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Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge

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Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge

Transition to Web3 and begin your blockchain adventure with Stellar.

Challenge Status: Live Ended
Submissions Due: August 18, 2024 23:59 PT

We are thrilled to collaborate with the Stellar Development Foundation to introduce the community to blockchain technology.

Running through August 18, the Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge provides an opportunity for web devs to learn all about decentralization, wallets, consensus, interoperability, and all the other lingo you may have heard floating around but never quite understood. This is your signal to dive in and unlock those a-ha moments!

We have two prompts for this challenge, but six ways to win.

Did we mention the $50,000 prize pool? And a free trip to London to attend the Meridian Conference?! Our biggest offering to-date, thanks to the generous Stellar Development Foundation.

Getting Started

We know it can be a bit intimidating to jump into web3 and blockchain, so the Stellar team has published a companion guide that covers all the topics you need to get started.

Additionally, we encourage all participants to join the dev-hack channel in the Stellar Dev Discord, a community server for asking questions and meeting the community of developers building with Stellar.

Sponsored by Stellar

Stellar empowers builders to unlock human and economic potential. It combines a powerful, decentralized blockchain network with a global ecosystem of innovators to create opportunities as borderless as ideas. It offers the tools to make a difference in the real world through new digital asset products and services that enhance access to the global financial system.

Learn More

Key Dates

  • Contest start: July 10, 2024
  • Submissions due: August 18, 2024
  • Winners announced: August 27, 2024

Badge Rewards

Build Better With Stellar Completion Badge
Build Better With Stellar Completion Badge
Build Better With Stellar Badge For Winners
Build Better With Stellar Badge For Winners

Find Out More

Ask questions and share your ideas on the Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge Launch Post.

View Launch Post

Challenge Prompts

Build a dApp

Build a decentralized app (dApp) that leverages one or more Stellar smart contracts. The main requirement is that users should be able to interact with the application. Other than that, you are free to build whatever you want!

Prize Categories

In addition to our overall Build a dApp winner, we have two additional prize categories you could win for this prompt:

  • Glorious Game: Awarded to a top game dApp
  • Super Sustainable: Awarded to a top dApp that focuses on real-world positive impact

Prizes

Overall Build a dApp Winner

  • $13,000 USD
  • An invitation to demo your submission at Meridian, Stellar’s annual conference in London (October 15-17, all travel expenses paid for)
  • Exclusive DEV Badge
  • A gift from the DEV Shop

Glorious Game and Super Sustainable Winners:

  • $6,000 USD
  • Exclusive DEV Badge
  • A gift from the DEV Shop

Need Inspiration?

Your smart contract dApp could be related to:

  • A game where players interact on-chain to compete against each other
  • A public goods application where interactions with the dApp could result in real-world positive impact.
  • A DAO or governance-related dApp
  • Identity Tooling
  • Financial services, like a wallet or payment dApp

How to submit

You will need to take the following steps to submit a valid entry:

  1. Fill out this form on the Stellar website. Make sure the email address you sign up with matches the email address associated with your DEV account so we can verify your submission.
  2. Publish a post using the submission template below. Be sure to fill out all aspects of the template (public demo links, repository links, etc).

Ideally, your submission should be functional on the Stellar Testnet, but what that looks like is up to you. You can submit a CLI program, a browser-based dApp, or a mobile dApp. If you can't build something functional in the time allotted, a conceptual design for a project can qualify for a completion badge as well. Just make sure it includes a detailed technical architecture doc that explains how it would work.

To qualify to win, your application should be capable of interacting with Stellar Testnet and make use of Stellar smart contracts as part of its primary function.

Submission Template

Judging Criteria:

  • Use of underlying technology
  • Usability and User Experience
  • Accessibility
  • Creativity

Create a Tutorial

Create a tutorial that explains some part of the Stellar developer experience.

Your submission should be coherent and easy to follow. If you are creating a tutorial or walkthrough (written or video), the audience needs to be able to follow along. If you are writing code, it should be clear what the code is supposed to do. That said, we don't require submissions to be long/involved, or super polished. You don't need to be a professional writer to participate, and we want to reward efforts big and small.

Prize Categories

In addition to our overall Create a Tutorial winner, we have two additional prize categories you could win for this prompt:

  • Wonderfully Written: Awarded to a top written tutorial
  • Vivid Video: Awarded to a top video tutorial

Prizes

Overall Create a Tutorial Winner

  • $13,000 USD
  • An invitation to Meridian, Stellar’s annual conference in London (October 15-17, all travel expenses paid for)
  • Exclusive DEV Badge
  • A gift from the DEV Shop

Wonderfully Written and Vivid Video Winners:

  • $6,000 USD
  • Exclusive DEV Badge
  • A gift from the DEV Shop

Need Inspiration?

Your tutorial could focus on:

How to submit

You will need to take the following steps to submit a valid entry:

  1. Fill out this form on the Stellar website. Make sure the email address you sign up with matches the email address associated with your DEV account so we can verify your submission.
  2. Publish a post using the submission template below. Be sure to fill out all aspects of the template (tutorial embed, your journey, etc).

