I jumped on a plane for a quick trip just to be part of ETHGlobal Brussels. It was my first time at a crypto event, and to be honest, I had no idea what to expect. The moment we arrived to the queue, I was hit by this incredible vibe. Finally, the digital world that I have been a part of for years meets the real world. The place was alive with energy and people were wearing merch and stickers adorned their open laptops ready for some hack. It was amazing to meet and talk with so many folks who were just as passionate about the ecosystem as I was.

Before the event, our team cooked up an idea that came from a real frustration. Mateo, one of our teammates, who was totally new to crypto, had to install MetaMask for the first time and get some ether to stake so we could apply for the hackathon. There was so much friction, so many steps, so much to learn, for what should have been a simple transaction. We thought, if this is a pain for us, imagine how tough it is for the newcomers.

Our team was made up of three people, each with our own roles. I was our blockchain guy, handling all the technical stuff on that front. Saul was in charge of the UI and UX, he made things look good and work smoothly. Mateo focused on the documentation and was diving deep into learning everything about the ecosystem. We were like a well-oiled machine, or so we hoped.

We decided to create a SocialFi app with a simple UI and UX where the users only have to think who they are going to pay like they actually with Venmo or similar apps, why an user have to care about seed phrases, private keys or Metamask if they want to pay a coffee to their friend?

If we wanted to resolve the main friction point for an user initiating in crypto we had to implement a really easy login, that’s where Dynamic came to place, they offer an easy solution to generate a wallet from an email or a social account like Google.

Another actual big problem is liquidity fragmentation, people buy their tokens from big exchanges and send them to the first chain where they are going to use it for a mint or some memecoin gambling. That's when we decided to implement the AggLayer Unified Bridge. But let me tell you, learning how to use it was no walk in the park. There was zero documentation, and when we went to the Polygon booth for help, no one there knew how to implement it. It felt like we were hitting a brick wall. But I wasn't ready to give up. Before the event, I had reached out to a Polygon engineer who had some public repositories showing how to implement the bridge. Even though he wasn't at the hackathon, he helped me remotely, walking me through fixing errors and understanding how the bridge worked. It was a lifesaver, shout out to @omnifient 🫂.

On the first day of the hackathon, we had a game plan. We made the rounds collecting as much merch as possible (pro tip: always leave plenty of space in your luggage for swag). We started talking with different protocols we wanted to integrate, exploring new ideas and possibilities. When dinner rolled around, we finally sat down and started working on the project. We kept at it until 4:00 AM, making decent progress, we got about 30% of the project done. We grabbed a few hours of sleep and were back at it by 10:00 AM the next day.

The second day was intense. We decided not to sleep until the hackathon ended at 9:00 AM on the third day. Fueled by caffeine, we hacked through the night. There was a moment around 3:00 AM when we were all feeling the exhaustion, i just finished all the crosschain logic outside the app, now we had to implement it but we were so overloaded that we had to come to an agreement to implement the most important part.

Off course things didn't go as smoothly as planned. We ran into problems trying to get all the tech to work together. Late the first night, Dynamic started giving us issues, and there was no one from their team around to help. We were stuck and starting to panic a bit. Just when we were about to throw in the towel and migrate to a new wallet connector, one of their team members showed up. He helped us fix the problem, and we were back on track. At the Polygon booth, I kept asking if anyone knew how to implement the bridge and my crosschain message logic wasn’t working, but someone from the Safe team helped me to understand what was failing and saved me ;) .

Finally, the moment of truth arrived. With barely any sleep and running on adrenaline, we started going to all the booths to showcase our project. I was very sleepy but my heart was pounding as we began our pitch at each one. We showed them how our solution cut through all the complicated steps, making it simple for anyone to get started without needing to be a cryptonative.

The feedback we got was incredible. Teams at the booths were genuinely impressed. They offered great insights, asked thoughtful questions, and seemed excited about the potential of our project. Special mention for the Polygon team who had to suffer me throughout the whole hackathon with my problems, they deserve a bounty for that.

When the winners were announced, we could hardly believe it. We won the four prizes in the categories we applied for. We were celebrating like crazy when our name appeared at the projector announcing us as winner for a category. It was an incredible feeling.

Prizes Highlights:

• Best AggLayer Bridge Implementation by Polygon.

• Best SocialFi Project by Dynamic.

• 2nd Place in the DeFi Track by ChronicleLabs.

• Best Use of Blockchain Explorer by Blockscout.

But more than the prizes, it was the journey that left a mark on me. The challenges we faced taught me so much about perseverance and teamwork. I realized that obstacles are just part of the process, and pushing through them makes the success so much sweeter.

As I packed up my bag, stuffed with merch and memories, I couldn't help but feel excited for what's next. This hackathon wasn't just an event, it was a turning point. I left with new friends, new knowledge, and a renewed passion for what we can achieve when we put our minds to it. I can't wait to see where this journey takes us next.

If you want to learn more about our project and see it in action you can visit our ETHGlobal Brussels showcase.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of how I won my first hackathon. You can connect with me on X / Twitter or LinkedIn.