Crypto startup Solana launches hackathons for Indians with Rs 60 lakh prize money

Crypto coins (Image: Shutterstock)

Altcoin Solana launched hackathon for Indian developers with total prize money of Rs 60 lakh on July 26. Winners in addition to prize money will also get access to launch their product and raise capital from global investors.

This move comes at a time when the country is seeing demand for crypto experts. Amid the rise in cryptocurrency trading and mining in India, cryptocurrency exchange platforms in this space are going all out to hire talent. Since most roles are technical, engineering talent is in high demand.

The US-based Solana is similar to Ethereum, which is blockchain networks that facilitate transactions of cryptocurrency. Ether is the largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and other altcoins like Solana are gaining popularity. It was founded by Anatoly Yakovenko in 2017.

The hackathon, Build out Loud, is organised in partnership with developer community Devfolio and crypto YouTube community Super Pumped. The last date for registration is August 12 and the hackathon starts on August 13.

The winner will get prize money of $10000 (Rs 7.5 lakh), followed by $7000 and $5000 for second and third place respectively. There are special prizes for select themes sponsored by venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. For instance, LightSpeed India is sponsoring $10000 for payment streaming apps and actor Kunal Kapoor is sponsoring $5000 for creating programmable non-fungible tokens.

Kashif Raza, co-founder, Crypto Kanoon explained the hackathon is in a bid to attract the developer community to build more apps, which could help gain traction. For instance if a gaming application that uses SOL (Solana coins) gains popularity and users grow, it will not only benefit the developer but also the platform’s growth as well.

That is the idea behind the hackathon, he added.