CoinList Launches Hackathon Series to Spur Crypto Product Launches

Those sticking it out through crypto’s bear market have made #BUIDL into a meme. Today, CoinList announced that it’s making “CoinList Build” into a product.

CoinList President Andy Bromberg told CoinDesk that these new blockchain-based companies need help getting engineers to try out their platforms. “They are realizing that developers and users are kind of a virtuous cycle,” he said.

To that end, CoinList has spun up a new product that makes it easy for crypto companies to pull together online hackathons in very little time. Its first hackathon will take place next month with 0x, the peer-to-peer exchange protocol for ethereum-based tokens.

CoinList is primarily known as a backend solution for running token sales. According to the company, 50 teams have used it to raise $450 million so far.

Hackathons have historically been in-person events, but online contests have been proving more and more workable. “They are democratized, anyone can participate, you don’t have to travel,” Bromberg said. “It’s a chance to get a bunch of people to build on top of a platform.”

Lowering the barrier to entry, Bromberg contends, fits into the larger values of the blockchain space. “So many great contributors in the crypto ecosystem have come out of nowhere,” he said. Not just geographically, but people who proved to be valuable contributors that didn’t previously have a big reputation among developers.

“That’s really the community that we would love to get,” Bromberg added.

This first online hackathon will run from January 10 to February 7, and sign-ups begin today. To entice developers to take part, 0x is putting up $50,000 worth of its token in prizes.

CoinList isn’t disclosing how much it will earn for running these events for teams, and Bromberg said that aspect is still under discussion. As a principle, he said, expect to see more money going to event participants than to his company.

Following 0x’s event, the company plans to work with more crypto-industry companies to run similar events. It can all come together very quickly when the need to manage a specific location can be removed from the set of logistical roadblocks, explained Bromberg.

“We think every single team in the space should be running one of these to start getting developers on board,” he said.

The debut event

To kick off the new product, 0x is inviting developers to participate in its event, dubbed “Bringing Decentralized Markets to the Masses.”

Bromberg told CoinDesk that its partner is looking for products that speak to three big themes: compliance, decentralized finance and gaming, which includes applications for non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

There will be a $10,000 grand prize, a $7,500 community choice award and $2,500 for finalists in each of the three categories. On top of that, 0x will also be giving $100 in its ZRX token to each participant that submits a project.

On top of that, hackathon participants will present before a panel of big-name judges in the space. The judges have been divided by their areas of expertise: product design includes Product Hunt’s Ryan Hoover and Tinder’s Jeff Morris; compliance includes Messari’s Katherine Wu and CoinList’s own Georgia Quinn. Gaming includes OpenSea’s Devin Finzer and Nick Tomaino, an investor at 1confirmation. Joel Monegro of Placeholder, the crypto venture firm, will also serve as a judge.

CoinList has not yet announced the next company it will work with under the CoinList Build umbrella. It may also develop the product similar to the way it runs token sales, with a CoinList co-branded product and a white-labeled option (like its ComplyAPI) is now.

“I think every crypto company would want to do this,” Bromberg said. “If we’re doing – every month – an awesome hackathon, I think that’s a good starting place.”

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