Ideahacker's Guide to IBC, the first-ever global online IBC Ideathon for builders, creators, entrepreneurs, and thinkers, runs from October 7 - 27, 2024. In this article, we’ve provided guidelines for creating and developing a winning idea. The top ideahackers will win part of the $30,000 prize pool and win an all-expenses-paid trip to the IBC Incubator Istanbul in 2025. You’ll learn about the types of ideas we’re looking for, how to submit your work to meet the requirements, how to impress the judges, and what makes a winning idea.
Idea Guidelines
We’re looking for exceptional ideas that will push the boundaries of the interchain and trigger the next wave of development in cross-chain innovation. The competition is split over five tracks: Solana, DeFi Apps, Chain Abstraction, Intents & Incentives, and Wild Card.
The goal of your IBC idea could be to:
- Create a new application that is IBC-enabled
- Add a new IBC use case to an existing protocol/project/on-chain application
- Improve an existing IBC use case for an application or chain that already has IBC connectivity
Feel free to include existing on-chain protocols, projects, and DeFi applications in your idea; however, you must link to the website for that existing project in the writeup you include with your Dorahacks BUIDL.
We want you to think about the future of cross-chain. You can assume that IBC exists on any chain and any application - you do not need to limit your ideas to what is technically feasible with IBC today. Instead, ideate on what could be possible with IBC tomorrow.
What Makes a Winning Idea?
A winning idea has the potential to create value, solve a significant problem, and appeal to a specific community of users or customers. Ideas should be relevant, unique, impactful, and scalable. Simple ideas can be more potent than complex ones as they are easier to understand, communicate, and execute.
Below are additional factors to help you create a winning submission:
- We want ideas that empower people and communities to do something completely novel that solves a real-world problem.
- Winning ideas will be creative and innovative: we’re looking for more than a simple token transfer between two different apps on two separate chains.
- Ideas must utilize at least one IBC feature, such as token transfer, Interchain Accounts, or Interchain Queries. You can use an existing IBC feature or invent your own, new IBC feature that doesn’t yet exist. For current IBC features, you can find a list of IBC features under the “Cross-Chain” section in the Idea Builder or use the pre-built IBC feature workflows in the Idea Builder Templates.
- Consider exploring newer IBC features, such as Callbacks or token transfers with multiple token types per packet.
- Write-ups must be a minimum of 250 words to be eligible for prizes.
- Presentation matters. A thorough, detailed, and creative idea is more likely to win than a sloppily-worded one. Remember to represent your idea in its best light with your submission.
Idea Submission Requirements
You must submit your idea as a BUIDL on Dorahacks via the Ideahacker’s Guide to IBC page. Click here to read more about how to submit a BUIDL on the Dorahacks website.
To be eligible, your BUIDL submission must include the following elements.
1. Project Description Write-Up
You can submit the project description as a write-up in the Dorahacks BUIDL or as Google Slides. Write-ups must be a minimum of 250 words.
Your writeup must include the following points:
- What problem does your idea solve?
- Who is the intended audience for your idea (B2B, B2C, an industry vertical, etc.)?
- How does it improve the user experience?
- Describe your idea in detail, including how it uses IBC.
2. Idea Builder Export
Include your exported JSON link from the IBC Idea Builder in your Dorahacks submission. Add the exported JSON link under the project demo section or social links on the Dorahacks BUIDL.
3. A Complete Dorahacks BUIDL
Ensure all required sections of the Dorahacks BUIDL are completed. These sections are marked with an asterisk (*) on Dorahacks’ BUIDL form.
Additional Participation Eligibility Information
You are not required to submit a GitHub repository or code base with your idea. You must provide a write-up and an Idea Builder export instead.
You can enter the Ideathon as an individual or as a two-member team. If you are a two-person team, make sure to add both team members’s Dorahacks account information to your Dorahacks BUIDL. Only the team leader should submit the BUIDL.
Ideathon submissions can be for any ecosystem, not just Cosmos/the interchain. You are welcome to develop an innovative IBC-based idea for any ecosystem. Ideas submitted to the Solana track must involve Solana.
You or your team can submit different ideas to different tracks and win a prize in more than one track. However, you can only win one prize in each track you join. An idea can only be entered once; you cannot submit the same idea to more than one track during the Ideathon, as it will be ineligible to win any prize.
Please ensure you review the Terms & Conditions of Participation for the event on Dorahacks.
Judging Criteria
A panel of judges will assess IBC Ideathon submissions by reviewing the idea description and the IBC Idea Builder export. Make sure you spend time on a thorough and well-thought-out submission. IBC Ideathon submissions will be judged on the below criteria:
- Originality – Has this idea been done before as a cross-chain use case? Is it unique?
- User Experience – Who is the target audience? Does the idea improve the day-to-day user experience of the target audience? This question applies to all ideas, including those targeting B2C, B2B, infrastructure, etc.
- Technicality – How difficult is the problem you’re solving? How thoroughly have you evaluated the impacts of your solution? How well does the idea use IBC’s features and applications?
- Wow Factor – Buffer points for anything not captured in the above pieces of criteria!
Event winners will be announced in November 2024.
Prizes
There is a total prize pool of USD $30,000 in ATOM tokens for the Ideahacker's Guide to IBC, plus first place winners will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Istanbul to bring your idea to life. We want to encourage participants to submit as many excellent ideas as possible and reward as many exceptional contributions in each category as we can. So get your thinking cap on, follow the requirements above, and may the best ideas win!
There are five winners in each of the five tracks. The first place will receive $3,000 in ATOM, second place receives $1,500 in ATOM, and there are three third-place winners at $500/each.
Final Thoughts
IBC is the world's most widely used blockchain interoperability protocol, connecting over 115 chains and transacting billions of dollars in cross-chain transfers. We encourage you to follow IBC’s progress and discover new ways to enhance interoperability across all ecosystems. Join the community, meet with other interchain founders and builders, find a new teammate, and join the competition! Let’s grow the interchain and shape the future of web3 together.
