Three New and Innovative Projects Take Top Prizes
Interoperability is the next chapter in the evolution of the blockchain industry. Numerous chains offer differing degrees of use cases, but Bitcoin is still king of the market, owning the title of largest market cap. It has endured and proven itself to be reliable, secure, and a true store of value. For all of its achievements though, Bitcoin lacks the ability to evolve into a blockchain with native smart contracts. The integration of Bitcoin with DeFi is still in the early stages, but a blockchain with its genesis rooted in open source development and decentralization may have what it takes to be the leading platform to blend Bitcoin with powerful and secure smart contracts.
As a blockchain modeled after Bitcoin's UTXO model, Ergo offers a clear path toward the full realization of Bitcoin and DeFi. The opportunities for Bitcoin on Ergo have never been more concrete. As of this month, Rosen Bridge has now officially connected Ergo, Cardano, and Bitcoin (with the addition of EVM chains on the horizon) through secure and decentralized infrastructure. As a result of this, developers can now utilize Bitcoin with Ergo’s smart contracts and time tested network security.
The Ergo Foundation’s most recent hackathon (ErgoHack VIII: Ergo as a Smart Layer) was designed to address this new opportunity presented by Rosen Bridge. It encouraged contestants to build tools and products to augment the versatility and functionality of Bitcoin on Ergo.
ErgoHack VIII Winners
ErgoHack VIII featured 15 teams: Analog Ergo, Crystal Pool, Cup of Sugar, Duckpools
Ephemeral Messaging, Huangians, Moria Finance, Reputation System, Mining Bitcoin Swap, Rosen Port, Rng Dev, Sigma Wallet, Space Wallet, Trustless Relays, and Wallet Wonderland.
After much deliberation by the adjudicating committee, we are pleased to announce the winners of ErgoHack VIII:
1st Place ($9k SigUSD): Crystal Pool
“This new trading platform is a great addition to the Ergo ecosystem, boosting a user-friendly design and seamless integration for instant trades.” - ErgoHack Judge
Crystal Pool has designed a self-custodial exchange, whereby users can swap assets available on the Ergo Platform. All the transactions are performed by Ergo smart contracts, and users maintain custody of their assets at ALL TIMES. Imagine an interface that looks and feels like a centralized exchange order book, but you maintain the security of your assets while interacting. Crystal Pool will utilize the assets that have been bridged via Rosen Bridge, which include Ergo, Bitcoin, and Cardano assets at this time. In the future, Ethereum and other EVM chain assets will be accessible in this unique self-custodial exchange.
2nd Place ($5k SigUSD): Duckpools
“The OptionPools for Duckpools is another solid financial tool that will bring much more attention to DeFi within Ergo’s ecosystem. Creating a pool to peer options platform in the time provided is quite impressive.“ - ErgoHack Judge
The Duckpools team has designed a new options trading service called OptionPools. It will be created through an automated market maker (AMM) option trading smart contract pool, whereby liquidity providers and traders can add/collect yield and buy/sell options, respectively.
3rd Place ($4k SigUSD): Analog Ergo
“This project is strongly aligned with the theme of integrating Bitcoin, as it is focused on integrating Lightning Network ←→ Ergo swaps.” - ErgoHack Judge
The Analog Ergo project aims to achieve atomic swaps between the Lightning Network and Ergo. During the ErgoHack, they established Bitcoin Testnet and Lightning Testnet (LND) environments. Analog Ergo’s work also included modifying their existing Atomic Swap Contract to include sha256 preimages instead of Curve Points. Finally, they were going to perform a proof of concept swap where the Lightning preimage serves as the secret for the Atomic Swap.
Additional prizes:
Kushti helped launch a community raffle, and it raised over 8462 ERG from the generosity of the Ergo community. After a public vote, the following prizes were awarded:
1st Place (1505.2 ERG) - Mining BTC Swap (Sig Mining Pool)
2nd Place (1297.7 ERG) - Crystal Pool
Joint 3rd Place - (1090 ERG) - Duckpools (optionPools) and Random Number Generator!
100k RSN was also available for consideration, and the judges decided to award these funds equally to all of the participants.
ErgoHack Conclusion
Thank you to all of the participants for their hard work and innovative proposals. The Ergo Foundation would also like to thank everyone who contributed towards the prize pool, including the Rosen Bridge team and the Ergonaut Community Raffle Prize.
Keep an eye out for the next ErgoHack announcement! There is an incredible amount of development happening on the Ergo blockchain, and as Rosen Bridge opens new doors to cross-chain interoperability, Ergo is poised to lead the way with new and innovative tools and products.
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