Workshops - Google Docs -
Maintaining Momentum:
- Regular check-ins with participants through Discord to ensure progress and identify blockers.
- Encouraging collaboration between teams and mentors, organizing also a scheduled feedback sessions to refine project ideas,
This phase concluded successfully, setting the stage for the final project submissions and the announcement of winners in the subsequent milestone.
Milestone 3: Awards
The third and final milestone of the hackathon focused on evaluating the innovative projects submitted by participants and celebrating their achievements. This phase was critical for recognizing the creativity, technical skills, and problem-solving abilities demonstrated by the teams.
Projects Submitted
- Total number of projects submitted: 12 (one of them didn’t show on the pitches)
*****I can’t include links to all the documentation for each project here due to the limitation, but you can check them at this link: Projects - Google Docs
Artrail:
Artrail is a blockchain-based platform that allows real-world asset (RWA) tokenization through NFTs. Artists, artisans, artifact creators, or sellers can list their real-world products as NFTs by providing key details like product description, origin, quantity, and price. Each product created on Artrail generates a unique code for tracking of products, the NFT generated is transferable to only one buyer at a time, ensuring transparency and authenticity. Buyers on Artrail can purchase, track, claim, and resell these NFTs in a transparent marketplace. Once the physical asset is delivered, buyers can claim the NFT, resell it on the secondary market, or keep it as a digital collectible.
PetsPass:
PetPass is a mobile app allowing pet owners to manage all relevant information about their animals (medical records, pedigree, vaccinations, adoptions) through blockchain technology data tokenization. The platform also offers access to contests, a marketplace, and a global pet-friendly community, all with the security and transparency provided by blockchain.
Metachain:
Pixel by pixel, data by data, your image is unique.
MetaChain is an innovative platform that leverages blockchain technology to ensure the authenticity of any digital image. By tokenizing image metadata, we provide irrefutable proof of origin and ownership, protecting content creators, businesses, and individuals from counterfeiting and ensuring the integrity of their digital assets.
To simplify the understanding of complex image metadata, we’ve integrated an AI-powered assistant. This tool helps users easily comprehend the information stored within each image, making the verification process more accessible and efficient.
BlockMates (Learning Pass):
Learning Pass is a blockchain learning platform that boosts student engagement and rewards their efforts, democratizing education and decentralizing knowledge
NebulaX:
NebulaX creates a seamless onboarding experience for users, making it easy and fun to earn in Web3. We focus on two primary users.
Bats (CryptoSmart):
CryptoSmart, is a cutting-edge web3 exchange platform designed to empower users with seamless, efficient, and profitable trading of tokens and NFTs. Built on a decentralized foundation, NexiTrade allows users to buy, sell, and trade digital assets securely. The platform’s intelligent backend algorithm dynamically optimizes asset placement across various virtual machines (VMs), ensuring that each token is positioned in the most profitable environment. By leveraging the power of the Vottun API, NexiTrade can identify real-time opportunities and automatically shift assets to VMs offering the highest returns, maximizing users’ profit potential. Our intuitive interface lets traders easily monitor their portfolios, access trending assets, and conduct transactions with ease, whether they’re trading high-demand tokens or unique NFTs.
Nossa Terra Firme:
The Nossa Terra Firme (NTF) project leverages blockchain to mobilize resources and promote environmental protection in Brazil, focusing on the creation and maintenance of Private Natural Heritage Reserves (RPPNs) and voluntary protected areas. The project employs ERC-20 tokens to represent the economic value of these protected lands and ERC-721/1155 NFTs as digital collectibles that embody their unique biodiversity and ecosystem services. This dual approach bridges real-world environmental impact with the digital economy, empowering individuals, companies, and communities to create and protect their own nature reserves.
AstroPals:
AstroPet is a decentralized NFT-based platform allowing users to create, mint, and trade unique digital pets. Built on the Arbitrum blockchain with ERC-721 tokens, AstroPet features cross-chain compatibility, metadata updates, and burnable tokens, making it versatile for game-like environments and future expansion.
EcoNFT:
EcoNFT is a revolutionary Web3 platform built on Arbitrum that transforms traditional carbon credits into NFTs, making carbon offset trading more accessible, transparent, and engaging. By leveraging blockchain technology and Vottun’s powerful APIs, we’re bringing much-needed innovation to the carbon credit market while promoting environmental sustainability.
FractionalSolar:
Fractional Solar DApp is a decentralized platform designed for solar farm owners to tokenize and register their solar energy generation capacity as fractionalized NFTs. These NFTs represent ownership shares in the solar energy produced by a farm. Investors can purchase fractional shares of the solar NFTs, creating a transparent and decentralized market for renewable energy investment.
WillChain:
WillVault is a digital platform based on blockchain technology that provides a secure and personalized way for individuals to leave a lasting emotional legacy for their loved ones. Through messages, photos, audios, and videos, users can schedule the delivery of their memories and thoughts to be received at specific moments, ensuring a respectful and deeply human experience for future generations.
