Kyber in Colorado: ETHDenver Recap
Hey everyone, I’m DeFi Dude. I do many different things when it comes to Ethereum, but at heart I’m a community ambassador for Kyber Network — the most popular liquidity protocol in DeFi measured by number of users, DApp integrations, and trade volumes!
Together with Mark, another Kyber Network ambassador, I had the opportunity to join the team at ETHDenver 2020, one of the biggest Ethereum hackathons in the world. I had an awesome time while I was there, so I thought I’d share some of the experience with all of you in this blog post.
This year Denver was graced with hundreds of attendees, developers, and entrepreneurs who share a similar interest and love: Ethereum. Among those attendees were some high profile faces as well, like Vitalik Buterin, Joseph Lubin, and even Jared Polis, Colorado’s very own governor!
This year Kyber wanted to reward some of the awesome creativity that we’ve seen come out of previous ETHDenver hackathons, so we came bearing gifts! $5,000 in bounties was up for grabs for those who built on the most popular liquidity protocol in DeFi. This money was pooled with over a dozen other sponsors like MakerDAO, Chainlink, Fortmatic, Consensys, and many more.
On Friday, hackers and their teams were given 36 hours to build their vision, so sleep is out of the question. If you’re new to these types of hackathons, they’re fueled by caffeine, comfortable nap-zones to recharge, and one of the best motivators of all: a huge crowd of developers and enthusiasts all building their exciting vision on top of Ethereum. Though, of that crowd, someone really stood out from the rest. Covered in fur and happy as ever, Bufficorn is back again to lift everyone’s spirits!
Once hacking began, the mood of the hackers had changed in a heartbeat from fun to focused. Even after hacking began, lots of people came to our booth to learn how to build with Kyber, discuss the current on-going bounties, talk about our upcoming Katalyst upgrade, and the new KNC token model that comes with it. Of course, we also gave out some of our awesome (and super popular) Kyber swag at the booth!
Between meeting with hackers and educating people on Kyber, our team also gave some really awesome talks throughout the weekend. Deniz was featured in a “This Week In Crypto” interview where he discussed Kyber’s on-chain liquidity pools and token swaps. The day before, Anton gave an excellent talk on the ETHDenver main stage. He talked about sourcing on-chain liquidity for your DeFi application, something Kyber Network is built for!
Sunday was judgement day! Hackers had until 8AM to submit their project before everything was out of their hands. Judging began at 10AM, meaning hackers had two hours after submission time to prepare their presentation for the judges. For most of the hackers, those two hours were spent stretching and snacking to recover from the 36 hours of non-stop hacking.
Kyber Hackathon Bounties:
Unlike previous years, this year sponsors were able to let the bounties be directly rewarded to the hackers based on attendee’s votes in the BuffiDAO. Over the course of the weekend, attendees were able to complete small tasks to earn “XP” in the DAO, giving them more vote weight when choosing their favorite projects to win. We had a total of four bounties, and six rewards:
- $1500 — Instant APR (Automated Price Reserve) Factory Deployer
- $1000 — Profit & Loss Tracker for APRs
- $1000 — APR Liquidity Metrics Dashboard & Simulator
- $500 (x3) — Open DeFi Bounty
Bounty Winners:
Shortly after the submission deadline, it was time to judge. Most of those building over the weekend were on very little sleep (if any), but watching them present their new creation with such passion after a long weekend is always a joy for both the Kyber team and me.
DeFiat — Fiat to ERC20 On-Ramp
DeFiat is a unique DApp that lets you purchase any ERC20 with fiat, such as a debit or credit card brought to you by the team over at Totle. They utilized Wyre’s on and off-ramps for the fiat portion of the DApp, while making use of Totle’s aggregation to pull ERC20s from various DEXs like Kyber. Currently users must buy ETH with their card, then the ERC20 they want. DeFiat removes that extra step making it a smooth and quick process!
1x.ag — Leverage Aggregator
Another winning project was 1x.ag, from the 1inch team! Known for their DEX aggregator 1inch.Exchange, they’ve put together another useful DApp that aggregates leverage across different protocols. 1x.ag lets you choose the ERC20 (or ETH) you want to leverage, the protocol used to leverage on, what token you want to pay in, and how much you want to leverage. On top of all that customization, you can also enable stop losses and profit takes to ensure you don’t miss out on your target. Kyber is used in the back end when you open or close a leverage position.
KyberMask — Kyber Inside of MetaMask
Developed by a single hacker over the weekend, KyberMask was an awesome tool to see first hand. It allowed users to simply click their MetaMask extension, press swap/trade, then access Kyber directly inside of the extension! Why bother surfing the internet for the right website when it’s conveniently available for you on every website!
Warpy — Venmo on Ethereum w/ DeFi Benefits!
A two person team, Warpy is a project like Venmo, if Venmo was decentralized and paid you interest on your money. Warpy utilized Wyre for the on-boarding from fiat process, allowing users to fund their account with CHAI, an interest bearing stable coin. They also make use of Loom network to allow for instant and fee-less transactions. All of this is done without the need for Ether or gas fees.
Alfred — An On-Chain Will for the Deceased
Presented by Team Hakcers (no, that’s not a typo), Alfred is a unique spin on creating a “crypto will” with a consensus algorithm for generating “proof-of-death” as well as allowing executors to pay debts and distribute the assets at a click of a button. A lot of people don’t have a game plan for what happens to our crypto when we pass, Alfred lets you to change that. Once proof-of-death is established, the designated executor (set by the now deceased) is able to repay any previous debts by the deceased and then distribute the remaining funds to the designated beneficiaries. With Kyber, they can distribute the assets as is or convert it to Ether or the preferred asset.
When it comes to Kyber hackathon winners, they have a track record for becoming industry pioneers (e.g. InstaDApp, 1inch.exchange, DeFiZap, GelatoFinance, DDAI, etc.). As such, we wish our ETHDenver teams all the best and hope to hear some exciting news about their new products in the future!
The love for DeFi and Ethereum is unmatched in the crypto world, and seeing it first hand is something we at Kyber always enjoy.
This isn’t Kyber’s first rodeo when it comes to Ethereum hackathons, and it definitely isn’t our last! Until next time, drop by any of our social channels and say hello, we love hearing from our community!
Finally, I’d like to thank Kyber Network for the opportunity to take part in this very memorable ETHDenver! If you or someone you know wants to learn more about what it’s like being a Kyber ambassador, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Telegram.
About Kyber Network
Kyber’s on-chain liquidity protocol allows decentralized token swaps to be integrated into any application, enabling value exchange to be performed seamlessly between all parties in the ecosystem. Using this protocol, developers can build innovative payment flows and applications, including instant token swap services, ERC20 payments, and financial DApps — helping to build a world where any token is usable anywhere.
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