5 Projects to Watch from the Avalanche Hackathon

From March 25 to 27, 2022, over 250 hackers from around the world gathered in Barcelona, Spain for a hackathon hosted by Encode Club. A total of 56 projects were submitted during this hackathon, most centered on Avalanche's subnet theme, while others explored gaming, DeFi, and NFTs.

The event also received support from several projects and organizations, including Ankr, Axelar, Chainlink, Coinbase Wallet, and LayerZero, who provided prize funding for select submissions.

This article focuses on the five projects recognized by the Avalanche Foundation, each of which won a $20,000 hackathon grand prize.

(Photo: The final hours of the hackathon)

1. Best Optimized Precompile EVM – $20,000 prize – Winning project: OracleEVM

2. Best Ledger-Compatible Subnet UI – $20,000 prize – Winning project: SubnetX

3. Best Subnet Notification Service for Expired Validators – $20,000 prize – Winning project: subnet.center

4. Best Custom VM Subnet Implementation – $20,000 prize – Winning project: AEVEREST

5. Best dApp Deployed on a Subnet – $20,000 prize – Winning project: zkID

Below are brief introductions to these winning projects:

Best dApp: zk-id

(Note: This application is intended only for hackathon and learning purposes; circuits and contracts have not been audited.)

Project Overview:

zk-id is a zero-knowledge identity protocol that allows users to anonymously prove they meet certain criteria (for example, owning an NFT or holding more than X amount of Y tokens). It can be used in various applications such as joining a DAO or claiming airdrops—without revealing their wallet address.

The demo application includes the following components:

1. A general-purpose plugin for building Merkle trees using Poseidon hashing over AVAX blockchain state.

2. A generic implementation of SNARK proofs for Merkle inclusion.

3. Constraints ensuring the prover knows the private key corresponding to such addresses.

About Zero-Knowledge Proofs

To enhance privacy, Merkle leaves can be commitments to private values, such as hash(pws/addresses/some_secret_nullifier_tuple), rather than plain text addresses (as seen in Tornado Cash and zkAirdrops). However, since zk-id proves public blockchain state, these additional constraints are unnecessary in this simple project.

https://github.com/0xEigenvector/zk-ID/

Developers: 0xSage and 0xMako

Brief Review: Identity protocols are a crucial component of Web3. However, existing protocols in the market often lead to privacy leaks. Zero-knowledge proof-based identity solutions may become essential, as they allow behaviors like "flexing" assets while protecting user information and financial security. Although zk-id is currently just a demo, it is definitely a project worth watching.

Best Custom Subnet: AEVEREST++

AEVEREST++ is a fast, high-throughput custom VM subnet on the Avalanche network, written in C++. According to its developers, the project was built in under 72 hours. Without optimization, the theoretical TPS ceiling reaches 13,500, and with optimization, it could increase by 10–30 times.

Developers: itamarcps (Itamar Carvalho), neirenoir, and Jean-Lessa (Jean Francisco Lessa)

GitHub repository link: https://github.com/subnetooors/subnetooor

Brief Review: For the Avalanche network, subnets will be a key focus going forward. As the winning best subnet project, AEVEREST++ is expected to attract significant attention within the Avalanche community.

The following winning projects are more oriented toward ecosystem services and may therefore receive less public attention.

Best Optimized Precompile EVM: OracleEVM

OracleEVM is a customized EVM that uses stateful precompiles to enable efficient access to high-fidelity financial data within each block.

How it works:

1. Validators stream deterministic financial data from Solana’s decentralized Pyth Network;

2. During block production, financial data is included in the block header;

3. Validators vote on the validity of the block, including the embedded financial data;

4. When nodes accept the block, the financial data is written into the state database;

5. Stateful precompiles allow smart contracts to directly access this data;

Key benefits of OracleEVM:

1. Conservation of block space;

2. Highly efficient access to financial data via precompiles;

3. Validity of financial data enforced through VM block validation and consensus;

This subnet EVM runs in a separate process from the main AvalancheGo process and communicates with it via local gRPC connections.

GitHub repository link: https://github.com/gattaca-com/oracle-evm

Best Subnet Notification Service: Subnet.center

Subnet.center is an analytics and notification platform designed for validators, delegators, builders, and Avalanche users.

It notifies validators and delegators in various scenarios, including the following implemented or ongoing features:

1. Validator stake expiration (completed)

2. Delegator stake expiration (completed)

3. Uptime warning (when below 80%) (completed)

4. Available stake balance for validator (WIP – template/email code complete, needs triggering)

5. New delegator alerts (WIP – template/email code complete, needs triggering)

Developers: Daniël Zwijnenburg and Charif Mews

GitHub repository link: https://github.com/subnet-center/platform

Best Ledger-Compatible Subnet UI: SubnetX

SubnetX is a ledger-compatible tool for creating and managing subnets. Its primary functions include:

1. Ledger-compatible subnet creation: Enables users to create a subnet in three steps. First, users create a subnet using their control keys. After creation, they can add validators and then proceed to create a blockchain. (The SubnetX team built a dashboard where users can view all their subnets and detailed information such as the number of validators within each subnet.)

2. Notification setup for expiring validators: Users can set up subnet notifications for validators nearing expiration. Notifications are delivered via webhook one day before expiration.

GitHub repository link: https://github.com/bitpixelsio/subnetx-avalanche-hackathon-2022