Reflections on the first Aligned Builders Hackathon

Aligned Layer

04 Nov 2024 — 2 min read

What an incredible journey it’s been! The first Aligned Builders Hackathon has officially come to a close, and we’re beyond impressed by the talent and commitment from all our participants. From experienced developers to first-timers diving into ZK proofs and Rust, every team brought something unique to the table.

Check out the full list of submissions through devfolio here!

This hackathon was a chance for many to learn something new—ourselves included! Some participants had never programmed in Solidity, and for some, ZK proofs were a new concept. Yet, most successfully implemented their projects using ZKVMs—which is super exciting and sets the stage for more groundbreaking projects in the web3 ecosystem to use the unique features of ZK proofs.

A huge thank you to our panel of judges who are bringing their expertise and insights to help us identify the most impactful projects. In case you missed it, we hosted a Twitter Spaces session with our judges where they shared their thoughts on the hackathon and the potential of ZK applications. You can listen to the recording here.

Meet the judges

Vanishree Rao (Founder, Fermah)
Nader Dabit (Director of Developer Relations, EigenLayer)
Austin Griffith (Founder, BuidlGuidl)
DC Builder (Research Engineer, World)
Diego Kingston (Co-Founder, Aligned)

With extensive backgrounds in Ethereum and ZK, they are helping us ensure the chosen winners reflect technical excellence, innovation, and potential for real impact. We couldn’t have asked for a better team to guide this event!

Highlights and achievements

17 complete projects submitted: Participants built projects across a range of categories, including games in ZKVMs, light client bridging solutions, private voting apps, and more!
Innovative ZK use cases: Many participants used zkVMs, showcasing not only novel applications but also expanding the possibilities for what ZK can achieve.
Technical growth: We saw hackers dive into Solidity and ZK, some for the first time, demonstrating the power of learning, experimentation, and community support.
Community contributions: Our telegram group for our developer ecosystem has grown to 288 members and two projects in the hackathon built developer kits to make it easier for others to build on Aligned.

This hackathon is just the beginning, and we have a lot more planned. It’s part of our larger mainnet incentives program aimed at rewarding engagement, creating partnerships, and supporting the growth of our community. We can’t wait to see where these projects go from here!

Finally, a special shoutout to the Node 101 community for hosting our hackerhouse/builder residency over two weekends in Istanbul!

Thank you to everyone who joined us on this journey. Best of luck to all teams, and let’s keep building! 🚀

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