# Cryptogallo - Local Web3 Hackathons are in Danger, Long Live Local Web3 Hackathons - Channel: [ETHCluj Meetup](https://streameth.org/ethcluj-meetup) - Date: 2025-12-09 - Duration: 28:29 - Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-b1M3TDSuQsw - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1M3TDSuQsw ## Description Once at the heart of grassroots innovation, local Web3 hackathons are now facing a slow decline: overlooked, underfunded, and often undervalued. But why do they still matter? And what can we do to keep them alive? ## Transcript I'm Krypto Gallalo also Marco is the Mariel name and co-founder of head of events of Urbotit. We are the community in Rome uh Italy and we a little bit of flexing. We do a lot of stuff actually. Uh we are born as a community of web3 developers because no one was talking about web three in Rome. Web three not crypto. And so we started like hanging out with a beer in a bar something like that. And then we came up to hit this. So we organize a lot of events uh boot camps for web three developers that want to go inside the web tree. We have our physical space uh physical web 3 ad event space. Uh we host a lot of hacker housesis like more format more for more skilled developers. We go around the world hacking around and doing some stuff. Uh and of course we are the organizes organizers of it Rome. So the only international hackathon web three acathon in in Italy and uh we organize only the hackathon. So we don't do we don't do conference we don't do other stuff we organize only the hackathon and so uh this is why I'm talking about hackathons and uh a big disclaimer before that these are my opinion based on my personal experience I don't have a lot of data about supporting that but only three years of experience organizing it events so uh strong opinion very strong opinion local acadons are dying and they are not the only thing that at risk Because here are some screenshots. This is uh Italismon 2024. They said that they want to postpone the event, the October event. They said in September, so like three weeks, I think so before the event. It's kind of strange. Uh, also it's strange for Italy's bond because actually I went in Italybond the first time in 2022 and it was like the best crypto events that I ever been because they organized only acadons and around that there were a lot of side events. Lisbon in 2022 was a like the capital of web three in in Europe. the other the the year later in 2023 uh I went there and it was like very small way smaller and in 2024 they cancelled the event so it's like from a incredible event with a lot of side events to be cancelled in 20 2024 then they've done uh in April this year or no in May in May this year uh with encode club so they give the the the permission to enode club to do to the event. So I was shocked because I was organizing it room 2024 the second edition of our events and I say okay if it Lisbon that is like has a track record of three years organizing hackathon and they are very good and Lisbon is like the web3 capital of Europe can't organize anaton that's strange also it of course they they were organizing their first Ethereum events and they said they can't because of founding or whatever but actually not only local acance because if you see there it's like two screenshots this isCC 2024 it global amount of of bounty prices 4,400,75 this isCC this year it's like enough of bounty prices this means that uh it global is um is having I think at least 50% % less uh sponsorship tires for the Akatan. Uh and also it's more important because there are a lot of tire one um sponsors because tire one sponsors for it global uh have the possibility to put 20k of bounties. Tire two 10k and tire three 5k and so there are less sponsors and less tire one aon uh sponsors. So they are also in trouble actually. Why uh what is happening uh of course the market of in the ecosystem is stouter uh ethereum is not pumping that's a thing and uh so sponsor doesn't have a lot of money and so also I think sponsor doesn't have a lot of purpose for them um so it's difficult for uh academ organizers to secure funding also sustainable funding I remember organizing like it roam 2023 for it roam 2023 we um had the only two sponsors from 2023 to 2024 and actually there are no sponsors from 2024 to 2025 hackathon so it's like it's impossible to have sustainable funding like through years um of course organizing a web 3on is uh overwhelming I I will say uh free food tickets everything free for for for the uh for the people and uh Yeah. So only basing on uh the the sponsor uh founding and also it's like uh three two days also with nights of organizing a event with like maybe 100 220 people of aars maybe 200 people 250 people's comprehending like the volunteers and sponsors or whatever. Uh so it's a pain in India. Yeah. And of course and this is the main topic because uh when a sponsor go come to you and say oh I want to sponsor your web three hackathon they say okay how many people you can uh on board in my community how many people you can board on my uh on my projects and uh it's not working like that we are organizing like two days of of aon with like most of the people beginners and so what do you expect is like we are not going giving you like 50 aers from one day to another because you have put like five fiveks of bounties in our aon. So these are a complete misalignment between sponsors and organizers and um also um a good event organizers say that uh they are blaming us for this fault because we are not meant to on board people for them. they are participating in the in the acathaton for on boarding people and they have to do the follow-up with these people. we don't have to we don't have the duty we are not