The Solana Foundation Kicks Off Ninth Hackathon, Renaissance

The online global hackathon, powered by Colosseum, reveals six different tracks with over $1 million in prizes and pre-seed funding

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Solana Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana network, today announced its Renaissance hackathon, with registration now open on Colosseum. Renaissance, the ninth Solana Foundation hackathon, is a virtual competition for the next generation of builders on the Solana network. The hackathon will run from March 4 through April 8, 2024.

Renaissance hackathon participants can create a builder profile, find teammates, discuss new ideas, explore this year's competition tracks, and register to compete for over $1 million in prizes and pre-seed funding, all through Colosseum's online platform.

Over the last year, momentum on the Solana network has surged thanks to builders in the ecosystem continuing to drive innovation. These builders have established the Solana network as the premier destination for payments, consumer apps, gaming, social, decentralized physical infrastructure, and more. From solutions that allow merchants to accept USDC payments with near-instantaneous settlement and low fees, to a wave of new applications that have emerged beyond DeFi, Solana builders have contributed enormously to the diversification of applications on the network.

"Hackathons play a critical role in continued growth on the Solana network by fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration," said Dan Albert, Executive Director of the Solana Foundation. "These events empower builders to create meaningful solutions that will revolutionize industries, solve real-world problems, and develop practical applications that are only possible on Solana."

To continue encouraging the development of new use cases on the Solana network, the Renaissance online hackathon will focus on six tracks:

• DeFi & Payments presented by Orca
• Consumer Apps presented by Solana Mobile
• DePIN presented by IO.NET
• Gaming presented by Phantom
• DAOs & Startup Communities presented by Squads
• Infrastructure presented by Pyth

The winner of the best overall project will receive the Grand Champion Award, presented by Symmetry, 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. Hackathon winners will also become eligible to be selected to join Colosseum's Accelerator Program and receive $250,000 in pre-seed capital.

"We are thrilled to administer the next Solana Foundation hackathon on Colosseum," said Matty Taylor, Cofounder at Colosseum. "Following the success of Hyperdrive, there has been a lot of momentum among the Solana builder community. We are glad to be able to support them in the most critical steps of their journeys. We look forward to working alongside the Solana Foundation and many others in the Solana ecosystem to continue fostering experimentation, startup innovation, and real-world problem-solving."

The last Solana Foundation hackathon – Hyperdrive, which took place in late 2023 – saw more than 7,000 participants build over 900 projects.

To register and start building, please visit: colosseum.org/renaissance.

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
press@solana.org

SOURCE Solana Foundation