The Solana Foundation Kicks Off Hyperdrive Hackathon to Bolster Ecosystem

The online global hackathon offers seven different tracks with up to $1 million in prizes and seed funding

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Solana Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana network, today announced the start of Hyperdrive, an online, global hackathon with up to $1 million in prizes and seed funding. The hackathon will run from September 6 through October 15, 2023. This is the Solana Foundation's eighth hackathon – built for innovators looking to launch the next breakout startup built on the Solana blockchain.

Hackathons hold significant value in developing potential blockchain applications and bringing product ideas to life. The Solana Foundation has a rich history of holding hackathons and other events to proactively engage developers – like the Solana Foundation Hacker Houses, which offer educational programming, expert advice, and demos. Over the past few years, Solana's online hackathons have attracted more than 50,000 participants, with over 3,000 projects launched and winners have cumulatively raised $600 million in venture funding.

"We are hosting the Hyperdrive hackathon to bring elite developers and founders together to compete as they launch their new startups in the Solana ecosystem," said Matty Taylor, Head of Growth at the Solana Foundation. "As we work towards the common goals of leveraging the Solana blockchain to solve real-world problems and accelerate the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology, this event fosters creativity, collaboration, and innovation."

As current developers and builders continue to build momentum in the Solana ecosystem, Hyperdrive will focus on encouraging new projects across a diversity of use cases.

With prizes ranging from $5k to $30k USDC, the hackathon tracks include:

• Finance & Payments presented by Helio
• Mobile Consumer Apps presented by Magic Eden
• Physical Infrastructure Networks presented by IO.NET
• Artificial Intelligence presented by UXD
• Gaming & Entertainment presented by Phantom
• DAOs & Network States presented by Balaji Srinivasan & The Network State
• Crypto Infrastructure presented by Ironforge

The winner of the best overall project will receive the Grand Champion Award, presented by Amazon Web Services, which includes $50,000 USDC and tickets to Breakpoint 2024 – Solana Foundation's Annual conference. Three additional awards will be granted to the best public goods project, the best climate-related project, and the best project founded by university students.

The last Solana Foundation hackathon – Grizzlython, which took place earlier this year – saw more than 10,000 participants build over 800 projects.

To register and start building, please visit: solana.com/hyperdrive

About Solana Foundation
The Solana Foundation is a non-profit foundation based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana network. For more information, please visit https://solana.org/.

About Solana
Solana is a blockchain built for mass adoption. It's a high performance network that is utilized for a range of use cases, including finance, NFTs, payments, and gaming. Solana operates as a single global state machine, and is open, interoperable and decentralized. For more information, please visit https://solana.com.

Media Contact
Arielle Pennington, Head of Communications, Solana Foundation
press@solana.org

SOURCE Solana Foundation