BUILD FOR AFRICA HACKATHON
PARTNERS
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About the hackathon
Welcome to the Build for Africa hackathon, a virtual hackathon for ANYONE interested in building innovative applications and tools to solve African problems powered by Bitcoin and the Lightning network.
In partnership with the Africa Bitcoin Conference 2023, the Build for Africa Hackathon will serve as a launchpad for open innovation and collaborative problem-solving, where builders converge to generate novel ideas through an idea hack focused on tackling Africa-specific challenges, and accelerate their Bitcoin and Lightning projects through mentorship in contextual design and development.
What we aim to achieve
Build new solutions that solve African challenges powered by Bitcoin & Lightning Network to increase adoption in Africa 🌍
Specifically, we want to:
1. Show practical use cases of Bitcoin to uniquely address African challenges
2. Give more Africans creative confidence to engage with Bitcoin as PRODUCERS
Who we are looking for
We are not looking for ideas from just developers. We welcome ideas from the entire Bitcoin ecosystem and beyond. If you do not have the ability to build your idea, we will match you with Bitcoin & Lightning developers who can help to bring them to life!
Apply if you are a:
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Bitcoin & Lightning Developer
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Subject Matter Expert
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Generic Application Developer
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Business Development & Marketing Expert
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UI/UX Designer
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Content Creator
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Bitcoin Educator
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Data Scientist or
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Simply curious!
How it works
🏁 Let's start at the beginning - registration. To take part in this hackathon, you must register through the Eventornado platform. Once you have completed the registration, you have two options: either submit your idea and form a team or search for an existing team to join. This registration process remains open until the hackathon officially commences during the week of October 16.
💡Leading up to the hacking phase, a 4-day ideathon will take place during the week of September 26, to brainstorm and crowdsource innovative ideas for Bitcoin products in Africa. During the ideathon, you will be able to collaborate with other builders, refine your concepts, and form teams, laying the groundwork for the subsequent hacking and project development phase. All ideas and solutions generated during the ideathon will be added to the ‘Build for Africa Dreamboard', which will be made open-source for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and community-driven development. If your team hasn't come up with an idea yet, you can choose from the ideas available on the Dreamboard to hack on!
💻 The hacking phase kicks off on October 16 with a brief opening ceremony that outlines what lies ahead, introduces the prizes, and explains the evaluation criteria. Then you hack - work in teams and develop your ideas into solutions and prototypes. Throughout the hack week, there will be three checkpoints with team mentors to ensure you are going the right way. It is mandatory for the teams to be at the checkpoints unless your team mentor tells you otherwise. Response mentors are available for consultations and support.
🏆 On October 20, it's time for the final submission of your solutions and pitch decks. The hard deadline of October 22 only applies to teams that have requested an extension. After this submission, a jury will evaluate the projects and select the finalists, who will be announced on October 27. Beyond the hackathon, there are no strings attached. Even if your solution doesn't make it to the finals, you're free to continue working on your ideas. Make sure to keep the team updated on your progress!
For more details: on how to participate, refer to the 'How to participate' tab above | on what comes next for finalists, check out the 'What else' section below
🏆Prize pool
We offer awesome prizes up to $10,000 (in BTC) combined!
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1st place: $5,000
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2nd place: $2,500
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3rd place: $1,500
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Best design: $1,000
What else
As an integral part of the hackathon experience, review clubs will be organized to facilitate peer-to-peer learning workshops, showcases, and discussions, enabling makers to learn, collaborate, and grow collectively. The top entries selected for the semi-finals, have the opportunity to refine and present their projects on demo day live at the Africa Bitcoin Conference 2023 at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra, Ghana.
So, are you ready to be a part of something monumental?
🧿The hackathon themes
During this hackathon, everyone is challenged to come up with innovative ideas that solve African challenges powered by Bitcoin & Lightning, under one or more of the following opportunity areas or themes. These themes will also be used to categorize project entries.
Explore the Build for Africa hackathon themes here below:
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