New York: The city that never sleeps when it comes to pushing the boundaries. A nurturing ground for disruptive innovation — and showplace of our third hackathon where 1400 community members reimagined a decentralized, distributed future.
Another successful hackathon weekend in the books : Our third event in the city that never sleeps proofed that even in the midst of a bear market, builders gonna build. Since the last time we visited, Pragma and Hacker Café have joined the ETHGlobal family, making it even easier for our community to learn about what’s going on in the ecosystem and connect with others. Here’s our recap of an eventful four days in the most iconic city in the world, New York.
✂️ ETHGlobal New York; The tl;dr
👋 1400 attendees
🛠 950 hackers
🌏 49 countries
🌱 33% new to web3
📥 303 submissions
🏅 13 finalists
The ETHGlobal New York Pragma and Hacker Café
Since the beginning of this year, Thursday marks the community coming together and warming up for the upcoming hackathon with our two events ETHGlobal Pragma and our Hacker Café.
Our fifth edition of Pragma was dedicated to the Future of DeFi and Scaling. With New York being home to the largest stock exchange and other traditional institutions, we couldn’t think of a better playground to reimagine the future together. We invited founders and leaders to a handpicked series of high-quality talks that stimulated thinking and discussion among a curated community.
Together with some of the most insightful speakers including Joseph Lubin, Kain Warwick and Camila Russo we took an afternoon-long excursion into what the future might behold.
Chelsea Square, which dates back to 1817, was established to house the General Theological Seminary and has served as the setting for some of New York’s most unique and unforgettable events. The lovely brick and stone buildings in Chelsea are surrounded by lush private gardens, creating a beautiful sanctuary in the heart of the city.
🗓 The Pragma New York Schedule
We would like to thank our remarkable set of speakers as well as our attendees for joining us for an afternoon of reimagining the future.
Here’s the full agenda, with all talks, panels and keynotes:
- Building an Onchain Brand w/ Denis Nazarov
- The Next Step in Scaling Ethereum w/ Ed Felten, Harry Kalodner & Steven Goldfeder
- The Ethereum Governance Process in a Nutshell w/ Christine Kim
- Future of Defi w/ Kain Warwick
- Fireside Chat w/ Joe Lubin
- Unmasking Decentralization Theater w/ Cami Russo
- DePIN Evolution: Huddle w/ Ayush Ranjan
- Fireside Chat w/ Tarun Chitra & Robert Leshner
More on our website: ethglobal.com/events/pragma-newyork#schedule
All images from Pragma can be found here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAWijS
We are already gearing up for ETHGlobal Pragma Istanbul! In town for our hackathon or Devconnect? Make sure to secure your ticket now:
https://ethglobal.com/events/pragma-istanbul
On the morning of that same Thursday, only a few minutes away from Pragma, the Hacker Café at Worthwild in Chelsea became the buzzing hub for hackers to enjoy networking and team building, while also being treated to delicious charcuterie, pastries and artisan coffee. By noon the Café was more than full, with plenty of ideas flooding the space and dozens of new connections made!
Overheard: The lunch seemed to have been a hackers’ favorite just as our special Mocktails zkSpritz and TeaVL! 💙
More photos from our New York Hacker Café can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ethglobal/albums/72177720311518573
See at the next one!
The ETHGlobal New York Hackathon: Kickoff and The First Day!
Located within New York’s iconic Chelsea Piers, Pier Sixty amazed with its timeless marble and wood themed interior and its alluring waterfront — offering some of the views on the iconic cityscape in 🏙 Manhattan.
As the doors finally opened, hackers rushed to our registration desks and collected their swag bags, excited for an action-packed three days! After just a few hours, thousands of community members had already checked in, and the bustling networking with partners and dearly missed web3 friends had begun.
Day 1: Friday, September 22nd
On Friday afternoon, attendees could choose from 32 different workshops The valuable tutorials and hands-on workshop helped set up hackers for success for the rest of the weekend: From “Introduction to Uniswap V4” by Tyllen to the Base Workshop with Carl Fluke and ENS’ Identity in your Apps by Greg Skril, our partners covered all the necessary steps to make it easy for our hackers to integrate their tech stack.
In the span of five hours and across three different workshop rooms hackers could learn in an intimate atmosphere from ecosystem champions.
The Team Formation & Idea Brainstorming Session that took place in the evening is designed to provide hackers a hands-on experience, promote interactive learning, and encourage them to think creatively about the potential applications of their work. This time, we were excited to be joined again by Austin Griffith, one of the most popular educators in the space.
In between, the crowd was of course paying the plenty of partner booths a visit — getting your questions answered, some hackers pitching already formed ideas — and of course, grabbing some unique swag items to add to their collection.
For our own swag, we tried to pair local delicacies such as Sugarfina’s infamous pineapple gummy bears with motifs of the unmatched coolness of New York Street Style (thank you to Franky Nines for designing the sticker sheet!). We always want to create swag that’s helpful for our ever-traveling and tech-affine hackers: A laptop stand (don’t forget to pair with our Posture Corrector from ETHGlobal Waterloo, for ideal results) and a backpack by the brand BÉIS by Shay Mitchell.
