Pi Network 2023 Q1 Hackathon Kickoff, Instructions and Resources

01/12/2023

Pi Network is excited to kick off 2023 by announcing the launch of a new Hackathon! The network is building on the momentum from the 2022 College Hackathons and the 2021 Pi Hackathon, and continues to facilitate the development of quality Pi Apps. This hackathon will span until February 28, 2023.

Over the past few years, Pi Network has built the world’s most widely distributed cryptocurrency with over 35 million members across the globe, and the necessary ecosystem infrastructure. In 2023, as part of the mission of growth and utilities-building during the current Enclosed Network period of Mainnet, the network is continuing to expand and improve its app platform. This is to enable more community development and collectively become an even more robust utilities-based ecosystem.

That’s where you come in: Pioneers and developers like you are encouraged to contribute to Pi Network and ecosystem growth by building mobile web apps that bring true utility to the users. We’re looking for creative, utility-focused apps; these could be entertainment, education, social interaction, access to information, consumer utilities, or anything else you can think of.

Read on for more hackathon details, including the challenge and prize information; important onboarding, team formation, and project submission instructions; and helpful resources as you begin to develop!

The Challenge

Pioneers and developers are invited to build mobile web apps that address a real user need, support the use of Pi cryptocurrency, and are intuitive to use and accessible to everyday people.

Developing on Pi is easy, and doesn’t require any previous blockchain or crypto experience – simply build a mobile web app, integrate our SDK with JavaScript, and make API calls. If you want to participate in the Hackathon, follow the instructions further below to get started!

Themes

You may choose to focus your project on one of themes below, or choose the Open Innovation theme and create the best app you can that doesn’t fall into one of the following categories.

Social Media

What if users could send or receive micro-payments as part of this new category of social media you are creating? What if the use of staking can bubble up the best content? What if content creators can be rewarded for great content? You can be the innovator to bring micro-transactions into social media for the first time.

Games / Entertainment

This is the track for all things entertainment; show us your best games and entertainment apps that will keep our audience engaged in any way you can imagine. Don’t forget to integrate the Pi cryptocurrency as closely as possible to your ideas.

Consumer Utilities

This category is for all apps that provide utilities to our members, or to other businesses. Examples may include loyalty programs for businesses that bring the power of blockchain to the masses, marketplace apps, education platforms and more.

Open innovation

Show us your best idea – what is the coolest app you can think of?!

Prizes and Rewards*

Cash Prizes (all in USD): There will be a total of $30,000 in cash prizes available as follows:

$15,000 to the overall winner

$2,000 to three runners-up

$1,000 to the theme winners for four theme categories (see Themes section above)

$5,000 for winning team of a separate round of judging

Pi Cryptocurrency Rewards: Eligible teams, and their individual members, can earn 100 or more in Pi Cryptocurrency Rewards for achieving the following milestones and accomplishments:

Individual Pi Cryptocurrency Rewards:

1.00Pi – Creating a Pi account with a referral code (existing Pioneers have likely already done this)

5.60Pi – Trying out our Demo App code

0.10Pi – Tier 1: Create App on DevPortal
0.50Pi – Tier 2: Run Demo locally on Sandbox
5.00Pi – Tier 3: Deploy Demo App on Servers

1.00Pi – Engaging in ecosystem activities – more information to come in a separate announcement

Team Pi Cryptocurrency Rewards: These rewards are only available under the PiOS Track as explained further below, and are meant to reward novel, thoughtful, working and deployed projects regardless of the idea. Thus, the rewards listed below are at the discretion of the Pi Core Team:

20.00Pi – Participating in a mid-point check in

72.40Pi – Deploying a fully functional app on Pi Mainnet using the PiOS license

The Pi Cryptocurrency Rewards described above, and which are being made available to Hackathon developers, will come out of the reserve set aside for “supporting community organization and ecosystem building,” as explained in the updated Pi whitepaper chapters released on December 28, 2021. More information on how it works will follow in a separate announcement.

Hackathon 2021

@Pi Network Support Portal