The Flow Foundation continues to deliver on its $3 million commitment to hackathons in 2023, empowering ambitious developers to push the boundaries of Web3 on Flow

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The Flow to the Future hackathon has proved, yet again, that Flow is where ambitious developers come to unlock new dimensions of innovation and connectivity for mainstream users.

Project submissions were unprecedented, ranging from AI-infused NFTs that can hold conversations and assist with tasks, to complex DeFi mechanics and everything in between.

The Flow Foundation is delighted to reveal the winners of this global competition, where ambitious Web3 builders competed for more than $500,000 in prizes by building decentralized applications that push the boundaries of current blockchain capabilities using Cadence. 

The hackathon – which took place from June 15 to July 15 – was the second global Flow hackathon of 2023, attracting more than 7,000 registrations; more than 15,000 developers have now participated in Flow hackathons this year. It featured key sponsors including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Chainlink, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and QuickNode. And while the hackathon was virtual, the Flow community came together to successfully organize and host 41 IRL events for developers to meet, learn, and build together across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.

Winners were formally announced today in an awards ceremony after project submissions were judged by a panel of experts including leaders from AWS, Chainlink, Google, and Microsoft. Standout teams will also receive additional mentorship, grants, and investment opportunities.

“Flow is where ambitious developers come to build cutting-edge experiences for mainstream users – without sacrificing composability or decentralization,” said Dete Shirley, Chief Architect at Flow. “The Flow to the Future hackathon’s winners are a perfect example of why the Flow Foundation has made a $3 million commitment to going big on hackathons in 2023 – to inspire builders to push the boundaries and showcase what’s possible on Flow.”

Below, we’ve shared the standout submissions that secured a prize, as well as the various tracks they’re associated with. Please join us in congratulating all of the winners, and stay tuned for more information on these outstanding projects.

Gaming track – presented by Amazon Web Services

From autonomous worlds to immersive multiplayer games, this track provided an opportunity for builders to redefine what on-chain gaming experiences can be. 

• First place ($20,000) – Artwalk: Aims to motivate people to get outside, work out, or go for a walk while creating beautiful art that they can keep or sell. 
• Second place ($12,000) – BlockSlide: Players attempt to solve a 3x3 fully on-chain puzzle, crafting an interactive NFT in the process that captures the user’s moves, scores them, and assigns unique traits based on the score. 
• Runner up ($6,000) – Mighty Cats: A gaming experience powered by NFTs where players can rescue virtual cats by paying a fee. 
• Runner up ($6,000) – Roll on Flow: This decentralized platform ensures that every roll of the dice and every spin of the roulette wheel is provably fair. With no intermediaries and no hidden agendas, players can test their luck and trust the Flow blockchain to do the rest.
• Runner up ($6,000) – FanBet: A sports gaming experience that integrates popular NFT collections like NBA Top Shot, NFL ALL DAY, and UFC Strike to enable fans to bet, compete, and win NFTs. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) track – presented by Microsoft Azure

This track set out to define how AI can be integrated with on-chain logic to improve our daily lives, focusing on generating innovative solutions that are more secure, decentralized and privacy-focused. 

• First place ($20,000) – Wondermon: Infuses NFTs with AI technology to give them a soul, adding personalities – complete with animation, sound, the ability to carry real conversations, and more – all at the owner’s command.
• Second place ($12,000) – TaskAI: TaskAI introduces a game-changing, on-demand, microtransaction-based marketplace to help automate the future of work.
• Runner up ($6,000) – Mint to the Future: Help Marty McFlow move to a more decentralized, secure and innovative future by transforming your old NFTs into something dynamic and new.
• Runner up ($6,000) – RicardianAI: Bringing legal contracts onto the blockchain with Ricardian contracts – smart contracts which become legally binding.
• Runner up ($6,000) – Simpli Flow: Combines advanced artificial intelligence with blockchain expertise to offer an unparalleled experience in auditing, building, adapting, creating, and deploying contracts, transactions, and providing general answers.

Mobile track – presented by QuickNode

Most of Web3 is still desktop-first, and it’s time that changed. This track was all about meeting the users where they are: on their phones. 

• First place ($20,000) – SWIRL: Aims to ensure that Nametags – unique profiles of individuals met in real life – are continuously remembered, and the persistence of relationships is maintained.
• Second place ($12,000) – NUPY: Offers a B2B service, an NFT event creation tool that combines AI and chatbots, and a "Chatbot airdrop dapp" for users.
• Runner up ($6,000) – FlowTransfer: Uses ultrasound waves to seamlessly transfer tokens and NFTs between accounts on the Flow blockchain in an easy to use and well designed app.
• Runner up ($6,000) – Legends of Flow: Gamifies Dapper Labs digital collectables.
• Runner up ($6,000) – Mevota: A decentralized voting system that leverages blockchain technology to provide a secure, transparent, and accessible platform for conducting elections. 

