Activate x Wormhole Hackathon
If someone told me a month ago that my first international trip in three years would be to Miami for a Web 3 hackathon - I would’ve immediately thought that it was a crazy lie. I was given an opportunity to attend Activate x Wormhole thanks to a scholarship sponsored by C3 Protocol and here is the short story of my experience.
This blog dives into my experiences and expands on:
What is Activate?
Building in Web 3
C3 Protocol
Supporters
Final Thoughts
What is Activate?
Activate x Wormhole hosted by Lightshift Capital was the first multi-chain hackathon combining the leading blockchain ecosystems for Web 3 enthusiasts to learn, build and explore for an entire week.
Right at the core of Miami, the hackathon consisted of numerous events including:
Ecosystem days, mentorship, and boot camps.
Project tracks & bounties focused on cross-chain and impact ideas.
Collaboration with different kinds of builders, from engineers to designers.
Opportunities to develop and expand a network in Web 3.
With the primary focus of empowering builders in Web 3, Activate created various initiatives that brought together the brightest minds across the world to have an opportunity to develop unique projects. From Lithuania to Canada all the way down to Brazil - students travelled hundreds of miles to spend a week submerged in Web 3.
Beyond the initiatives offered by this hackathon, the environment consisting of the people, location and timing were there factors that heavily contributed to the success of the event.
Judges, speakers and attendees from leading blockchain companies and ecosystems.
Miami served as a central hub for participants travelling internationally and amplified the event with the city’s strong crypto culture.
Took place the same week as Permissionless, so folks were enticed to come down to Activate once the conference was completed!
It was also amazing to see the NEAR Hacker House lead workshops and talks simultaneously to Activate. It brought together a variety of different speakers and events to complement the conference.
Building in Web 3
My deep interest in Web 3 started back in 2020 and since then has majoritively been spent online - with learning, building and meeting friends through Twitter and Discord. It was not until this opportunity to travel to Miami that I was mind blown by the amazing community of individuals that share the similar goal of exploring Web 3 in real life! As crazy as that sounds, it was a mind-blowing experience to see the supportive culture and people that exist in this ecosystem.
I was convinced to attend immediately after finding out about this hackathon and it was primarily because of its root goal to bring together the leading blockchains & companies. It was evident that it would give me a chance to learn directly from the builders of these amazing platforms through their talks, workshops or even the small conversations over pancakes. And of course, this was exactly what happened.
From Solana to Coinbase, it was awesome to hear from individuals working in Web 3 about why they’re so passionate about the protocols/companies that they work for as well as future projects in the space. Going beyond the small conversations, it was really fun to dive into topics that covered their conviction surrounding the technology itself. There were office hours throughout the entire week with all the sponsors, so there was no excuse to not seek out help or engage in small conversations.
I also noticed that many of the leading ecosystems and companies were actively trying to learn more about what we building and seeking out ways to help. They were actively trying to promote their resources and educational content which were golden resources for builders no matter their background. Beyond the prizes, there was a clear emphasis on creating a stronger relationship with developers across the board.
Though we weren’t a winner, my team built a project that integrated with the Solana, NEAR and Algorand blockchains with the goal to enable users to access our platform to purchase our NFTs - with the goal of creating a cross-chain NFT accessible from numerous chains. It was a great learning experience and definitely don’t think it would’ve been possible without American-sized Ice Coffees, Redbulls and the supportive culture.
C3 Protocol
A special introduction to the C3 Protocol that aims to build an all-in-one layer for on-chain cross-margining and cross-collateralization that satisfies the needs for spot and derivative trading.
As DeFi continues to advance, the C3 Protocol takes on an ambitious goal of cross-chain support for DeFi and TradFi with a new approach to collateral management. Similar to existing processes in prime brokerages that centralize collaterals, C3 enables its users to deposit collateral in a single place enabling access to financial products and most importantly, leveraging their collateral to move across markets without worrying about additional capital.
The team comes with a background from Rand Labs and received $3.2 million in funding from Arrington Capital, Jump Capital, Parafi Captial and many more.
Supporters
An early-stage blockchain, crypto, and Web 3 venture fund targeting decentralized financial services. A team consisting of engineers turned venture capitalists want to continue to support and “directly contribute to the long-term success of the most impactful use cases of blockchain technology”.
This team and specifically Diogo are responsible for making this hackathon into reality. From the partnerships to the venue, it was great learning about their motivation to bring more builders into the space and create opportunities that provide these projects developed at the hackathon to continue. From the incredible bounties and prizes, this hackathon ensured that these projects can continue to expand further.
If you’re not familiar with Rahat, you’re missing out. He’s an amazing individual that only continues to help and empower individuals learning about tech/Web 3. He’s an awesome artist that just happens to be a DevRel at Polygon - so you’ll see him making music and dope Web 3 content from tutorials to blogs and much more.
I first met Rahat through Twitter and again on an episode on the Humans of D_D. Since then he’s certainly been an amazing friend that I’m so grateful to have met. With his generosity, I had a place to stay for the majority of my time in Miami and beyond grateful for the incredible help to make this entire trip possible.
New friends
This can easily become a list that would stretch over two pages. Beyond all the learnings that I received during my week, one of the key takeaways was the relationships and friendships that I created in such a short period of time. It was exciting to meet individuals as passionate and curious about Web 3 as I am - which only meant that I was able to open my eyes to so many new avenues that I surely wouldn’t have crossed on my own.
Oddly enough, I also met quite a few folks from Toronto. Seeing other Canadians hundreds of miles from the city was pretty great, as it simply validated that the Web 3 space continues to grow - slowly but surely.
Final Thoughts
It was not an ordinary trip nor a typical hackathon, so I’m glad that I got to experience this event to set the bar high. I strongly believe that more students and individuals interested in Web 3 should have the opportunity to learn about the value I received by seeking out opportunities for themselves!
As Web 3 and crypto continue to expand, building and learning should be the two main things top of mind. I can attest to all the projects that I’ve lined up for myself from the building to the articles/protocols to read up on.
Going forward, I’m excited to continue learning and building projects to unlock new curiosities. This was not a one-off experience and I’m hoping that this is just the start of my journey.