The Solana Foundation has announced the launch of the "Radar" hackathon competition, and registration is now open on the Colosseum platform. As the tenth hackathon held by the Solana Foundation, "Radar" is an online competition aimed at providing a competitive platform for the new generation of developers on the Solana network. The hackathon will last from September 2 to October 8, 2024.

Participants in the "Radar" hackathon can use the Colosseum online platform to create developer profiles, find teammates, exchange new ideas, learn about the track of this year's competition, and register to compete for a total prize of more than $600,000, $250,000 in early investment, and 1:1 incubation qualifications from the Colosseum accelerator. Participants can receive up to $50,000 in individual rewards and special bonuses.

Over the past year, the Solana network has gained momentum due to the relentless innovation of developers within its ecosystem. These innovators have established the Solana network as the platform of choice for payments, consumer applications, gaming, social, and DePIN. From solutions that enable merchants to accept USDC payments, with near-instant settlement and low fees, to a host of new applications emerging outside of the DeFi space, Solana developers have made a huge contribution to the diversification of network applications.

“Hackathons play a critical role in the continued growth of the Solana network, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration,” said Dan Albert, Executive Director of the Solana Foundation. “These events empower developers to create meaningful solutions that will disrupt industries, solve real-world problems, and develop useful applications that are only possible on Solana.”

To further encourage the exploration of new use cases on the Solana network, the Radar Online Hackathon focuses on seven areas:

• DePin hosted by Solana Mobile

• DeFi hosted by Drift

• DAOs and communities hosted by MetaDAO

• Payment hosted by Portal

• Consumer apps hosted by Dialect

• Games hosted by MagicBlock

• Infrastructure hosted by Wormhole

The best project will receive the Grand Champion Award from Sphere, which includes $50,000 USDC and three tickets to the 2025 Solana Foundation Annual Conference Breakpoint. In addition, three special awards will be given, namely the Best Public Welfare Project, the Best Climate and Environmental Protection Project, and the Best Campus Project. Hackathon winners will also have the opportunity to be selected into Colosseum's accelerator program, receiving $250,000 in pre-seed funding, resource links, and 1v1 support.

“We’re incredibly excited to host the next Solana Foundation Hackathon at Colosseum,” said Matty Taylor, Co-Founder of Colosseum. “Following the success of Hyperdrive, the Solana developer community is energized and we’re honored to support them at the most critical step in their journey. We look forward to working with the Solana Foundation and many other partners in the Solana ecosystem to continue to encourage experimentation, entrepreneurial innovation, and solving real-world problems.”

According to incomplete statistics, in the past three years, more than 60,000 developers participated in the hackathons held by Solana, more than 4,000 projects were launched, and the cumulative financing exceeded US$600 million, giving birth to star projects such as Jito, Tensor, io.net, Marinade, and Solend.

Teams and developers who want to register for the hackathon can visit colosseum.org/radar