Web3athon Challenges Consensus Delegates to Find Crypto Solutions to 'Hyperlocal' Problems

This made-for Web 3 hackathon welcomes everyone to pitch ideas.

AccessTimeIconJun 8, 2022 at 9:20 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 4:25 p.m. UTC
Layer 2
10 Years of Decentralizing the Future
May 29-31, 2024 - Austin, TexasThe biggest and most established global hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3.Register Now

Pomtahatot Tuiimyali, otherwise known as Pom, is a Native American tribe leader in Northern California, staking out how to use blockchain to potentially revive a native species of Chinook salmon on which his community once relied. His restoration project will use non-fungible tokens (NFT) to raise funds but also awareness.

Pom, who also goes by his English name Michael Preston, has been speaking with Tricia Wang and the team at CRADL – the Crypto Research and Design Lab – to get that going.

This article is part of Road to Consensus. Tricia Wang is a speaker at Consensus, where CRADL will introduce the Web3athon.

“He's already been obsessed with blockchain,” Wang told CoinDesk. She added that when those conversations began Pom didn’t know any crypto developers. “We’re, like, don't worry. Just work on your idea. And you’ll find yourself a team through the Web3athon community on our Discord. Come to Consensus to meet other people like you,” Wang said.

That’s CRADL’s whole MO with the Web3athon: identify crypto projects that could actually have a real-world impact, elevate them and help get them going. To that end, CRADL has joined with CoinDesk, the city of Austin and HackerEarth to host Web3athon, which will kick-start at Consensus on June 9.

“Our mandate as a lab is to understand what's going to accelerate crypto as a driver for equity in society,” Wang said. The project was founded by Wang and others including former World Economic Forum executive Sheila Warren and Lauren Serota, former head of service design at Myanmar’s Yoma Bank. (Both Warren and Serota are full-time in Web 3 now.)

The hackathon, which runs until Aug. 31, 2022, takes a two-stage, multi-month approach and will focus on the five “challenge areas” of generational wealth, financial health, sustainable culture and communities, environmental wellbeing and disaster response, Wang said.

“There's an ideation stage and then there's an ‘actually build it’ stage,” she said. The problem with most crypto hackathons – and perhaps crypto in general – is a lack of quality data about what projects have or are likely to have real traction. They rarely “reflect the needs of society they need to understand," Wang said.

CRADL’s hackathon is primarily targeted towards developers and builders, and an on-boarding process will help them clearly “understand” the “hyperlocal” problems they’re trying to solve in addition to knowing how to apply this “incredible technology.”

“You can't just go straight to building something on-chain first,” she said. Another part of CRADL focuses on existing projects to study the most effective, most coordinated and most ambitious to “open source” that data for a global community of builders.

This could help dispel the myth that blockchain is only about speculation and motivate policymakers in the West, “where there's a resistance to crypto,” Wang said. Efforts like CRADL’s “Proof of Impact” report are helping tell real stories about overcoming and mitigating inflation and authoritarianism, Wang said.

And so, in a sense, CRADL is a tastemaker and crown-bestower through its research and hackathon projects.

“These are the genuine use cases and stories that we need to elevate more,” Wang said. Like Pom’s project, the aim is ultimately to build effective tech. But first you need a motivating narrative.

“How do we make sure that, in the end, everything leads to more on-boarding, more adoption?” Wang asked. By reflecting the needs of society.

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Daniel Kuhn

Daniel Kuhn is a deputy managing editor for Consensus Magazine. He owns minor amounts of BTC and ETH.

Xinyi Luo

Xinyi Luo is CoinDesk Layer 2's features and opinion intern. She does not currently hold any cryptocurrencies.

Ben Schiller

Ben Schiller is CoinDesk's managing editor for features and opinion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at BREAKER Magazine and a staff writer at Fast Company. He holds some ETH, BTC and LINK.


Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.