DApp Hackathon 2019 Recap

Between December 5 to December 10, Dragonchain held its first virtual DApp Hackathon, which focused on building projects on the Dragonchain platform. All humans were welcome to join the hackathon, no matter their technical level. The DApp Hackathon provided participants the opportunity to integrate an existing system with blockchain or create a project from scratch. We had five teams participate, and the Dragonchain developers on-call to help with teams' needs.

Teams worked day and night on their projects, on top of other priorities such as holiday shopping, family time, and their day jobs. Dragonchain Developer, Regan Karlewicz said, "I know that a few of them [teams] were up late working. We were giving support late Friday/Saturday night. It was really cool to see people putting so much time investment into the hackathon."

Allan Dunham of Project Melange is new to Dragonchain and had a different experience compared to those who were familiar with our platform, "I'm still very new to Dragonchain, so a fair portion of my competition-time was spent climbing the learning curve. But I completed my MVP goals, which I think is a testament to the simplicity of Dragonchain."

By the end of the competition, a total of three teams took the top prizes.

Commercially Viable: TempGuard (1 BTC worth of DRGN)
Most Innovative: TempGuard (0.25 BTC worth of DRGN)
Best Integration: CEBlocks (0.25 BTC worth of DRGN)
Most Creative: Melange (0.1 BTC worth of DRGN)

CryptoLothar of Project TempGuard was shocked when he found out his project grabbed two of the top prizes. "I was already happy with being able to show the working prototype to my boss. I was not expecting to win anything, especially after seeing some of the other submissions. When I saw my name twice on the list of winners, I thought it was a mistake. It actually took me until I read the explanation for each decision to realize they WERE talking about TempGuard on both categories. I am so happy right now; I just had a nice celebratory dinner with my wife."

JohnWantsMore of Project CEBlocks felt "excitement and validation" upon hearing his category win. While Dunham of Project Melange said, "I really poured my heart into it, and I had hoped to do a little better. But this is also my first blockchain project, so I'm just happy to be standing among the prize winners."

On the Dragonchain side, the developers had a great time running the hackathon. "I thought it was an awesome experience! Being able to reward people for using our platform is really cool," said Karlewicz. "We received a few projects that could potentially be integrated with real systems running today, and the winners were very excited to see the results!"

Developing on top of new technology is a unique experience for many. JohnWantsMore advises developers to "Stick. With. It. There's a LOT to digest in the Dragonchain and blockchain programming world. Some of the concepts just don't fit exactly with the way other software is written until the light bulb goes off and seems second nature."

During the hackathon, CryptoLothar felt the struggle, "I thought twice during the weekend about giving up. My mind was too into relational databases, and I was having a hard time understanding different concepts on Dragonchain. But both the community (shoutout to JohnWantsMore) and Dragonchain's development team encouraged me to keep going until it finally clicked, and it was all worth it in the end."

For those who have any hesitation in working with emerging technologies, Dunham says, "If you're a developer, and you're NOT involved in blockchain, then GET involved, or the world is going to pass you by. If you ARE involved in blockchain, and you haven't tried Dragonchain, then TRY IT, I think you'll fall in love."

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Take a deeper dive into the projects here.