As some of you know, we recently moved in Unlock Protocol DAO from a more centralized model of leadership (Lead Steward, aka me) to a further decentralized one of a Council of Stewards. One of those stewards is my friend Ceci Sakura. She is our current Steward for Marketing and Communications at Unlock Protocol and is doing a fabulous job. Ceci is based out of La Paz in Bolivia, and is my geographic neighbor. When Ethereum Bolivia in Santa Cruz was nearing, she invited me as a speaker and judge to meet her community.
While I have been traveling quite a bit throughout the last decade, one of the countries I hadn't visited yet was Bolivia. The first mistake I made while preparing my travels was confusing the climate of Santa Cruz with that of La Paz (humans can be so ignorant sometimes). I was firmly convinced I would be heading into South American wintertime over the weekend, when in fact the climate over there is tropical. On arrival, I looked like a misplaced teddy bear .
The event was located at Univalle, also known as Universidad del Valle, which is a leading institution in Bolivia’s higher education system. The university seems to have a forward-looking mindset befitting the Ethereum Bolivia event and its intentions. The hackathon was held close to the main entrance while the workshops happened on the other end, divided into two auditoriums. Most presentations were very beginner-friendly, often focused on crypto, while others introduced more advanced topics that were an excellent breeding ground for interactive discussions.
A quick addition for my fellow vegans: Santa Cruz doesn't provide a lot of options, but one I can genuinely recommend is a cute place called Coconela. They make a mean avocado toast (their own oatmeal bread) with homemade cashew cheese and fresh juices, among many other yummy bakery products and sandwiches.
It always warms my heart seeing people build, be creative, and involved in shaping our collective future. Nonetheless, this experience was different from my many previous ones. What captured my attention immediately was that many attendees were female. While the balance is still not there, it is definitely more present than, for example, at Ethereum Denver this year.
On a personal note, I was super excited to finally meet Manuel Elias in person, who was among the mentors of the hackathon. He was a massive help at Unlock Protocol with last year's Advent Calendar. I am looking forward to having him become a more permanent person of influence in the Unlock ecosystem as well.
For the hackathon itself, Ethereum Bolivia utilized TAIKAI, which was a first for me. Even though we used TAIKAI, we ended up evaluating in a spreadsheet. I wish that this part could be conveniently an element of the TAIKAI system so that judging could be done in a much more efficient and transparent manner. But I am sure it will come eventually.
My fellow judges, Sebastian representing Arbitrum DAO, Cesar from Pago Facil Bolivia, and Alejandro representing Avalanche come from very different backgrounds. Yet, our point distribution and final evaluation for the six (!) winners were extremely aligned. I was impressed by the variety of ideas that were shared with us and the enthusiasm with which they were presented.
While I fully agree on the six winners we picked, I had my personal list of favorites, which I want to shine some spotlight on here. The intention here is to hopefully motivate them to keep building together on their ideas. Not all of the three I will be introducing made it to the final six, but in my opinion, they show a lot of potential for further development:
HireTree
HireTree was created by a dynamic trio at Ethereum Bolivia. It is an innovative hiring platform designed to transform recruitment by using automated interviews that quickly assess candidates' soft skills. The system generates a unique NFT with each verified profile, ensuring authentic and transparent credentials for job seekers and employers.
PachaCoin
PachaCoin is a Web3 application that turns saving in stablecoins into a gamified and engaging experience, making DeFi accessible and fun for younger users in Bolivia. The project leverages local themes and incentives to encourage participation and further financial literacy.
AgroCadena
AgroCadena is a blockchain-powered platform that intends to bring transparency to agricultural supply chains in Bolivia. The project addresses the issue of opaque supply chains, where farmers often receive low prices for their products due to information asymmetries. By leveraging smart contracts, AgroCadena enables all stakeholders—from producers to distributors—to view and verify transaction data, helping farmers gain fairer compensation and trust in the sales process.
After observing some of the other talks and considering that ours was one of the final ones, we decided to shift our focus slightly. Instead of doing yet another talk, we turned it into a more comfortable conversation. That's a massive benefit of Ethereum events that don't span hundreds and thousands of people: you can actually have a conversation with attendees and make it about their questions.
While we gave Unlock Protocol a nutshell overview to increase awareness, the primary focus was on explaining what a DAO is, how it works, why it is essential that more people become part of these organizations to govern decentralized technologies, and lastly, why people should give a damn about all of it. It was pretty fun to do it this way, and it seems social media agreed with us:
Thank you, everyone, for sharing!
Since the panel of judges had good chemistry, we decided to collect some feedback for future Ethereum Bolivia hackathons that could further improve the event. Some of these ideas might also be useful to organizers of other hackathons, which is why I decided to share them here:
Running an online workshop (or maybe two) about two to three weeks before the actual event with experts from the fields of business development, product development/design, and programming to ensure participants have a similar level of knowledge, guaranteeing high-quality submissions containing all necessary elements.
Organize the event into two sections. The first one could be two days that focus on workshops only, allowing participants to upgrade their current knowledge, get inspired, and expand their teams with team members from different professional backgrounds. The second portion would be the actual hackathon, lasting about three days. With a structure like that, projects would most likely see quality improvements across the board and guarantee that there is space to take in new knowledge.
Ensure that secondary evaluation criteria are an inherent part of the system. There is a difference if five people work on one project or two. It should help with final rankings, especially if the final points of two projects are the same.
I feel so much gratitude for having been invited to Ethereum Bolivia and the very warm reception I received from their community. Thank you again for having me and for furthering the knowledge around Ethereum in South America!
For a read in Spanish and many more beautiful pics of the event, check out the official Substack of Ethereum Bolivia.
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