ETHSanFrancisco 2022
There’s no way around it—ETHSanFrancisco was officially our largest event ever. Nearly two-thousand developers and creatives joined us over the weekend, gathering to learn, grow, and shape the future of web3. ETHSanFrancisco marked our first West Coast event in nearly four years, and the vibes didn’t disappoint. With 1250+ hackers launching 284 projects to take home over $300k+ in prizes, we think it’s safe to say this was our best event yet.
🌉 ETHSanFrancisco 2022 tl;dr
- 🙋♂️ 1700 Attendees
- 🐣 38% New to Web3
- 🛠 284 Projects Submitted
- 👯 39 Ecosystem Partners
- 🏔 28 Workshops & Talks
- 💸 $300,000+ in Prizes
- 🌍 46 Countries Represented
- 🏆 13 Finalists
🧱 The ETHSanFrancisco Kickoff & First Day
Not only was this event our biggest yet—it was also our most exciting. From the minute hackers stepped through the door, conversations echoed through the walls. ETHSanFrancisco drew in hackers from 46 countries, bringing together a wide population of web3 builders and diverse perspectives.
We packed dozens of workshops into the first day in order to give hackers exposure to the cutting-edge of the web3 space. Talks from Eric Tang, Cami Ramos, Kevin Jones, David Silverman, luc.computer, Leilani Ledingham, Simon Emanuel Schmid, and many more drew massive audiences and spurred intense conversations that could be heard throughout the venue.
The Palace of Fine Arts was buzzing with deep conversation by the time we started our Opening Ceremony. To kick things off, we brought in Figma’s Dylan Field to discuss hot topics in web3, captivating our audience and setting an optimistic tone for the weekend. On top of that, our Opening Ceremony offered hackers a first glimpse of the prizes and possibilities we had in store for them over the weekend.
Later that evening, nearly 100+ hackers, Mentors, and Partners joined us for our largest Team Formation Session ever. These community-driven sessions allow hackers to meet new friends and galvanize support for their ideas in a safe space built to be valuable to pros and newcomers alike. If you’re a first-time hacker, we recommend stopping by to see what they’re all about.
Come Saturday morning, a majority of our hackers were in need of a good boost. Our team served up hot coffee that let our early risers set out on a good path for the day. As everyone else started to walk up and file in from outside, it was obvious that this event would be different. New energy could be felt through the halls of the venue, and everyone was starting to get excited.
By mid-afternoon, the Palace of Fine Arts was buzzing with hackers pushing their full attention into their builds. While some were content working on their project’s next challenges, others joined us for a Scarf Dying Workshop—a creative outlet for their tired minds. This interesting activity helped break up the pace of the day for those who had already worked late into the night and brought needed excitement for others who were grappling to chew all the work they had bitten off.
🧨Countdown to Submission
Our hackers raced to put the finishing touches on their projects as the clock ticked away to the submission deadline. After a full Saturday’s-worth of building, our Midnight Snack was a delightful treat for the weary devs. This sweet treat proved to be the final boost of energy that many needed to conquer the final details of their builds, giving them the strength to submit their masterworks. Although a few hackers had left for their hotels, a number of builders stayed for the night, forming a sense of camaraderie through their shared all-nighter.
👩⚖️🧑⚖️ Main Judging
By Sunday morning, each hacker was filled with both nervousness and excitement. All of our teams had pushed their limits and submitted their final builds through their dashboards. At 9:00 AM, a wave of excitement swept across the venue, as all of our teams’ hard work had finally paid off. Building successful projects within a weekend is no short task, and each of these 284 teams joined the ranks of thousands of promising primitives that got their start at an ETHGlobal hackathon — a badge of pride in our ecosystem.
