Since its creation in 2017, Solana has rapidly grown, becoming one of the most used blockchains within the crypto industry. One reason in particular is because of the wildly popular Hackathon competitions they’ve launched that has become a major staple of the crypto community for any project that favors the platform.
But what happened to the winners of the IGNITION Hackathon? That’s a question we’re going to dig into as we look at the winners from the most recent competition. We put together a simple trajectory update for the projects chosen for prizes and honorable mention projects within the Solana ecosystem that showed promise and see how things are going so far.
What is the Solana IGNITION Hackathon?
The Solana Hackathon is a yearly competition that showcases new projects within Solana’s blockchain. The IGNITION hackathon was Solana’s fourth hackathon contest since its creation. Anyone with an internet connection can compete, and they can compete within the following four tracks:
- DeFi: Decentralized finance projects were made to help disrupt the current wave of centralized finance through the help of Solana’s blockchain.
- Web 3: The creation of the future of the internet. At its core, most Web3 websites are made with HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The added blockchain technology, making it suitable for long-term web security and innovation.
- Gaming: Gaming has predictably made its way into the blockchain industry. With the help of gaming developers, newer games that have their NFTs have started to grow in popularity. Overall, it gives a user a mixture of fun and a way to earn money in the process passively.
- Art and Collectibles: The Art & Collectibles track specializes in the creation of art and limited edition items through the use of NFTs. Also known as Non-fungible tokens, NFTs can be made for art, music, and other creative mediums.
The hackathon went from August 31 to October 15th and showed a 760% increase of competitors and projects since their first competition. With the help of global sponsors such as Microsoft, Metaplex, Jump Crypto, and more, they have raised a total prize pool of $5 million for this event.
Judges
The IGNITION Hackathon was judged by crypto personalities and experts within their related fields. Here are some of them:
- Brandon Bryant
- Sam Bankman-Fried
- Chris McCann
- Crypto Cobain (AKA Jordan Fish)
Winners
Here are the winners of the Sola IGNITION Hackathon:
- Katana (Grand Champion)
- Atrix Protocol (DeFi)
- The Citadel (Web 3)
- Rushdown Revolt (Gaming)
- Neftify (Art and Collectibles)
Prizes
The IGNITION competition was divided into four tracks.
| Track Name | First Place | Second Place | 3rd Plae | 4th Place | 5th Place |
| DeFi | $65K | $45K | $30K | $25K | $20K |
| Web 3 | $45K | $30K | $20K | $15K | $10K |
| Gaming | $45K | $30K | $20K | $15K | $10K |
| Art & Collectibles | $45K | $30K | $20K | $15K | $10K |
Grand Champion – Katana
Project Link: Here
Twitter: @Katana_HQ
Discord: Here
Docs: Here
Price: https://defillama.com/protocol/katana-dex
Katana is the winner of Solana’s IGNITION Hackathon. They won the grand prize totaling $75,000 and tickets to the Solana’s conference. Katana has proved its value by showing a simple yet effective way for new people in the cryptosphere to get into yield generation. They’ve acquired $935 million worth of assets locked in, getting close to their $1 billion goal.
Katana is an asset management platform that’s powered by Solana’s blockchain. Their aim is to create a suite filled with investment products (i.e., automated vault strategies and structured products) to help the users have more financial power.
In layman’s terms, Katana is a platform that makes yield farming easier. The current problem faced within yield farming is that there isn’t a simple way for the average user to access it.
As a result, the previous model only allowed for a non-collaborative and private form of yield generation. This makes it harder for developers to do new projects to help further improve the system. Meanwhile, the strategy access is only accessible to the party that’s making them.
Fortunately, Katana solves this problem by enabling anyone to deposit into a vault and start obtaining passive yields. The benefit behind this is that there’s no active management required, making it a great system for people getting into yield farming that want a simplified process.
After winning the IGNITION competition, Katana is still working on building an improved user experience. That way, new users can more easily utilize their platform and get started, and build their own protocols, experiences, and products on Katana’s platform.
2 – Atrix Protocol – DeFi
Project Link: https://atrix.finance/
Twitter: @AtrixProtocol
Discord: Here
Docs: Here
Price: https://defillama.com/protocol/atrix
Atrix Protocol is the winner of the DeFi Track section. The team aimed their project directly at helping farmers, traders, and project makers.
Atrix Protocol gives farmers the advantage of having all of their yield farming pools in one place. When dealing with multiple yield farming pools on the blockchain, managing them on separate sites can be very difficult. Thankfully, Atrix Protocols solves this problem, giving you more control over your crypto finances via one central location for comparing and quicker decision making.
Before the Hackathon, Atrix had noticed the issues of coding such a complex system. It required the team to work diligently in making it happen. Atrix has over $497.75m of assets locked in, making it a prominent application for future yield farmers.
Traders also benefit from using Atrix Protocol’s system. There are no withdrawal or deposit fees, making it easier to trade without losing coins in the process. It performs all of their trades on Serum DEX platform, giving you more DeFi trading opportunities.
If you’re trying to use Atrix for a project, you can use it to create your own liquidity mining pool. You can create this with no code, which helps the non-technical users get started immediately without spending extra money on developers.
After winning the DeFi track of the IGNITION competition, Atrix Protocol has continued to improve its platform. They have done this by teaching newer users how to integrate farms and pools on Atrix’s UI. Because of this, the team has helped get users more involved with their trading protocols.
