This post was originally published by Colosseum.
Colosseum is thrilled to announce the results of the Solana Renaissance Hackathon, a global online competition focused on bringing the next wave of high-impact projects into the Solana ecosystem. Renaissance was the 9th Solana Foundation hackathon, bringing together founders and developers from 95+ countries to build products spanning Infrastructure, Gaming, DePIN, DAOs, DeFi, and a long-tail of Consumer Applications.
More than 8,300 participants from 95 countries teamed up to submit 1,071 final projects to the judges, making Renaissance the largest online Solana hackathon to date. Symmetry, Phantom, IO.NET, Pyth, Orca, Solana Mobile, Squads, and Brave joined the Solana Foundation as sponsors for the hackathon, offering a platform for crypto founders to jumpstart their journey.
“Solana Hackathons are the epicenter of startup formation in the ecosystem, and Renaissance was no exception," said Dan Albert, Executive Director of the Solana Foundation. "A new wave of highly talented developers and founders are now building promising products that will continue to take crypto into mainstream adoption."
Without further ado, here are the winners…
Grand Champion
Ore, a new digital currency that enables anyone to mine using a novel proof-of-work algorithm on the Solana blockchain, received the Grand Prize of $50,000 USDC, along with passes to attend Breakpoint 2024 in Singapore, Sept. 19-21.
Consumer Apps Track
The first prize goes to Banger.lol, a marketplace for trading tweets and supporting creators, with an award of $30,000 in USDC.
Additional prizes went to:
- Second: Wootz Browser, a crypto-enabled browser that pays users for helping generative AI.
- Third: Chomp, a gamified social consensus platform that provides best-in-class insights.
- Fourth: Movement, a new trading app built to assist users efficiently discover and exchange memecoins.
- Fifth: DePlan, a pay-as-you-go solution that gives end users better payment options.
Although they did not win any prizes, we would also like to recognize, in no particular order, the work of the following honorable mentions:
Crypto Infrastructure Track
The first prize goes to High TPS Solana Client, a new client that utilizes efficient scheduling and pipeline optimizations to improve transaction capacity and increase block reward yields, with an award of $30,000 in USDC.
Additional prizes went to:
- Second: Torque, an onchain offers protocol for builders and dApps to deploy marketing strategies.
- Third: xCrow, a platform for accelerating developers working with Solana's escrow programs.
- Fourth: Cambrian, a restaking platform building a new economic coordination layer on Solana.
- Fifth: Merit, a full-scale on-chain points as tokens protocol.
Although they did not win any prizes, the judges would also like to recognize, in no particular order, the work of the following honorable mentions:
Gaming Track
The first prize goes to Meshmap+City Champ, a new 3D mapping network integrated through a game that generates 3D scans incentivized by token rewards, with an award of $30,000 in USDC.
Additional prizes went to:
- Second: Legends of the Sun, an old school combat battle arena where players can go up against up to 5 friends or foes for rewards
- Third: Mining Badger Game, an onchain crafting game using Honeycomb Protocol, that game developers can integrate into their own unique experiences.
- Fourth: Moon Boi Universe, a web3 cyber-fantasy, open-world RPG optimized for mobile.
- Fifth: Maneko Pet, a simple and fun Tamagotchi-style mobile game, complete with a built-in game launcher.
Although they did not win any prizes, the judges would also like to recognize, in no particular order, the work of the following honorable mentions:
DeFi & Payments Track
The first prize goes to Urani, an intent-based swap aggregator bringing protection against toxic MEV at the application layer, with an award of $30,000 in USDC.
Additional prizes went to:
- Second: GLAM, a decentralized on-chain asset management protocol on Solana
- Third: Nomad, an Nigeria-based payment app that streamlines off ramping.
- Fourth: Ripe, a QR-code enabled app that gives users the ability to pay across merchants in Southeast Asia.
- Fifth: Exponent, a derivatives protocol for trading the yield of DeFi products on Solana.
Although they did not win any prizes, the judges would also like to recognize, in no particular order, the work of the following honorable mentions:
DePIN Track
The first prize goes to Blockmesh, an open network that allows you to monetize your excess bandwidth, with an award of $30,000 in USDC.
Additional prizes went to:
- Second: DeCharge, an EV charging network offering globally compatible hardware for affordable access.
- Third: dBunker, a DePIN Financial Derivatives Platform with an open ecosystem designed to solve the challenges of broader user participation in DePIN projects.
- Fourth: CHRO+, a decentralized health network to accelerate breakthroughs in predictive, preventive and personalized medicine
- Fifth: Pomerene, a DePIN for international trade with pallet tracking.
Although they did not win any prizes, the judges would also like to recognize the work of the following honorable mention:
DAOs & Communities Track
The first prize goes to DeTask, an AI-enabled product development platform leveraging DAO labor, with an award of $30,000 in USDC.
Additional prizes went to:
- Second: DeStreet, a non-custodial dApp built on Solana Mobile that enables communities to trade together.
- Third: TokenGator, a platform for managing dynamic NFT collections.
- Fourth: Maindocs, a platform that lets dapps, institutions, and DAOs create fully customisable and verifiable financial documents.
- Fifth: Quadratus Protocol, a fully on-chain DAO Governance model, powered through quadratic voting.
Although they did not win any prizes, the judges would also like to recognize, in no particular order, the work of the following honorable mentions
University Award
The University Award, which recognizes excellence from a project led by university students, goes to DeVolt, receiving a $10,000 USDC prize for the project.
Public Goods Award
The Public Goods Award, which recognizes an open-source project that benefits developers across the Solana ecosystem, goes to Zircon, receiving a $10,000 USDC prize.
Climate Award
The Climate Award, recognizing projects that are built with climate change and sustainability in mind, goes to AquaSave, receiving a USDC prize of $10,000.
Thanks again to all the participants, the judges who reviewed projects, and the sponsors from across the ecosystem. But most of all, congratulations to all the winners!
