An Introduction to Virtual Hackathons
Virtual hackathons are online events where participants gather to build products or solve complex problems. Usually, following a specific theme or subject, hackathons are one of the most proven ways to incubate and build great ideas using a targeted technology or stack. At the end of the event, a selected panel of judges (usually industry experts) assesses the projects entered and awards prizes to the teams that build the most successful product or proof of concept. As you’ll read later, success is a relative term that you get to define as the event organiser.
Over the past year, BOLT🔩FUN has hosted a number of different sized events that varied in subject, length, and target audience. Throughout these events, we registered > 800 makers on to our platform, incubated 100+ projects and ideas, hosted 60+ workshops and discussions, and distributed over 3.5 BTC (~$65,000) in prizes - onboarding the next wave of bitcoin maker talent. Our most recent event, the Legends of Lightning tournament, was the largest bitcoin hackathon ever run.
In this 4 part guide, we will break down the key details, considerations, and modules you will need to know to run your own successful online hackathon event.