DeFi track – presented by Chainlink

This track was dedicated to building and improving powerful DeFi protocols that will bring financial services to everyone in the world.

• First place ($20,000) – Flowcosmos: A decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator that sources liquidity from various exchanges and is capable of splitting a single trade transaction across multiple DEXes.
• Second place ($12,000) – NFTLoanAuction: A groundbreaking dapp on Flow that enables loans that use NFTs as collateral, fostering a dynamic marketplace for DeFi lending while redefining financial accessibility.
• Runner up ($6,000) – Basket Protocol: A decentralized ETF creator on Flow.
• Runner up ($6,000) – FlowBetPalace: A decentralized betting platform with increased control, transparency, and expansion across NBA Top Shot, NFL ALL DAY, and more on the Flow blockchain.
• Runner up ($6,000) – Flow Merchant: A payment processor, like Stripe but decentralized, that allows users to receive funds, accurately log blockchain transactions, and send transaction notifications.

Tooling and Infrastructure track

This track was dedicated to working on foundational innovations that will unlock new use-cases and opportunities, with opportunities for follow-up ecosystem grants. Winners in this track are not tiered and are awarded the same prize amount.

• Winner ($15,000) – FlowNet AI:  Manages decentralized AI inference nodes, and provides fully on-chain experience for fulfilling users’ AI requests.
• Winner ($15,000) – NFT Radar: Helps retrieve standard data from any NFT on Flow blockchain through a simplified restful API.
• Winner ($15,000) – Excluence Scanner: Provides an API to fetch preprocessed data for NFTs like rarity score, sales history, market data, volumes and etc.
• Winner ($15,000) – Flow Book: A new VSCode ext like Jupyer Notebook, it provides an interactive and convenient way to tinker with Cadence.
• Winner ($15,000) – Indexer & Data Infrastructure Solution by P2P.org: A new open-source indexer designed to provide application-specific data for the Flow blockchain. 
• Winner ($15,000) – Flowsistant: An AI-powered assistant API that describes what is happening in a transaction for wallets and users. 
• Winner ($15,000) – Forge4Flow: Provides developer tools for the Flow blockchain, including identity authentication, event monitoring, mobile sdks ,and etc.
• Winner ($15,000) – Notify: A communication infra that provides real-time on-chain event subscribing service.
• Winner ($15,000) – Flow Ant: An asset migration tool for wallets that provides an easy way to allow user migrate assets from one wallet to another.
• Winner ($15,000) – Flowcosmos – DEX Aggregator: A decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator that sources liquidity from various exchanges and is capable of splitting a single trade transaction across multiple DEXes.

Everything Else track – presented by Google Cloud

Anything went in this track – a blank canvas to experiment with on-chain logic and the future of Web3. IoT, Manufacturing, <insert any amazing idea here>. Noteworthy submissions ranged from mainstream apps to zk-Snark experiments.

• First place ($20,000) – ZUNI: An all-in-one DID application that enables users to take control of their identity with zk-SNARKs integration.
• Second place ($12,000) – FlowForms: An on-chain surveys and forms platform that also integrated with existing NFTs on the Flow blockchain. 
• Runner up ($6,000) – Flow Zips: Provides a zip/unzip/reveal service for hiding secret data on the Flow blockchain. 
• Runner up ($6,000) – YearBlocks: A YearBlock platform utilized with walletless onboarding and built on the Flow blockchain to store long-term preserved memories.
• Runner up ($6,000) – Basket: A tool that can bundle NFTs and FTs to facilitate trading and asset management.

The future of the internet will be better – and more technically demanding – than ever, and Flow is designed to be the foundation for that reality. Throughout the Flow to the Future hackathon, ambitious builders showed how they can use Flow’s strengths to push smart contracts forward to help usher in that future.

“Among all the blockchains I am currently aware of, only Flow can implement the features of Wondermon,” said Lanford Cai, creator of first place AI track winner Wondermon. “Wondermon requires the ability to replace components of NFTs – this way, NFTs resemble real characters with their own clothing, accessories, and more. Flow uses a resource-oriented programming paradigm, allowing NFTs to hold other on-chain resources, perfectly meeting the requirements.”

According to the Roll on Flow team, “Flow's blockchain technology seamlessly integrates with our vision, enabling us to redefine the player-operator relationship. Its high throughput and secure infrastructure provide the perfect backdrop for provably fair and immersive prediction market experiences, setting a new standard in the world of online gaming and prediction.”

Congratulations again to all of the winners! Be sure to check out all of the Flow to the Future hackathon submissions.

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‍Interested in building on Flow? Visit Flow’s developer portal to get started, and keep in touch with the Flow community on Twitter or Discord.