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Recapping The University of Waterloo Hackathon

Published on
September 30, 2024

The Jackal Protocol recently sponsored its first-ever hackathon, hosted by the University of Waterloo. We teamed up with Solana, Axelar, Quantstamp, Near Protocol, Zellic, and Starkware, to witness Web3’s brightest prospects push the boundaries of blockchain technology.

Of the 38 project submissions, 12 teams integrated with Jackal Protocol. The diversity of these 12 applications is a perfect demonstration of the Jackal Protocol’s potential for large-scale adoption.

Emerging Champions: InterPal, Dolphin Chain, Nexum, and Trust Link

InterPal emerged as the overall hackathon winner, building an AI chatbot to make blockchain accessible for everyone. InterPal uses AI to facilitate token transactions on EVM and Cosmos chains, as well as NFT creation and minting across multiple chains. Media files uploaded to InterPal are secured and stored with the Jackal Protocol.

Dolphin Chain HR Solutions secured the top spot in the Jackal Hackathon Track with its HR data management application. The team demonstrated the power of the Jackal Protocol, leveraging the storage layer to safeguard sensitive documents and crucial information.

Nexum claimed second place by reimagining data marketplace models. Built on the Ethereum blockchain and using the Jackal Protocol for secure data storage, Nexum fosters a transparent, owner-controlled marketplace for AI training data sets.

Third place went to Trust Link, showcasing the transformative potential of the Jackal Protocol in identity verification. Trust Link provides a secure digital identity solution, linking each identity to a soulbond NFT on Ethereum and securing data on the Jackal Protocol.

Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned

The Jackal Protocol team gathered some really important feedback from the hackathon participants. Simplifying the developer experience is a priority moving forward. Developers requested access to Jackal through an API, a Metamask integration, improved tooling and tutorials, and React templates. The developers’ enthusiasm for Jackal’s self-custodial ownership, on-chain permissions, JackalJS, data-sharing capabilities, and high security was inspiring.

We also discovered a demand for more advanced features. This includes perpetual data storage to publish media files forever, integration with Axelar’s General Message Passing to solidify Jackal as a storage layer on any EVM chain, and CosmWasm bindings to create smart contracts on Jackal and use interchain accounts. Another interesting point was the potential for threshold encryption for the validator set to manage storage deals.

Revitalizing the Developer Experience

The Jackal Protocol has a renewed focus on improving the overall developer experience. If Jackal Protocol is to become the de facto decentralized storage layer for the entire blockchain universe, simplifying the integration process is crucial. Jackal will facilitate an environment where developers can build with ease and deploy quickly.

Seeing the Jackal Protocol integrated as a storage layer on many blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, and the Near Protocol, validated our vision as a chain-agnostic storage layer.

Pivoting Towards a New Vision

Jackal Protocol will be stepping up to become a data storage platform not just for individual users, but for developers across Web3.

Join us as we create a more secure, simple, and self-custodial digital world.

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