As you will see from the submission template, you are welcome to publish your tutorial as a standalone post, but be sure to share a link or embed your tutorial post in your submission post.

Submission Template

Judging Criteria:

  • Accuracy of tutorial
  • Effectiveness of communication
  • Creativity

Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge FAQ

Participation

Can I submit to multiple prompts?

Yes, you are welcome to submit to multiple prompts.

Can one submission qualify for multiple prompts or prize categories?

Yes, if your submission offers a solution to multiple prompts/prize categories, it can qualify for multiple prompts/prize categories.

Can I submit to a prompt more than once?

Yes, you can submit multiple submissions per prompt but you’ll need to publish a separate post for each submission.

  • In the event that you may win two or more prompts or prize categories, and your submission is very close with another participant, we will favor the other participant.
  • In the event that you do win two or more prompts, you will only receive one winner badge.

Can I work on a team?

Yes, you can work on teams of up to four people.

  • If you collaborate with anyone, you’ll need to list their DEV handles in your submission post so we can award a badge to your entire team! Please only publish one submission per team.
  • DEV does not handle prize-splitting, so in the event that your submission wins, you will need to split the prizes amongst yourselves. Thank you for understanding!

How old do I have to be to participate?

Participants need to be 18+ in order to participate.

If I live in X, am I eligible to participate?

For eligibility rules, see our official challenge rules. Please also note that some DeFi protocols fall under regulatory scrutiny, so builders may want to consider building on testnet or gaining an understanding of any regulatory hurdles that they may encounter if they were to move to mainnet. (ex. many yield-bearing assets require US citizens to be accredited investors to use legally)

Submission

Can my submission include open source code?

Riffing on open source code and borrowing and improving on previous work/ideas is encouraged but it’s important your changes are significant enough to ensure your submission is valid.

When does riffing become plagiarism?

It will depend, but transparency is important, license compatibility is important. You can use someone else’s code to give you a jumpstart to demonstrate your ideas on top of someone else’s base, but not just re-package the base. It should be clear to the judges what you added to the project in terms of the code and conceptual inspiration. This means, you should clearly state what you were building on and what elements are original to this new submission. When building on existing code, we expect a significant change that adds something tangible to the output. i.e. a new animation, and new sprite, a new function, a new presentation. Not just changes to the source - i.e. changing colours, changing one sprite, changing one function.

What happens if my submission is considered plagiarized or invalid?

Anything deemed to be plagiarism will not be eligible for prizes. Incidental plagiarism may simply result in your disqualification from the challenge (regardless of the number of other valid submissions you have published). Egregious plagiarism will result in your suspension from DEV entirely. Any non-generic, non-trivial usage of prior work, including open source code must be credited in your submission.

Do submissions have to be in English?

Non-english submissions are eligible for a completion badge but not eligible for prizes due to the current limitations of our judges. We will not be judging on mastery of the English language, so please don’t let this deter you from submitting if you are not a native English speaker! We hope to evolve this in the future to be more accommodating.

Do I need a license for my code?

You are not required to license your code but we strongly recommend that you do. Here are some you may consider: MIT, Apache, BSD-2, BSD-3, or Commons Clause.

Can I use AI?

Use of AI is allowed as long as all other rules are followed. We want to give you a chance to show off your skills in realistic scenarios. If you use AI tools to help you achieve your submission, all the power to you.

How do I embed my project directly into my DEV post?

Our editor supports many types of embeds, including: Stackblitz, Glitch, Github, etc. You can typically use the {% embed https://... %} syntax directly in the post. Click here for more information on our markdown support.

  • For CodePen, you will need to use this syntax: {% codepen http://... %}
  • For CodeSandbox, you will need to use this syntax: {% codesandbox http://... %}

Judging and Prizing

Can there be ties?

In the event of a tie in scoring between judges, the judges will select the entry that received the highest number of positive reactions on their DEV post to determine the winner.

How will I know if I won?

Winners will be announced in a DEV post on the winner announcement date noted in our key dates section.

When will winners receive their Forem Shop gift?

The DEV Team will contact you via the email associated with your DEV profile within, at most, 10 business days of the announcement date to share the details of the shop gift.

When will I receive my DEV badge?

Both participation and winner badges will be awarded the same week as the winner announcement.

When will I receive my prizes? The DEV Team will contact you via the email associated with your DEV profile within, at most, 10 business days of the announcement date to share the details of claiming your prizes.

What steps do I need to take to receive my cash prize?

The winner (including each member of a team) may be required to sign and return an affidavit of eligibility and publicity/liability release, and provide any additional tax filing information (such as a W-9, social security number or Federal tax ID number) within seven (7) business days following the date of your first email notification.

Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to 18+. Contest entry period ends August 18, 2024 at 11:59 PM PDT. Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law or regulation. All entires must be submitted during the content period. For Official Rules, see Build Better on Stellar: Smart Contract Challenge Contest Rules and General Contest Official Rules.