3 – The Citadel – Web 3
Project Link: https://devpost.com/software/project-citadel
Twitter: @project_citadel
Discord: Here
The Citadel is a Solana-based project whose goal is to be a one-stop Web 3 interface for Solana’s network. One of the biggest problems the DeFi ecosystem faces is that you’ll need multiple applications and tabs to navigate through it properly. There are so many decentralized exchanges and applications that it can be confusing if it’s not in one place.
Citadel has found this issue particularly interesting and the team created their project to solve it. By doing so, they’ve created an app that aggregates multiple DeFi products into one system.
- Swaps
- Portfolio Management
- Farming/Staking
- DEX
- Wallets
From a user standpoint, this makes it easier for them to navigate through Solana’s DeFi platform. Plus, it takes less computer space than having multiple dApps on one browser. Thus, making it a good option for newcomers who need a simple way to utilize Solana.
Before winning the IGNITION Hackathon, Project Citadel had begun its project in the previous hackathon season. During this time, they had difficulty due to Solana’s SDKs. But as time progressed, they continued to create the application using Avalonia, dotnet, Pyth, Mango, Serum, Bonfida, and CoinGecko.
After the IGNITION Hackathon, Citadel has unveiled its future plans for its project. The team plans on creating a DAO for helping to predict their project’s future. In addition, they plan on making a UX/UI improvement to make it easier for the newer users to get used to the complexities behind Solana.
4 – Rushdown Revolt – Gaming
Project Link: https://www.rushdownrevolt.com/
Twitter: @rushdownrevolt
Discord: Here
Rushdown Revolt came in first place in the IGNITION’s gaming division. Currently, the game is in its alpha stage as the developers are still making updates. So far, it has been showing signs that it can be a fun game in the near future for those that want something blockchain integrated but still a standalone game in terms of playability value.
The game is a platform fighter-based game (i.e., Super Smash Bros) where players can choose their character and play against opponents. Each character has their own special move, which makes them unique. Up to 6 players can play per game, making it a high-action multiplayer game for all to play.
Before the Hackathon, they were a simple team whose plan was to create a fun game to play. Afterward, Rushdown Revolt has released its alpha version on Steam. Thanks to the funding from the contest, the development team has used it to continue to push the game further identifying lags, playability issues, and other problems that they’ve been quick to resolve.
Even better, the game is currently free! So not only are users getting a fun game, but SOL fans get a chance to see one powered by Solana’s coding and infrastructure. For the gamer that wants something fun, quick, and engaging, Rushdown Revolt is definitely worth trying.
Post-Hackathon, the game is still in its pre-beta stages. The development team plans to add NFTs to the game, giving the players a sense of ownership over elements such as characters and customization choices. Still, Rushdown Revolt shows signs of potential and is a nifty game for even casual gamers to get into.
5 – Neftify – Art and Collectibles
Project Link: https://neftify.com/
Twitter: @neftify
Discord: Here
Neftify is a Solana-based platform that allows for gaming NFT crowdsourcing. It works by allowing users to connect their wallets and deposit their Axies onto the platform. Each new user that joins Neftify will aid the lender by participating within the game’s economy.
They’ll earn 25% of the SLP from the borrowers as a lender. Thus, making Neftify a dual-based system where both borrowers and lenders can benefit. With over 225 borrowers in Neftify’s system, it’s starting to grow in its popularity.
Since the Hackathon, Neftify has shown more signs of development. They have created newer applications such as SaFu to help guild members manage their team more effectively. Because of that, Neftify is becoming a great way for players and lenders to obtain income on Solana’s platform whilst supporting their affiliated team members at the same time.
Neftify is still adding more updates to their project. As of now, they are planning on releasing a MetaJobs feature. This will allow for people to help others build land within the Metaverse or help them through their knowledge of crypt and NFTs.
As you can see, Neftify has a bright future post IGNITION Hackathon. The team aims to continue creating ways for borrowers and lenders to collaborate in the metaverse. This creates more opportunities for gamers and investors alike to help Solana grow.
DarleyuGo has won the Community Award for Solana’s IGNITION Hackathon. In fact, the development team behind the project only had two weeks to complete the project!
The DarleyGo game is an NFT horse game built on Solana’s platform. Players can race, buy, sell, or trade NFT based horses. In addition, the NFT horses can be traded on any marketplace, which shows even more signs of their value.
The development team’s biggest challenge was creating a high-quality game in such a short time frame. Within two weeks, they were able to create the front end, backend, design, and gameplay of the entire game.
After winning the community award, DarleyuGo has significant plans to push its project further. Not only do they want to expand to the gaming community, but also the horse racing industry as a whole. They aim to make the game for horse racing fans and give them an innovative game for them to play.
Thus, the project will help crypto, and non-crypto-based people have fun with horse racing. In addition, they aim to have a metaverse and connection with other Solana applications (Games collaboration, DEX, NFT marketplace, and much more).
Contestants and Honorable Mentions
The Solana IGNITION Hackathon has bought many new contestants and projects to its platform. Multiple new contestants have shown promise and their ability to create decentralized apps that can scale:
- Pocketfuel
- J.O.S.H
- Eno.xyz
- SolCypher
- Hawk Protocol
- Credix
- Sosol
- Exotic
- Streamflow
- Vybe
- ATIV
What’s the Future for Solana’s Hackathons?
After the Solana IGNITION Hackathon, we’ve noticed an increase in projects and games relying on the blockchain, rapidly increasing its integration/adoption as their communities come onboard with the creation and management teams. As Solana’s blockchain continues to grow, we can see it showing signs of becoming the “Ethereum Killer” it was hyped to be. But only time can tell if it will claim that title.
For now, it is an ecosystem that gives new projects and teams a chance to show their skills and innovation. And in the near future, we can see more hackathons like this take place spurring even further growth.
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