🚀 Ideahacker’s Guide to IBC: An Interchain Ideathon

The IBC Ideathon is an opportunity for creative and inventive blockchain builders and users to pioneer the next generation of cross-chain innovation. It’s a hackathon just for ideas. No coding or software engineering required.

The best ideas will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Istanbul and part of the $30,000 prize pool.

🙋 Who is the Ideathon for? Anyone with a fundamental knowledge of how blockchains work is welcome to join the Ideathon. While developers are welcome, participants do not need to be one to join.

🏆 Prizes and Tracks

The best ideas will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Istanbul and part of the $30,000 prize pool in ATOM tokens. Each of the 5 tracks will have 5 prize winners:

• $3,000 first place
• $1,500 second place
• 3 third place winners at $500 each

For a detailed breakdown, visit the Prizes and Tracks tab.

🛠️ How Ideahacker’s Guide to IBC Works

The IBC Ideathon is a global, online competition designed to push the boundaries of cross-chain innovation using the world's largest and most widely adopted blockchain interoperability protocol, the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC).

The Ideathon is intended as an accessible event for developers and non-technical builders to explore the IBC protocol’s capabilities.

The difference between the IBC Ideathon and a traditional hackathon is that Ideathon participation takes much less time and energy than participating in a hackathon. Ideathon participants submit an idea rather than a Github code base or proof-of-concept product.

This being said, the winning ideas must be high-quality and genuinely innovative.

Participating is a simple process:

• Register as a hacker on Dorahacks.
• Use the IBC Idea Builder to visually map out your IBC idea.
• Export the JSON link for your IBC Idea. Add the link to your Dorahacks BUIDL.
• Add a write-up to your BUIDL.
• Submit your BUIDL on Dorahacks.

Make sure to read the eligibility criteria and idea submission instructions. Only high-quality, well-thought-out ideas will be eligible to win prizes.

🦾 Why IBC?

IBC is one of the most widely-adopted interoperability protocols in the world. Over 115 chains are IBC-enabled, and the protocol processes billions of dollars in asset transfers every 30 days.

IBC enables secure, permissionless, feature-rich cross-chain interactions, like token transfers and general message-passing. Unlike a token bridge contract that sits "on top of" a chain, IBC-enabled chains exchange data without a third-party intermediary.

IBC has several industry-leading features and functionalities beyond basic token transfers. Unique IBC features include:

• Interchain Accounts and Queries - Cross-chain account control and data queries.
• Cross-chain callbacks - Smart contracts and modules can be natively cross-chain enabled for adaptable workflows leveraging multiple smart contracts and applications.
• NFT transfers - Send and receive cross-chain NFT transfers.
• Cross-chain validation - A provider chain provides economic security to a consumer chain(s), so the consumer chains do not have to run their own validator sets.
• No in-protocol fees - The IBC Protocol does not charge fees for processing transactions. Users are only responsible for gas fees for the transactions they process.

💬 Official Communication Channel

We provide support for Ideathon participants in the Interchain Discord in the channel #ideahackers-guide-to-ibc. You can also message us here in Dorahacks.

📘 Participant Resources

Access beginner guides, advanced tutorials, documentation, and workshops on the Ideahacker resources page HERE.

🤝 Judges

A panel of leaders in the Interchain ecosystem will be judging the IBC ideas.

• Alix Keller, Chief Product Officer, the Interchain Foundation
• Aditya Sripal, Lead Protocol Architect for IBC, the Interchain Foundation
• Aaron Kong, Growth & Strategy Lead, Osmosis Labs
• Adi Seredinschi, Director of Product, Informal Systems
• Greg Osuri, Cofounder, Akash
• Jacob Arluck, Head of Strategy, Celestia Labs
• Jelena Djuric, CEO, Noble
• John Letey, Engineering Director, Noble
• Jonathan Berger, Head of Product, Strangelove Labs
• Josh Lee, Co-Founder, Kepler
• Omar Zaki, Co-Founder of Picasso and Mantis, Composable Foundation
• Zaki Manian, Co-Founder, Sommelier

View the judging criteria on the submission guide page.

🏛️ Ideathon Sponsor

The Interchain Foundation (ICF) funds the development and marketing of the Interchain Stack, an open-source suite of technologies for building blockchains. ICF funds the development of the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC).

🫂 Get Involved

Stay connected with us through our social media channels to get the latest updates, announcements, and more!

• @IBCProtocol on X
• IBC website
• IBC Blog
• Interchain Foundation Website
• Interchain Discord
• Interchain YouTube
• Map of Zones