# We're Changing How Hackathons Work *For the first time at an ETHGlobal hackathon, your project doesn't have to begin at zero.* By [ETHGlobal](https://paragraph.com/@blog.ethglobal) · 2026-05-20 ethglobal, hackathons, opensource, ethereum, web3, developer, nyc, web3hackathon --- _Written by Kartik Talwar, ETHGlobal Co-Founder_ Every ETHGlobal hackathon has started the same way: an empty repository, a blank editor, 36 hours on the clock. Eight years, more than 300 events, and one rule that never moved — you build from scratch, or you don't build at all. Starting [ETHGlobal New York](https://ethglobal.com/events/newyork2026) this June, that rule changes. I’m excited to introduce the **Continuity Track.** For the first time, the work you've already done counts. You no longer have to start from scratch. Why the empty repo — and why we're changing it ---------------------------------------------- The empty repo was never arbitrary. It made the weekend legible. Everyone started from the same line, every project could be judged against every other, and 36 hours measured something real because nobody arrived with a headstart. That's worth protecting — and on one of the three paths below, we've kept it untouched. But the empty repo also belonged to a particular job. When we started ETHGlobal, the mission was singular: build the best community in the world for learning to write smart contracts. The ecosystem needed exactly that, and a cold start every weekend was the right format for it. Over eight years it helped bring more than 100,000 developers into the space, sharpened Solidity, set best practices, created standards, encouraged experiments, and shaped builders who went on to train thousands more. Every empty repo was a developer getting better at the fundamentals, and a measure of developer tooling getting better. That job is largely done. The smart-contract ecosystem has matured — the tooling is solid, the patterns are settled, the talent runs deep. The most valuable thing a hackathon can do is no longer teach the fundamentals from zero. It's to take a decade of accumulated work across the ecosystem and turn it into leverage — to use everything that's been built as a force multiplier for building something people actually want. A weekend should build on all of that, not start over each time as if it weren't already there. Moving forward there will be 3 paths at an ETHGlobal Hackathon -------------------------------------------------------------- ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/ebb8914e328cbf24bb66e33637a50374c01de11050d4bc36dac7d589e4804e3e.png) _You choose one when you apply_ * **01 — From Scratch.** The classic hackathon. Arrive Friday with an empty repo, ship by Sunday. Same constraint, same clock, the same test that has produced eight years of ETHGlobal projects. Nothing here changes. * **02 — Extend Open Source.** Bring an open source repository you already maintain and spend the weekend shipping the feature you've been putting off — the one that never clears the backlog because something more urgent always lands first. The hackathon becomes the deadline that finally moves it. * **03 — Ship a Feature.** Take an existing private product and build one new feature on top of it, in the open. Whatever you ship across the weekend is released as open source. Your product moves forward, and the ecosystem gets working code it can build on. More importantly you can continue working on your hackathon projects from the last ETHGlobal hackathon and if you’re a startup founder, you get to bring your whole team and ship tighter integrations. What changes, and what holds ---------------------------- What changes is the starting point. Before, the only permitted starting point was an empty repo, and existing code was disqualifying. Now any repo you bring is welcome, and existing code is the point. Our sponsors will have specific prizes for Continuity Track that encourage meaningful integrations. This track is opt-in so applying ahead of time and notifying us is required. What holds is everything else that makes it a hackathon. Teams of up to five. 36 hours. One weekend. Ship or bust. You can bring more code into the room — you don't get more time to work on it. The clock is the same for all three paths. And bring every tool you'd use on a normal workday. We're enthusiastic about AI coding assistants and LLMs — use them, lean on them, ship more because of them. The empty repo measured how fast you could type; that was never the interesting question. What a weekend should test is the quality of the idea and the judgment behind it. The faster your tools get you to working software, the more of the 36 hours goes to the part that actually matters. What we're betting on --------------------- Continuity Track is a bet that the hackathon belongs inside a product's life, not off to the side of it. Since 2017, the weekend has been an island: builders arrive, sprint, demo, and then the project goes quiet — not because the work was weak, but because the format didn’t push for completion. Continuity removes that ceiling. A weekend can now move a real project measurably forward instead of producing one more demo that no one revisits on Monday. Here's what we expect to change by the end of the next year. More shipped products across the Ethereum ecosystem, because teams build on foundations instead of rebuilding them every time. More open-source contribution. Stronger showcases. More PMF. Builders can bring the work they care most about instead of whatever fits inside 36 cold-start hours. And a hackathon that holds a permanent place in how crypto products actually get built — not a detour from the roadmap, but a part of it. The building doesn't stop when the hackathon ends. Now it doesn't have to restart when one begins. Be Part of History ------------------ [![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/5005c5409b814c6900725819b8db9e155a0f47c17ac7c1bbe9e5d8ef3b3cd538.png)](https://ethglobal.com/events/newyork2026) The first ever group of Continuity Track hackers will be at [**ETHGlobal New York**](https://ethglobal.com/events/newyork2026). 600+ builders in one room. Mentors from across the ecosystem on the floor for the full 36 hours. $225k+ in prizes across 15 partner tracks: Google Cloud, ENS, Sui, World, Arc, LI.FI, Uniswap Foundation, Chainlink, Ledger, Dynamic, Privy, Unlink, and 0G. Free to attend. Meals, WiFi, and the venue are covered. Bring a laptop and a project — new or not. We've got the rest. Applications close **June 8**. Pick your path when you apply — and for the first time, that choice includes the work you've already started. Apply: [**ethglobal.com/events/newyork2026**](https://ethglobal.com/events/newyork2026) --- *Originally published on [ETHGlobal](https://paragraph.com/@blog.ethglobal/changing-how-hackathons-work)*