🚀 Hackathon Preparation Guide

A practical, no-BS guide to performing well at Web3 hackathons.

🤔 What Is a Hackathon (and what it isn’t)

❌ It is NOT

• A pure coding contest
• A 48-hour caffeine marathon
• About shipping the biggest codebase

✅ It IS

• 🧠 Problem clarity
• 💡 Originality
• 🛠️ Technical feasibility
• 🎤 Pitch quality

A hackathon is a product + storytelling competition under time pressure.

🌐 Web3 Hackathons — What’s Different?

• Usually less competitive than traditional hackathons
• Focus on chain-specific strengths
• Common tracks:
  • 🧰 Developer tooling (SDKs, indexers)
  • 🌍 Public goods
  • 🧪 Frontier experiments (UX, social, creative)
• 💰 Often include bounties for using specific protocols or APIs

🧠 Choosing a Winning Idea

❌ Avoid buzzwords

• Metaverse
• AI everywhere
• Quantum everything

✅ Focus on real problems

• Payments
• DeFi UX
• Developer tooling
• User onboarding

🔗 Use chain advantages

• Ethereum → EVM ecosystem
• Solana → Low latency
• Sui → High throughput
• New chains → Low competition

⚡ Build Faster, Not Harder

🤖 Use AI

• v0.dev → frontend scaffolds
• Cursor → fast refactors
• ChatGPT / Claude → contracts & backend logic

🧱 Don’t reinvent the wheel

• Use existing SDKs & APIs
• Prefer scaffolds over blank projects
• Shipping > perfection

🚢 Deployment (Fast & Free)

🎨 Frontend

• Zero setup
• Deploy directly from GitHub
• Built-in environment variables
• Free domains
• Perfect for demos

Great combo: Frontend + Supabase + Railway

⚙️ Backend

• Same zero-setup flow
• Free trials are enough
• No server maintenance

🗄️ Data: Minimal but Professional

❌ CSV / JSON

Pros

• Simple
• Zero setup

Cons

• No auth
• No concurrency
• Not scalable
• Team-unfriendly

✅ Supabase

• Free & hosted
• Auth in minutes
• Realtime support
• SQL power
• Team-ready

🔐 Secrets Management

🔒 Keep secret

• Private keys
• API keys
• Premium RPCs
• Passwords

⚠️ Also don’t hardcode

• Chain IDs
• Contract addresses
• RPC URLs

👉 Always use environment variables.

🧪 Testnets & Faucets

• Solana → https://faucet.solana.com 
• Ethereum (Sepolia) → https://sepolia-faucet.pk910.de 
• Sui → https://faucet.sui.io 
• USDC → https://faucet.circle.com 

🏁 Final Tips (WAGMI)

• 🚰 Use faucets early
• ✅ Finish at least one feature fully
• 🎤 Demo prep takes longer than you think
• 🧑‍⚖️ Know your judges
• 😴 All-nighters don’t guarantee wins

Ship something real. Good luck. 🚢🔥