🚀 Our Epic Win at the MIT Bitcoin Hackathon 2024! 🎉
Introduction 🌟
Greetings! As staunch advocates for open-source and cryptocurrency, participating in the MIT Bitcoin Hackathon 2024 was an excellent match for our team’s aspirations. Driven by a commitment to innovation, we embarked on a challenge to enhance how open-source contributions are rewarded 🪙. We focused on integrating Bitcoin, GitHub actions and the Lightning Network into our solution.
The Hackathon Challenge ⚙️
The atmosphere at the hackathon was charged with excitement, featuring a blend of intense coding and collaborative innovation. Over the weekend of April 19th to 21st (the Same as the Bitcoin halving 2024), we developed our project, “Lightning Bounties,”, which integrates GitHub Actions with Bitcoin rewards 🪙, providing a compelling incentive for open-source contributions.
The Project 🛠️
Project link: Link
Github repo: Link
“Lightning Bounties” employs GitHub Actions alongside the Lightning Network to facilitate instant Bitcoin rewards 🪙. Here’s a technical overview:
- GitHub Actions: These are used to automate pull request reviews through custom scripts. Once a pull request meets predefined quality and security benchmarks, it triggers the reward mechanism.
- Lightning Network: This technology ensures that the reward transactions are executed swiftly, allowing contributors to receive Bitcoin rewards immediately after their contributions are merged.
- Compensation Mechanism: Our system not only offers rewards for accepted contributions but also provisions for refunds if contributions are not integrated, promoting a fair and encouraging environment.
Project Architecture 📐
Project demo 📽️
Achievement 🥇
Our innovative integration of GitHub Actions and the Lightning Network was well-received, earning us the first place 🥇in the Track 1 (Bitcoin, Lightning & Taproot) at the hackathon.
The Team 👥
Our team comprises a diverse group of individuals passionate about technology and innovation:
- Will, Mike, Pavel, Alex, and Enrique (me).
Future Directions 🌍
Encouraged by our success, we are transitioning “Lightning Bounties” into a startup 🚀. We are committed to expanding the platform to support multiple cryptocurrencies and further integrating with GitHub’s ecosystem.
Conclusion
One of the most incredible experiences I've ever had was winning this hackathon. It provided a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded people. Winning first place was especially meaningful to me because it demonstrated that our hard work as developers is paying off. I'm excited to continue working on this amazing project.
Thanks for reading.
