Over the weekend after Devconnect, I also attended ETHGlobal Istanbul, which opened the door to the world of developers. Thanks to my teammates, I was fortunate to receive 3 bounties in my first ETHGlobal participation. The best part was the observations and the passion of the developer community that I experienced during the hackathon.
Observations:
The ETHGlobal crowd was highly concentrated, roughly divided into sponsored projects and hackers. The bounty booths of sponsored projects reflected the health of existing projects. The booths at the ETHGlobal hacking main venue were sponsored by large projects, with sponsorship costs ranging from $30,000 to $50,000, plus various bounties and travel expenses for team members. The only Chinese projects that made it to the main venue were Scroll and Mask. As for hackers, only participants who registered for ETHGlobal in advance and pledged 0.05 ETH were allowed to enter with a wristband. There were three layers of security checks from the entrance to the hacking chamber, so the venue was mainly filled with prepared developers, and there were no onlookers who were unaware of the event.
ETHGlobal's sense of community: It felt like a community/familiarity/homecoming. Those who frequently participate in ETHGlobal are a small group, and it is a must to meet the dev rel of various major projects. There are also some professional hackers who can be seen frequently around the world. My teammate Tim said that coming to ETHGlobal feels like coming home. Although it was my first time participating in ETHGlobal, I could completely understand this familiar and warm feeling - it was the same feeling I had during several pop-up city events. Participants from Shanhaiwu, Muchiangmai, Zuconnect, Devconnect, and ETHGlobal often overlap, so I frequently saw familiar faces around the world, even more often than seeing my own family members. Naturally, it feels like coming home, and it is very easy to collaborate based on this trust. To some extent, ETHGlobal is a shorter-lived pop-up city or a floating city.
Spirit of open source: Web3 is still in its early stages, and it is still controversial in terms of open source spirit in business. However, there is no problem with this at hackathons because the ideas are very rudimentary and have not been polished in a commercial environment, so there is no concern about leaking business secrets. Most participants are very willing to share their hacking projects and collaborate with each other, providing suggestions. At first, I was not used to it and was always worried about sharing ideas with others and being copied. But in fact, the value of the idea itself is limited, and it only has an impact when it is implemented and turned into a product. After positioning the hackathon project as a public good, I no longer had such concerns and was open to discussing ideas.
A miniature version of the entrepreneurial world, with a wide range of differences between teams. At ETHGlobal, the majority of people are part-time participants in the competition over the weekend. With over 2,000 people and over 400 participating teams, the commitment to the hackathon varies greatly among different teams. The understanding of the schedule and rules, the preparation work and the level of team cohesion differ greatly between teams. Some teams have been working together for a long time and know the taste of the judges well, while others are formed temporarily and split up midway. Some teams have clear divisions of labor and complete skill sets, while others have blurred roles and lack people to write code or pitch. Some projects have been polished for more than a month, while others are born in the middle of 2-3 days of hacking. This variance may be a microcosm of the world's original appearance.
The projects that receive bounties are rewarded with money, while the finalists receive industry attention. The bounties given by the sponsors of each project range from a few hundred u to 2000-5000u. In comparison, the material monetary rewards for finalists are relatively small. Being among the top 10 finalists is equivalent to gaining the attention of ETHGlobal and the entire industry.
Most of the 10 projects that become ETHGlobal finalists are not suitable for VC investment. The real value lies in the developers themselves. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, hackathon projects are mostly completed in 2-3 days, or even a few hours, and profitability and sustainability are not evaluation criteria. The ideas have not been polished in a commercial environment, so the delivered products are relatively rough.
Secondly, most hackers have full-time jobs, so it is difficult for them to continue working on the gig projects after the competition. Therefore, the probability of hackathon projects evolving into sustainable projects is very low.
Thirdly, finalist judging has a certain degree of taste. For example, this time ETHGlobal Istanbul favored projects that integrate with the real world, and 3 out of the 10 finalist projects incorporated NFC functionality.
As a hacker, the key to success is to have a plan for the competition. Those who are skilled in warfare are more likely to win than those who are easily defeated.
Before participating, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the schedule and rules, and know the necessary steps. For example, timely registration, obtaining a wristband, filling in project details on the ETHGlobal website as early as possible, ensuring enough time to submit/answer questions, and knowing that the pitch and demo sessions are only 4 minutes long, and the pitch venues for finalists and bounties are different.
Know what resources are available. For example, mentorship, SDKs, and libraries provided by various project sponsors, to avoid reinventing the wheel and save a lot of time. Major projects have deep insights into specific tracks, and a few words exchanged with experts can help you avoid many pitfalls.
Have a rough idea of the project before participating and know whose bounty to hunt for. Before the competition, scan the projects sponsored by the bounties. On the first day of hacking, visit these booths and discuss your ideas with them, present them roughly, and collect their feedback. See what libraries and SDKs they have available and what pitfalls can be avoided. Also, try to get acquainted with the mentors, as they can provide a lot of support if you encounter bugs while coding.
Form a team before participating, preferably with teams you have collaborated with before, and make sure you have a complete set of skills. Some people come up with ideas, some handle frontend and backend development, and some specialize in developing browser plugins.
During the competition, it is more important to complete than to be perfect. A hacker with a glorious record of 10 finalists advised not to add people to the team temporarily just because of a lack of skills. Use the skills available in the team and avoid the extra work of finding and persuading others.
Learn from teammates:
In addition to practical competition experience, there are some more universal things:
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With a project as a starting point, even your own hackathon project, you can almost use it as a starting point to communicate with any peers at the event, naturally, more efficiently, and with greater depth.
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Pitching is easy to improve, just practice more. After pitching 5 times, you will be very familiar with what you are talking about. After 10 times, you can start iterating and trimming the narrative, knowing which content can punch the line and grab the audience's attention. After pitching 15 times, the storytelling becomes natural.
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After pitching, actively collect feedback, polish the narrative, and add product features. Practice makes perfect, and what is said is not empty.
Special thanks to:
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Youbi family, my company has always been very open-minded, giving me a lot of freedom and space for exploration, and has always supported me in doing what I am good at and enjoy.
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Teammate Tim (@timtimtim_eth), who has rich hacking and development experience, is action-oriented, and his rapid growth experience and infectious hacking passion.
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Rod @ ledger (@carraresi), who can be called a project encourager, made me realize the significance of building in public and gave me the motivation to resume content creation.
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@Masterdai, some of the content was gradually sorted out in my communication with him. I thank him for his reminders, which led to this observation and compilation.