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Upon reflecting on the events of the last few weeks, it’s clear now more than ever that a Web3 Social summer is coming 🥳
Connected 2023, a Web3 social hackathon by BNBChain, the world’s largest blockchain in terms of daily active users, and decentralized social graph protocol CyberConnect has come to a close and the results are in! With around $50,000 in prizes, and a range of rewards including mentorship, seed funding opportunities, and more, the Connected 2023 demo day saw 57 projects compete for 6 categories of bounties. Ultimately, 23 teams won, with metaverse social app Oasis Origin taking home the best overall social dApp prize.
Social graph protocols lie at the center of the upcoming Web3 social revolution. For the next generation of social applications to tap into the unrealized potential of our digital economy ignored by Web2 platforms as well as achieve mainstream adoption, robust and reliable infrastructures are essential. CyberConnect’s decentralized social graph protocol allows users to truly own their social graph, content, monetization channels, and social data while enabling developers to build engaging and personalized social experiences that put users at the center.
The Web3 social hackathon took place from Feb 7 - March 9, 2023, and attracted over 2,000 applications from around the globe, featuring a diverse range of concepts and use cases including reputation-based social networks, creator platforms, NFT marketplaces, event ticketing, social identity-based Web3 wallets, token-gated experiences and more. Over the four-week building period, participating hackers received hands-on support from BNBChain and CyberConnect along with feedback and dev support from co-sponsors Notifi, Lit, Livepeer, and XMTP.
Industry veterans and judges from top teams including Multicoin Capital, CoinMarketCap, Sequoia Capital, STEPN, Sky9 Capital, Delphi Digital, SevenX Ventures, Lattice Fund, IOSG Ventures, and LearnWeb3 DAO evaluated projects on a range of criteria including business plan, technical complexity, impact, innovation, and user experience.
The future of Web3 social was on full display among the competing hackers at Connected 2023.
Let’s check out the top winners from the 4-week-long hackathon:
1. Oasis Origin (First Prize: Best Overall Social dApp built with CyberConnect & BNB Chain. Prize: $10,000)
Oasis Origin is a Web3 Social super-app. As one of the fastest-growing metaverse products globally in 2022, it has garnered over 10 million registered users and entered the social charts in more than 130 countries. Oasis users use the app to engage in various social activities such as watching sports, concerts, playing board games, and more. The team behind the super app will soon launch a new on-chain version called Oasis Origin on BNB Chain, supporting MPC login and featuring two wallets: Spending Wallet and On-chain Wallet. By integrating with the CyberConnect protocol, Oasis Origin facilitates the binding of ccProfile NFTs and allows users to bring their social assets from other apps into its ecosystem.
2. Phaver (Second Prize: Best Overall Social dApp built with CyberConnect & BNB Chain. Prize: $5,000)
Phaver is on a mission to provide a gateway to Web3 social for everyone. Phaver’s Web2.5 approach allows anyone to discover and follow Web3 content even without a wallet or profile while offering a fully on-chain experience for those who are ready for it. Through its integration with CyberConnect, 350k+ ccProfile holders can use their identity in Phaver’s multi-protocol Web3 Social app, while many of Phaver’s existing 170k users can finally create their first on-chain social profile. All CyberConnect activity will also be included in Phaver’s reward program and provide an opportunity for users to earn the upcoming Phaver tokens before they launch. Soon, Phaver users will also be able to direct message each other even across different social protocols.
3. ReadOn (Third Prize: Best Overall Social dApp built with CyberConnect & BNB Chain. Prize: $3,000)
ReadON is a decentralized content platform, that seeks to help users efficiently and freely access quality content, break information silos and explore the real world. ReadON’s mission is to reshape digital reading behaviors in Web3 through the use of Game-Fi mechanisms and systems. Users start by equipping themselves with “Catto" NFTs, which allows them to earn in-game currency $READ as they read content. The rate of accumulation is affected by factors such as content topic, Catto properties, and user experience. The quality and type of content is community-managed, with users voting and sponsoring their favorite content through ReadON's "content staking" model. ReadOn is empowering creators to develop direct relationships with their audiences through CyberConnect’s EssenceNFTs that can be issued to their top fans. Both creators and users can mint their ccProfiles within ReadOn and start collecting EssenceNFTs. ReadOn has already empowered hundreds of thousands of users to create their first on-chain social profile who have collectively accumulated millions of EssenceNFTs.
Here’s a full list of winners:
Best Overall Web3 Social dApp built with CyberConnect & BNB Chain
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Oasis Origin ($10,000)
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Phaver ($5,000)
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ReadOn ($3,000)
‘Rising Stars’ ($1,000 each)
Best Overall Web3 Social dApp built with CyberConnect & Notifi
- 0xLander ($2,000)
Best Overall Web3 Social dApp built with CyberConnect & Lit Protocol
- Null World ($2,500)
Best Overall Web3 Social dApp built with CyberConnect & Livepeer
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Dopamine App - 1st Prize ($2,000)
Best Overall Web3 Social dApp built with CyberConnect & XMTP
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Dopamine App ($1,500)
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0xLander ($1,000)
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Atticc ($500)
In the coming weeks, winning teams will be receiving additional support and mentorship to continue developing their projects and adopt new users into Web3 social. Starting this week, we will be featuring the winners with an in-depth look into their projects and how they’re solving key problems for users in Web3 social. With our recently announced FanClub Loyalty Program, users will be able to engage with winning projects and earn rewards, helping to bootstrap project communities. Additionally, BNB Chain will be rolling out the following benefits to winning hackers:
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Invitation to join BNB Greenfield Testnet
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Access to BNB Chain Growth Initiative
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BNB Chain Starter Pack Credits or Discounts
Winning teams will also be invited to:
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Access free tokenomics advisory by BNB Chain Research team
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Access free infrastructure review by BNB Chain Solution Architects
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Access to free internal audit and security check
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Join BNB Chain events and panel discussions
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Access to other BNB Chain Ecosystem Initiatives
If you’re building something in Web3 social, get in touch with us today and let us help you to take your projects to the next level.
About BNB Chain
BNB Chain is a community-driven, decentralized, and censorship-resistant blockchain, powered by BNB. It consists of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which is EVM compatible and facilitates a multi-chain ecosystem. It is the world’s largest smart contract blockchain in terms of transaction volume and daily active users. It has processed 3 billion transactions from 200 million unique addresses, bringing developers massive user access with ultra-low gas fees. The ecosystem has over 1,300 active dApps across multiple categories, such as DeFi, Metaverse, blockchain games, NFT, and more.
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About CyberConnect
CyberConnect is a decentralized social graph protocol with identity sovereignty for mass adoption and network effects. It enables users to create profiles as the anchor of users’ decentralized identities. With CyberConnect, users own their social graph, content, monetization channels, and social data allowing them to travel across several dApps seamlessly without having to recreate their network on every new platform. As of March 2023, CyberConnect has 350k+ user profiles and 290k monthly active users who have done more than 2.8M transactions.
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