🏆The ETHSanFrancisco Finale
By the time our Closing Ceremonies rolled around, it was clear that ETHSanFrancisco had been an event like no other. After 36 long hours, hundreds of teams had submitted projects for our judges’ consideration. We selected 13 teams to represent the most promising builds to come out of ETHSanFrancisco. These Finalists represent the next generation of web3 primitives, and now that the dust has settled in SF we’re excited to watch them spread their wings and take their builds to new levels. Check out each of the 13 ETHSanFrancisco Finalists below, and be sure to view all 284 projects on our showcase.
🌎 Mundo
Bringing cross-chain utility to tokenized carbon instruments.
The Team: @douglasqian, @clague17
What we liked: Mundo marries the best parts of ReFi and Carbon-offsets to produce a platform that brings real usability to tokenized carbon projects. We’re incredibly stoked to see the progress of this team in just a short weekend, and imagine they have some big plans up their sleeves.
⚡️ FuelScape
FuelScape leverages the scalability of Fuel VM execution layer to integrate the RuneScape Classic game play with a decentralized blockchain game state.
The Team: @awfm9, @Juanforthemoney, @metaversearchi_, @meirbank
What we liked: FuelScape pushes decentralized gaming in a novel direction by uniting Fuel VM and RuneScape Classic, allowing players to access items as NFTs, and increasing ownership and playability. Hats off to this team for such an incredible presentation as well!
📟 BB3 — BEEP3R
Bringing back the joy of owning a 90s pager device and the original vision of twttr — text networks. Start BEEPING 205–883–8339.
The Team: @bennygiang, @DruzyDowns, @jayden_windle, @rayzhuynh, @Alanahlam, @Futureprimitive
What we liked: When a handful of hackers waltzed into ETHSanFrancisco wearing orange jumpsuits we knew someone’s project was about to be different. We had no idea that this mysterious team would be behind BB3-BEEP3R, one of ETHSanFrancisco’s most talked-about projects. Their incredibly unique build on top of their guerilla marketing tactics made for a memorable hack.
🏛 DAOCensus
DAO tool that enables dao to deploy and host decentralised front end.
The Team: @baptiste_mrd, @cryptopesto
What we liked: DAOCensus pushes DAOs to new decentralized heights, allowing them to deploy and host entirely decentralized front-ends. With many DAOs currently relying on centralized structures to exist, DAOCensus gives new communities tools to live the ethos of decentralization without giving up efficiency.
🍉 melo vault
Instantly bootstrap an on-chain multisig for an entire community of NFT holders with semi-anonymous voting.
The Team: @patagucci_girl, @bhwags, @heyitaki, @malonehedges, @sendmoodz
What we liked: Melo Vault gives NFT communities new tools for growth using semi-anonymous voting. With Melo Vault, NFT holders can propose and vote on community upgrades without relinquishing their anonymity, provably showing consensus on new propositions through ZK Proofs. We’re incredibly stoked to see how this will impact future NFT communities.
🔑 Org3
An ENS subdomain-based organization management tool with better user eperience and security.
The Team: @64bits_eth, @julieshi_eth
What we liked: Org3 forges new pathways for decentralized access control, using a system based on ENS Subdomains to allow for richer user experience and security in organizational systems. This simple and easy-to-use platform offers administrators new tools for system management, all without needing new NFTs or costly proprietary tokens.
💎 UNIC
UNIC provides creators with protection and users with authentication, through encoded invisible signatures that make NFTs scannable across the digital spectrum and in the physical world.
The Team: @0xshkspr, @tyannikalam
What we liked: UNIC does the unthinkable, giving creators access to anti-counterfeiting tools that tackle the rise of fake goods head-on. With UNIC, creators and users can easily scan to identify screenshotted NFTs, copycat hardgoods, or lazy recreations of fine art, stopping the problem of counterfeiting in its tracks. Check out UNIC’s live demo on stage at ETHSanFrancisco to see more.
🛋 Decentral Couch
Decentral couch helps crypto natives find crash-pads when they travel. It is designed to be as decentralized as possible, by leveraging decentralized storage and messaging, pluszK-identity and badges.
