After three months, the CSC Global Hackathon Grants officially ended on December 12, 2021. With a total prize pool of $300,000, the Grants attracted many project teams around the world that passed the preliminary review. According to final judge voting, the CryptoBank Africa won first place and the champion reward as the most highly regarded project in the Grants.
From September 15 to December 12, the Grants gathered crypto developers from all over the world. These pioneers developed CSC-powered projects, including DEX, NFT, IDO, GameFi, etc. After fierce competition, three winners stood out:
1st place winner: CryptoBank Africa
2nd place winner: Digital Verse
3rd place winner: SilverSwap
CryptoBank Africa
CryptoBank is an online crypto payment gateway. As the first multi-purpose DApp with IPFS installed in the system, it enables consumers to pay with cryptos, which are converted into the local fiat currency and paid to merchants. CryptoBank combines the speed and safety of crypto payments with the consumer protection of traditional payment systems and the fraud-free benefits of crypto payments (no stolen cards, chargebacks, or hacked accounts). Its systems are built to provide users (merchants/consumers) with high-tech security and ensure fast transactions with low transaction fees. Having spent seven years in the crypto world, Ferdinand, the CEO of CryptoBank, has expertise in how blockchain transactions work. The crypto payment platform (CryptoBank) he created will serve Africa and enable the crypto sector to add more value to the world economy.
Founded in June, CryptoBank Africa launched its website in July. This gives CryptoBank Africa a first-mover advantage over its peers. Moreover, it conducted multiple airdrops during the Grants. In December, CryptoBank released phase 2 of the prototype of its payment product. The project has shown great potentials in terms of technology and operation, which is why it won first place.
Digital Verse
Digital Verse, the 2nd place winner, focuses on the trending NFT sector. The project generates user videos through automated AI. Digital Verse aims to provide Deep Fake creators with a regulated field for their creativity and developments. It is on the way to creating the first licensing and copyright management platform using NFTs, allowing creators to fairly buy rights for “faces”.
Users create NFT tokens through AI-generated videos. With the help of NFT, token owners will be able to confirm the IP rights of the video. In terms of the market background, the annual growth rate of the Deep Fake sector exceeds 80%, making it a promising segment. Backed by a development fund of $30,000 it received at the beginning of 2021, Digital Verse boasts an absolute advantage in the field of AI. This innovative project has demonstrated unique strength by leveraging the trending NFT sector, and its 2nd place award is well deserved.
SilverSwap
SilverSwap, the 3rd place winner, is a multi-chain AMM protocol with LP protection features. It helps EVM blockchains access the DeFi 2.0 ecosystem across multiple chains. SilverSwap aims to evolve into the bridge between every user of crypto assets and the DeFi 2.0 ecosystem.
Although LPs are the backbone of DeFi, they frequently suffer impermanent loss. SilverSwap is creating LP protection features for UniswapV2-like protocols and channeling savings into a treasury fund for LPs (or a fund towards public goods). In this way, LPs benefit from the long-term appreciation of their governance token/fund to offset impermanent loss. SilverSwap is expected to be launched on CSC at the end of December. Its mature technology and creative insights were highly regarded by the judges.
In the Grants, we have also seen many other outstanding projects, such as IDO projects like DYOR and CoinMill, the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange IFswap, Africa’s first decentralized media stream platform Dream Base, and projects combining decentralized and centralized finance like Benign Protocol. These participants have also received the judge support fund.
The Grants featured funds and support provided for crypto practitioners. Also, it served as a platform for technical exchanges. CSC encourages all promising projects to contribute to the CSC ecosystem. Apart from the Grants, the public chain has also set up a $10 million seed fund and a special support fund for the metaverse. Projects that missed the Grants are welcome to apply for CSC funds. CSC looks forward to building a prosperous blockchain ecosystem together with project teams.