Blockstars:
In a context where financial decisions can be overwhelming and market volatility can lead to uncertainty, DCA emerges as an innovative and intuitive solution for those who want to build a stronger and more secure financial future.
Our platform is designed to simplify the investment process through Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA), while learning about investing and personal finance through our in-app lessons. DCA Master aims to empower investors of all levels, regardless of their previous experience, by providing them with a clear and accessible path to investing.
Evaluation and Winner Selection
The hackathon was structured into four key tracks, designed to stimulate creativity and innovation in critical areas of the Web3 ecosystem:
(**Given the high number of projects submitted in the NFT track, we decided to award two second-place prizes in this category, at the expense of the second-place prize in the L&B track, where we received very few submissions.)
Evaluation Process
The panel of our six judges assessed projects based on the following criteria:
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Innovation
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Viability
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User Impact
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Team Communication
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Technical Execution
Pitch Presentations
The projects were presented in two live online sessions:
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Session 1 Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b17sCeCgloA
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Session 2 Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnVPdxFPsR8
Winners
Tokenization:
NFTs:
1st prize:
2nd prize:
2nd prize (bis):
RWA:
1st prize:
2nd prize:
DeFi:
Lending & Borrowing:
1st prize:
DEX:
1st prize:
2nd prize:
Additional prizes:
Best Social Project:
Best Emerging Use Case:
Hackers’ Choice Award:
Hackathon Women Web3 NFT:
To wrap up this hackathon in a memorable way, we will distribute an NFT minted on Arbitrum to all participants so they never forget this event.
The Women in Web3 Hackathon has been a resounding success, catalyzing innovation and empowering women and allies in the blockchain space. This milestone reflects our commitment to fostering creativity, collaboration, and impact within the Web3 community.
Key Takeaways and Final Metrics
The recent hackathon was a vibrant showcase of innovation and collaboration within the blockchain and Web3 space. Designed to foster creativity and problem-solving, the event brought together participants from diverse backgrounds, skill levels, and geographic locations. Over several days, teams worked intensively to develop projects addressing real-world challenges, culminating in live online pitches that demonstrated their vision and ingenuity. This section highlights the key outcomes, including valuable takeaways and measurable metrics, that reflect the event’s success in promoting inclusion, community engagement, and groundbreaking solutions.
Key Takeaways
- Diversity and Inclusion:
- The hackathon focused on creating a space for women, fostering a strong sense of community and empowerment. By exclusively inviting female participants, the event promoted gender diversity within the tech and blockchain sectors, a field traditionally dominated by men. This initiative aimed to support and amplify the voices of women in Web3, encouraging collaboration and innovation while providing a platform for participants to showcase their skills. The emphasis on gender inclusion enriched the event, fostering a supportive environment where creativity and problem-solving flourished.
- A variety of skill levels were represented, fostering mentorship opportunities and community growth.
- Additionally, the bilingual nature of the event—offering programming and communication in both Spanish and English—allowed for broader participation from diverse communities, bridging language barriers and creating an inclusive environment that welcomed individuals from different cultural backgrounds. This bilingual approach further enriched collaboration, fostering creativity and innovation across a variety of perspectives.
- Community Engagement:
- The hackathon strengthened ties within the Web3 and blockchain communities by bringing together developers, designers, and enthusiasts from different communities all over the world.
- Participants actively engaged in discussions about innovative blockchain applications, showcasing high interest and commitment.
- Innovation and Prototyping:
- Teams delivered creative solutions leveraging blockchain technology, many aligned with the themes of education, sustainability, and financial inclusion.
- All projects developed during the hackathon were built on Arbitrum technology, showcasing the power and versatility of this layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum. Arbitrum’s technology enabled participants to create innovative and high-performance prototypes, leveraging its fast transaction speeds and reduced costs compared to Ethereum’s mainnet.
- The pitches demonstrated real-world applications with strong potential for further development.
- Remote Pitching Success:
- Online live pitches enabled greater accessibility, allowing international participation and broader audience reach.
- Notably, every pitch was led by the team’s leader, and in all cases, these leaders were women. This not only highlighted the significant role of female leadership in the tech and Web3 space but also showcased how women are driving innovation in this field.
Final Metrics
- Participation:
- Total participants: 157 hackers joined Dorahacks, of which 57 actually began developing projects. Out of these 57, 42 were the ones who formed the teams that presented the final projects.
- Project Outcomes:
- Projects presented: In Dorahacks, 20 teams were formed, of which 11 ultimately presented their projects.
- A total of 6 projects focused on NFTs were presented, along with 2 projects centered on Real World Assets (RWA), 2 projects on Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), and 1 project related to Lending and Borrowing (L&B).
- Event Reach:
- Total views of all the workshops: 594 views.
- Social platforms : You can check our social networks to see all the promocional posts.