How Hackathons Strengthen the Blockchain and Web3 Community

It’s been about a month and a half since the Polish capital hosted ETHWarsaw 2022, the CEE region’s biggest Web3 conference and hackathon. BeInCrypto was present at the venue as a media partner and we did witness some truly lively and insightful discussions throughout the four days of the event starting on Sept. 1.

The hackathon was hands down one of the highlights of ETHWarsaw 2022. It followed the first two days of the conference and included overnight “hacks” that brought in “opportunities for teams and individuals to get hands-on, practical experience working with applications and advanced tools”. There was also $50,000 in rewards to be won from various competitions.

The hackathon’s most valuable add-on, however, was the stage it set for the blockchain and web3 community to network, exchange ideas, and forge new alliances and collaboration. We took the opportunity to discuss this with many of the industry insiders that participated in the event. 

We asked them how events like the ETHWarsaw hackathon help community building, and almost all of them unanimously agreed that hackathons do, in fact, strengthen the web3 community. More on that in a bit.

Web3 hackathon benefits

For those out of the loop, a hackathon is an event where developers, non-technical founders, and other creatives can get together to build a solution to problems that are presented in front of them as a challenge. 

Hackathons bring excellent opportunities for existing and new web3 developers when it comes to turning ideas into actual products, and potentially a web3 startup backed by VCs. 

The key benefits of web3 hackathons include:

Hackathons promote collaboration and healthy competitions

“Community has always been the pulse of the web3 world. Hackathons are a great hands-on, get-your-processors-together approach to solving a real problem with a time constraint,” Arabdha Sudhir, VP of Marketing at Halborn, said in a conversation with BeInCrypto.

Hackathons, by design, are meant to invoke a competitive spirit among participating teams. And at the same time, they can also drive a growing industry to come together and operate like a closely-knit community with a shared objective of growth (often fueled by healthy competition).

“The connections forged during the hackathon with other companies and people over the “let’s win this” mindset often stay strong. It’s very common that developers, hackers, and enthusiasts that you meet during the process become your next teammates or even your next co-founders. For Halborn, this is a great way to spot and nurture dev talent,” Sudhir added.

Hackathons make room for new talent

This is not true just for web3 hackathons, but any other hackathon, for that matter. 

With hackathons, resumes and awkward personal questions are almost passé. They rather make it easy for recruiters to zoom in on candidates who are skilled and deserving. You could also think of hackathons as a one-stop solution where recruiters can evaluate candidates based on their skills, problem-solving abilities, time management, and people skills.

Corina Dolghier, Project Manager (Growth) at MakerDAO, elaborated on this point by sharing her company’s recent experience with ETHWarsaw 2022. 

Daughter said, “Conferences and hackathons are overall an indispensable opportunity for Web3 companies and DAOs to attract new talent and ETHWarsaw did a great job at providing everyone with the right space, tools, and connections to do that.  

We were very pleased to be a part of it and are looking forward to seeing the Polish community grow in the Web3 and DeFi ecosystem.”

Helps web2 developers better adapt to the web3 landscape

Web3 hackathons provide the perfect platform where web3 developers can get hands-on with web3 applications. Not just that, but even experienced web3 developers get additional resources including advanced tech stack to build and experiment.  

“Most web2 developers need help in understanding how their broad knowledge can be applied in the blockchain and crypto industry,” said Vitaly Yakovlev, CTO and Co-Founder at ZKX.

He added, “Equally, the majority of web3 developers are still not engaged in the most advanced, cutting-edge blockchain tech. We see the mission of every major conference to be bi-fold – share and exchange the ideas about the latest developments within the industry as well as spread the knowledge about opportunities in web3 for those who are new to it.” 

In other words, hackathons bring developers the opportunity to put into practice all the skills they learned from various sources including online web3 courses, seminars and workshops, countless blockchain newsletters, and what have you! 

….And that’s not all

Note that these are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far as benefits from web3 hackathons are concerned. There are plenty more, including but not limited to:

• Finding a community of like-minded individuals who share the passion and motivation to create unique web3 products.
• Learning from the bests in the industry.
• Getting hands-on with your web3 knowledge in solving real-life problems.
• Exposure to how to approach building new, original products using the resources at your disposal.
• Finding new project ideas.
• Wining attractive rewards for your accomplishments.
• Networking with like-minded professionals in web3, investors, analysts, fund managers, and potential partners.

Like Thiago Earp, Content Lead at Ramp, says, “Much like its spiritual ancestor, the Open Source movement, Web3 is being built from the edges: from the bunch of brilliant misfits that spent countless nights and weekends giving shape and direction to Bitcoin, to the thousands of minds reimagining finance across DAOs.

And these communities are part of the very fabric of Web3. From the early days, forums, informal meet-ups, and hackathons where volunteers got together to build have been a huge driving force for the space.”

If web3 is a team sport, then web3 hackathons are the platforms where teams unite to explore new horizons.