Welcome & Opening Ceremonies | Kartik Talwar

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this welcome and opening ceremony, Kartik Talwar, co-founder of ETHGlobal, opens ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026, stressing that this is not a conference but a hackathon whose mission is to onboard thousands of developers into the web3 ecosystem. He explains what makes ETHGlobal events different: a focus on builders trying out ideas, learning new skills and protocols, and the belief that showing beats telling, so on Sunday everyone demos what they built to judges, partners, and each other. He traces ETHGlobal's history from the first 2017 event in Waterloo through global expansion across six continents, notes the 2026 events in Cannes and last month's New York, and welcomes everyone back to Lisbon for the second time. This weekend brings over 518 attendees (380 hackers, 26% coming from web2), from 116 cities, 47 countries, and six continents, plus 43 partners, 16 technical mentors, eight workshops, zero talks, and $100,000 in prizes across eight partners: 1inch, 0G, Hedera, Sui, The Graph, Uniswap Foundation, World, and ENS. Kartik walks through key logistics and rule changes. Hacking has begun, teams can have up to five members, and submissions are due Sunday at 9am. He encourages using LLMs and AI coding tools like Codex and Claude Code but recommends committing plan markdown files and frequent descriptive commits so work is traceable, sharing SDK feedback with partners, and avoiding four AI pitfalls (do not use AI-generated ideas, get real human feedback, do not just delegate, and always understand your own code). He introduces the continuity track, letting hackers extend a past project, fix an open source bug, or ship an open source module into private code, with track-specific prizes. He covers venue security, Wi-Fi etiquette, Discord support, food, a tile-painting activity, swag, and four spotlight teams. On judging, he explains the partner track (apply to up to three of the eight partners) versus the finalist track (top 10 teams demoing live on stage) with an auditable repo, live deployment, and video demo required, and finalist perks like ETHGlobal Plus, $1,000 cash, flight credits, and AWS credits. He brings on Matt from 1inch, who shares that 1inch began at a 2019 hackathon and has since done over $800 billion in volume, and introduces the $7,000 in bounties for building Aqua apps, a liquidity provision method that keeps tokens in the LP's wallet. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 Welcome: This Is a Hackathon, Not a Conference 00:37 What Makes ETHGlobal Events Different 00:54 Why Showing Beats Telling 01:18 The History From 2017 to Today 02:25 Back in Lisbon for the Second Time 02:31 Who Is Here This Weekend 03:05 Partners, Mentors, and Workshops 03:27 $100,000 in Prizes and the Eight Partners 04:28 The Hackathon Has Begun 05:07 Team Rules and Submission Timing 05:42 Using LLMs and AI Coding Tools 06:25 Committing Plan Files and Sharing Feedback 07:24 The Four AI Pitfalls to Avoid 07:47 Why Not to Use AI-Generated Ideas 08:23 Why to Get Real Human Feedback 08:42 Why Not to Just Delegate 09:33 Introducing the Continuity Track 09:55 How to Continue a Past Project 10:55 Extending Open Source and Private Projects 12:08 How to Select Your Track 12:59 Venue Security and Badges 14:05 Wi-Fi Etiquette and No Hotspots 15:00 The Website and Discord 16:29 Venue Layout and Pragma 17:02 Food and Activities 17:53 Swag and Giveaways 18:40 The Four Spotlight Teams 19:54 Judging and Prizes: The Two Tracks 20:19 The Partner Track 20:57 The Finalist Track 21:55 Why Become a Finalist 22:32 The Requirements to Be a Finalist 23:50 Demoing Live to Judges 24:47 The Finalist Demo Format 25:09 Why Not to Record Your Video Last Minute 26:28 How First-Come Judging Works 27:32 The Mentors Who Can Help 28:29 Rules, Respect, and IP Ownership 29:42 Bringing On Matt From 1inch 30:55 Introducing the Aqua Protocol 32:00 The 1inch Bounties 33:39 Recapping the Prizes and Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇵🇹 *ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026, a 3-day hackathon held July 24-26 at the Carlos Lopes Pavillion, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal Lisbon 2026 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWgAODGnD_is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _