The 2023 Q1 Pi Hackathon has come to an end, and Pioneers and developers have demonstrated the incredible contributions that can be made to the ecosystem. Their hard work, devotion and talent has resulted in diverse and inspiring Pi apps that bring a variety of utilities to all Pioneers.
The Hackathon, which ran for nearly two months, saw widespread participation from across the network. Not only were over 6,700 participants—with Pi app developers and non developers among them—building apps, but over 30,000 Pioneers were also involved in reviewing and rating projects as well as voting on the kinds of apps they wanted to see built. Tens of thousands more continuously used and tested these apps, helping the builders with critical early feedback as they continued to build and iterate on their products. Others discussed among friends and colleagues and spread the word across social media. This Hackathon truly became an event where the Pi community came together to create a collective journey forward.
Furthermore, the launch of our PiOS (Pi Open Source) program allowed Pi app developers to have access to use and modify the code repository licensed by other community developers under the PiOS license to build apps within the Pi ecosystem. Several Hackathon projects (including some of the winners!) took advantage of the PiOS license to build on the contributions of one another, leveraging crowd wisdom of the large community. There were submissions under PiOS for a wide variety of applications such as marketplaces, consumer utility, block explorers, social media, and more. These contributions can be improved by other developers or used to add additional functionality to their applications or create an application of their own without having to start from zero within the Pi ecosystem.
By the close of the Hackathon, over 360 submissions had been accepted, with hundreds more pouring in post-deadline—totaling to nearly 600 project submissions. Indeed, selecting the Hackathon winners was a difficult, but welcome choice. The projects were judged based on the following main criteria: user experience, Pi integration, technical aptitude, usefulness (for Pioneers as well as for the ecosystem), and data privacy, with input from Pioneers, industry experts and the Core Team members. More details on the submission guidelines can be found here.
In addition to the winners, we are proud to also list a few Pi Apps as honorable mentions as these either came close to becoming winners or could have great potential and inspire more creativity. We see the potential in numerous other apps, which are designed to bring real utility to Pi Network, some of which are listed in the Testnet Ecosystem available on the Pi Browser. Pioneers cannot wait to see what comes out of these continued building efforts in the Pi ecosystem!
Winning Projects
Today, we are thrilled to announce the nine hackathon projects* that are taking home prizes. The prizes include the overall winner with three runner-up winners, four theme category winners, and one winner of the VC judging round. Winners are developers representing diverse countries across four different continents.
Overall Winner
- Polls for Pi: a Web3.0 polling app that designs and administers polls and surveys, where the poll poster pays Pioneers for their answers to their polls in Pi . The app’s simplicity, focus on one core use case, and user-friendly interface and experience—along with a clear utility for the Pi cryptocurrency—were central to its selection as the winner. In addition, this Testnet app participated in the PiOS program, making its code available for further use by other teams within the Pi ecosystem.
Overall Runner-Up Winners
- Connect Social: a social media Testnet app built for Pioneers to engage, learn, and have some fun with each other. The app includes features such as posting, liking and commenting, and allows Pioneers to create, join, and explore subcommunities. Notably, a Pi tipping mechanism allows Pioneers to give additional recognition to the creator of the content they admire. A marketplace is also integrated within the app.
- Coinskro: an escrow app that addresses a current need in the network and includes a disputes resolution mechanism to enable secure and trusted peer-to-peer or business-to-Pioneer bartering of Pi for goods and services. In addition, the app also has a clear user interface.
- Piketplace: a peer-to-peer marketplace app with a clean and accessible user interface and translations in multiple languages that is on the Testnet. One unique feature is that it attempts to solve for shipments through native solutions such as Pi payment within the Pi ecosystem. Piketplace not only allows Pioneers to buy and sell items, but also sign up as couriers to help ship items in return for Pi.
Category Winners
Social Media:
- BBS Chat
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- BBS Chat is a social forum for Pioneers with a good Pi integration, which allows Pi tipping to posters and a Pi paywall to access full content if a poster so chooses. This Mainnet social media app has a clean user interface design, especially compared to some of the other apps in the same category. It also enables Pioneers to select and explore posts within their stated interests.
Games and Entertainment:
- Pet for Pi
- Pet for Pi is a pet-cultivating game where Pioneers can collect, breed, and trade virtual ‘pets’ with other members using Pi, and improve their pet’s vitality score by taking care of them. The developers envision these Pets becoming NFTs. This idle game with good graphics design and its in-game economy, currently on their Testnet app, is a great use case for Pi.
Consumer Utility:
- Pailot
- Pailot is a PiOS app that facilitates peer-to-peer decentralized logistics with Pi, and it is currently on the Testnet. Though not yet fully functional, this intuitive, easy-to-navigate app addresses what both a user and ecosystem need across several marketplaces and can inspire similar building efforts to solve potential ecosystem challenges with native solutions.
Open Innovation:
- Voice of Pi
- Voice of Pi is another PiOS app that blends social and marketplace features into one app. Currently on the Testnet, Voice of Pi leverages Pi tipping and payments. Most notably, in a stellar demonstration of the collaborative spirit of Pioneers, dozens of other hackathon submissions were built on top of Voice of Pi’s app framework, thanks to the accessible nature of PiOS. These various apps, available across multiple languages, are instantiations of its core app in different verticals of market or regions, enabling local merchants to offer a virtual storefront for Pioneers and create subcommunities around their businesses.
VC Judging Round
- Explore
- ExplorePi is a Mainnet block explorer app with a clear user interface, making Pi blockchain data easy to access and understand with helpful visuals and interactive graphs.
Honorable Mentions
While the above projects were truly outstanding, there were dozens of other impressive apps submitted for this hackathon that have great potential to bring or inspire real utility to the Pi Ecosystem. We recognize the following projects as honorable mentions:
- Neobot: an AI chatbot
- Door for Pi: a Pi block explorer
- App.Link for Pi: a collection of various Pi Apps reviewed and rated by the community
- Quotline: a social app to share and engage with quotes
- Pi Fruit: an idle game with Pi-based in-game economy
- Youpi: a marketplace where users can buy goods with Pi
- DAO Mall: a marketplace built on a One-Stop Comprehensive Ecological City
- Store on Pi: a marketplace that brings together global physical stores
- Daabia Shopping Mall: a marketplace delivering a multi-vendor ecommerce experience
Check out some of these apps in the Testnet Ecosystem on the Pi Browser!
And, for a list of our 2021 Hackathon winners, click here.
Thank you to all who participated, and we look forward to seeing where these projects go––as well as seeing all the new projects Pioneers will create!
*DISCLOSURE: To receive the prizes and awards specified in the Hackathon terms and conditions, winning teams, and each of their team members, are required to have adhered to all terms and conditions of the Hackathon, and must successfully complete Pi’s KYC verification process prior to receiving any form of award from the Pi Core Team. In the event that a winning team, or one or more team members, fail to adhere to the terms and conditions, or do not successfully complete Pi’s KYC verification process, they will not be eligible to receive the applicable award, and will be disqualified as a winning team for the Hackathon.