Humanode Invites Devs to ‘Hack the Sybil’ in June Hackathon Featuring $30,000 in Prizes

The blockchain specialist Humanode is finishing up its first Humanode Conference. The virtual event took place online this week, on May 31 and June 1, and included 10 sessions spread out over the course of the two-day event. Those in attendance were treated to lectures, panel discussions, and other activities related to blockchain advocacy.

But the conference was just the beginning. Humanode will move on to a Hackathon as soon as the conference wraps up. As the name would suggest, the Hack the Sybil Hackathon is intended to help combat the use of Sybil attacks in blockchain environments. In a Sybil attack, malicious actors create multiple accounts to take control of and manipulate blockchain transactions. Humanode is trying to solve that problem with its proof of existence concept, which uses FaceTec biometrics to link each blockchain node to a single human user to thwart multi-account attacks.

The Hackathon is being set up to encourage other developers to come up with new applications of that technology. Humanode is asking competitors to submit decentralized apps (dapps) that are resistant to Sybil manipulation, and stressed that they can use any technology they want to realize those goals. The apps themselves can similarly be built for any purpose, though Humanode is dividing the competition into five primary categories.

Those five categories are the UI/UX track, the chain tool track, the DAO track, the dapps for human nodes track, and the more open-ended special track, which encapsulates apps in industries like arts and gaming. Humanode will hand out a $6,000 reward to the winner of each track, and its partners are expected to supplement that with additional prizes.

The Hackathon will officially kick off with an opening ceremony on June 2, while submissions are due by June 15. Demos will be displayed on the 16th, and winners will be announced on June 21. Humanode is then planning to follow up on the Hackathon with a grant program in the third quarter of the year.

Humanode secured $2 million in seed funding at the beginning of the year. FaceTec will be participating in the upcoming conference, and recently upped the payout for its spoof bounty challenge to a healthy $200,000.

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June 1, 2022 – by Eric Weiss