The Team: @Alexishaebinkim, @Jeffrey_Z_Wang
What we liked: We talk a lot about the concept of “digital nomads,” but at the moment, very few decentralized tools exist to help devs and creatives travel the globe. Decentral Couch fixes this issue by giving crypto frens new tools to find places to stay around the world. Best part? Decentral Couch is built using decentralized storage, so you’ll be able to access it wherever you are!
🏃♀️ Swallow
Make custom shortcuts of transaction, on-chain data with No-code.
The Team: @Gentleman, @swgenius, @choi
What we liked: Swallow focuses on making transactions simple for non-engineers coming into the ecosystem. By combining transactions, users can band-together multiple outcomes into simple, and easy to use “Shortcuts” that take all the mess out of accessing value in web3. We were impressed by this team’s forward-thinking project, and can’t wait to see what they build next!
👻 Peekaboo
Peekaboo is a blind NFT auction built on Ethereum/Optimism. The winner is revealed by solving a verifiable delay function (VDF). This enables a seamless and efficient user experience.
The Team: @GregHysz, @johnjohnson
What we liked: Don’t let Peekaboo’s cute logo fool you, this project is as serious as any. If you peek into the details, an incredible picture emerges. The team adapted the TIDE Encryption Scheme to the EVM, allowing Peekabo to run verifiable blind NFT auctions on both Ethereum and Optimism. Their build leverages asymmetric encryption, “where the secret key is revealed by solving a verifiable-delay function (VDF).” In essence, this saves users time and money, creating a cheaper and more efficient experience across the board.
⛓ Snapchain
Snapchain is a decentralized infrastructure for ephemeral applications and use cases.
The Team: @0xb2p, @immichaelwang, @0xMojo7, @IngallsVance, @ethperor
What we liked: Snapchain tackles the perils of un-deletable zombie chains by creating tools for users to spin up new chains with Time-to-Live (TTL) limitations. By allowing chains to exist only when needed, Snapchain helps combat the bloat of old systems sucking on our ecosystem infrastructure, paving the way to a more efficient future.
🌐 Cambria
Real-time metaverse simulation of on-chain DeFi & NFT activity.
The Team: @will_kelly0, @thekevinji, @cyberpunk
What we liked: Cambria gives users new tools to visualize the activity of DeFi and NFT communities. By representing users as avatars within the 2D space, Cambria sheds light on activity patterns and potential areas for growth. We’re sure this team has big plans for this project.
❾ ZK Section 9
Generating Succinct ZK Proofs for Content-Generating Machine Learning Models; Proving that AI-Generated content is authentic.
The Team: @zkp_ml, @song11ting, @zkp_ml, @Cunxinshuihua, @1vn, @LiaoPeiyuan
What we liked: ZK Section 9 gives creators new tools to counter the impact of AI-generated art in NFT Markets. Right now, creators are racing against AI-generated collections to have their voices heard, but with ZK Section 9, creators can implement proofs that verifiably differentiate their work from copycat competitors. We’re excited to see tools like these start to grow out of our events, as they will help to shape the ecosystem in a positive way.
🤝 ETHSanFrancisco Partners
Our largest event ever would not have been possible without the dedicated support of our Partner teams, support staff, tech mentors, judges, volunteers, and the local SF web3 community. We are incredibly grateful to get the chance to work with such inspiring people to bring these events to life. Our mission since day one has been to onboard as many developers as possible to our ecosystem, and we think ETHSanFrancisco is a crucial step in that direction.
👉 Up Next: Hack FEVM + ETHIndia
Join us November 18th — 20th for Hack FEVM — The world’s first hackathon on the FEVM, the Ethereum compatible layer of the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM). Join hundreds of developers and creatives online for one weekend of building for the future of web3.
IRL events more your style? Check out our last in-person event of the year—ETHIndia! Join thousands of builders in Bengaluru, India, December 2nd-4th and win huge prizes.
Follow us on Twitter to stay in the know about future events and tag us in your project updates. We can’t wait to see what you build next!