Opening Ceremony with Kartik Talwar
Hackers were busy plotting and planning ahead of the 36-hour hacking marathon that was about to begin.
But, first, everyone got together to mark the occasion by attending our Opening Ceremony, a well-known tradition at ETHGlobal events at this point. Our very own Kartik Talwar went over all the events’ Dos and Don’ts, crucial due dates, and venue layout in great detail in front of a full house.
Our partners were presenting their partner prizes in unique ways and made haggling for hackers attention a lot of fun!
You can rewatch the Opening on our Youtube channel:
Day 2: Saturday, September 23rd 2023
Saturday has arrived, heralding the start of the first and only full day of hacking. Day 2 is all about open collaboration; hackers gathered in the hacking spaces as soon as the sun rose, ready to tackle the mountain of work that awaited them. The halls of Pier Sixty quickly filled up as the weather shifted: some of our hackers encountered rainy New York weather for the first time! ☔️
Later in the day, our hackers had the choice of participating in the Project Feedback Session, which gave them a fantastic opportunity to acquire a fresh perspective on their ideas and receive critical feedback from seasoned tech mentors. Our mentors were on hand to assist hackers in improving their builds and getting new ideas, whether they were encountering problems with their code or wanted a second opinion. Our mentors were easy to spot, wearing bright yellow vests 🦺, sitting at the mentor table and prowling the arena outside of the session looking for hackers who needed assistance at the tables.
Day 3: Sunday, September 24th 2023
The final day always comes sooner than you think. A critical and intense time for our hackers, but also one filled with the most joyous moments!
🧨 Countdown to Submission & Judging
The night before the submission deadline, our team of hackers spent polishing their projects and adding finishing touches.
As the final seconds ticked away on Sunday morning, our volunteers encouraged them with cheers and sighs of relief could be heard in the entire venue:
Anticipation quickly returned as the hackers presented their work to the judges. It’s time to show off what the last 36 hours were dedicated to: All 303 projects who came out of ETHGlobal New York are a big win for the ecosystem’s development, as they expand its horizons and onboard new opportunities and talent!
🏆 The ETHGlobal New York Closing Ceremony
For the most of the morning and lunchtime, our hackers were busy presenting their projects in the Partner Judging and, for those who opted for it, the Main Judging sessions. The latter require hackers to meet our highly skilled and experienced judges, and pitch to them life. All hackers were notified around 2:30pm that the 13 finalists of the ETHGlobal New York hackathon had been picked. Hackers couldn’t wait to hear the announcement they’d been anticipating all weekend: all partner prize winners and finalists demos were going to be unveiled during the Closing Ceremony.
Those who couldn’t be at Pier Sixty in-person could choose to be with us via livestream on ethglobal.tv. The Closing Ceremony served as a testament that ETHGlobal New York had been another impactful event, promoting the talent of existing community members and onboarding a lot of new talented builders. We’re over the moon to have received 303 projects that are promising seeds laid within Ethereum. Seeds that can help us grow this ecosystem beyond our imagination.
Take a look at the projects of the 13 Finalists below, and don’t forget to explore our showcase page for ALL projects:
Thank yous 💙
As always, we want to thank everyone who helped make this event a success: thank you to our incredible partners for providing resources for hackers to learn, grow, and be rewarded for their projects through the workshops they host, the conversations they have at their booths, and, of course, the prizes they offer our community.
Next, we must wanto to express our gratitude to our tech mentors for their unwavering support over the weekend, unblocking hackers and directing them in the proper direction when necessary.
A big thank you to all of our diligent and helpful volunteers; without you, none of the hacking spaces or swag bags would have looked as good as they did. We are incredibly grateful for their assistance!
Our high-calibre board of judges made sure that all hackers who wanted to demo for becoming finalists were met with valuable feedback and benevolent advice on how to continue. We thank you sincerely for making time on your Sundays to help advance Ethereum.
Last but not least, thank you to everyone in our community. We continue to hold these events solely because of your enthusiasm and growth! Please never stop building and let us know what can be improved. You know how to reach us on Socials and we truly enjoy the moments whenever you approach at the events!
Next up: 🐈 ETHGlobal Istanbul: November 17–19
From November 17–19, we are welcoming builders from all around the globe to shape the future of Ethereum with us at ETHGlobal Istanbul! We look forward to reconnecting with around 1500 community members from both, the vibrant local community of Ethereum enthusiasts and our international hackers, travelling from afar.
The city’s unique location by being the world’s crossroad of the continents of Asia and Europe makes for the perfect, charming and culturally rich backdrop for our weekend hackathon, right after Devconnect 2023.
Get to win over $500,000 USD in prizes at the prestige ICC (Istanbul Congress Center) and build something amazing in just 36 hours!