paid for do that but there is I think a a big statement here there are too many acadeons if you see like the schedule in Europe in May uh we can say that there were like dam it Lisbon in the same dates uh then there was Dublin and it prodav in the same dates then it there was like Prague it global Prague and then there was like um uh the Serbian one it bred in like one week. So I don't know six acadons in one month and uh so be also on the perspective of the of the sponsors like all these little acadons that are writing to you oh can you please sponsor myon please or maybe with a different purpose or whatever. So also from the sponsor side is it's is not beautiful because a lot of people are asking you money. Uh so yeah I think that this is one of the main problem that there are too many acadeons and all the these acadeons are searching the funding for the same from the same sponsors. So uh why they matters actually why they should we should continue to do local agatons and not not not I'm biased because I organized one of course uh but there is a true value in organizing a local aaton of course they on board the next generation of web three builders. We have on boarded like 100 people with it roam and most of them were uh most of them were like beginners in the ecosystem and we on boarded them not in the protocol or in the sponsor uh tech but in our community and they are working in web3 ecosystem. Um of course they bring web3 culture uh in it Rome before it there was not web3 culture in Rome. there was not like a cool events to go there and to um to build something. So they are very important for that and also uh they foster real communities. Our community without the Rome was not a community and so I think that it is this a real value and we have to align this with the sponsors. So we have to propose this to the sponsor not like that we are going to on board them a lot of actors or whatever. So what we need to do to change the local aons? I have like um a few a few ideas here. This is written with Jacipity of course. So don't don't don't don't don't don't look at that. But yeah, we should change the format. Um the format actually is driven by it global. We all copied the global format. So 36 40 hours of hacking, two nights, everything free uh sponsor bounties, bounty and maybe some track bounties from the uh event organizers. We can do longer, we can do shorter, we can do online and offline. We can do a lot of that. Um but actually if you want to change the format you have also to understand that you have to communicate this changing of changes of the format. If you want to do longer you have to have more funding and so you have to ask more funding for from the sponsors and so yeah it's like painful to change the format and it's not easy. uh also the audience a lot of hackathons now are opening for like a not technical people um maybe the book one and also I'm looking at that also for the varsa one they are also allowing business developers to come inside and to prepare like a business model for the projects so there will be more people but not technical people um and that's that's a thing that's something that uh they could do also for um on board new people and not only technical people. We with Rome we actually focus only on technical people because we are a community of web three builders and web3 developers also the scope um it's like um these are really focus like um you have to you have to build something you have to build something on the on the sponsor tech but there is like not okay we have some tracks like like we have AI privacy and defy track this year. Uh but there is not not a a outside scope. Uh I was talking with uh some people that attended the web three privacy hackathon that uh has been like in uh in June like two two weeks ago one week ago and uh they they've done something different like they uh they got all the money from the sponsors and they put in a pool and uh so you you didn't have to work on the sponsor uh truck but you have only to work on the general truck and so the projects outside from that Agadon were like maybe uh more interesting, more innovative. But there is a problem that maybe in Italy you can't do that because uh if you organize an event with some prices uh there is a problem with legal institution is it's a legal problem. We can't do uh we can't distribute prices. In fact, if you see like the old privacy policies and all the policies in the in the ITRO marathon, it's stated that the bounties have to be um have to be given by the sponsors and not by the organizers. That's really important because if not we are going to pay like I don't know how much in taxes for doing these kind of events. So it's also difficult to to change that and revenue model. Uh this is like the most interesting part because I actually don't have a an answers to that. Uh because what we have to do we have to um get the people uh pay a ticket for uh attending anaton. I don't know it's difficult to find people for anaton. And also if you put a ticket it's like even more difficult things. So maybe I don't know grants we all we already do that. um maybe some sponsor that are not web three but how you can you sell that why how so it's it's all all about that is difficult and my answer to all of that is no it's like I will I don't want to change the format I don't want to change the audience I don't want to change the scope and also the revenue model why uh because it's about that the foster communities like it's it's not a it's not a thing about uh creating the new startup or creating the new innovative model or whatever. It's only a cool event that is two days events that there are a lot of interesting people inside maybe international people if you're if you're hosted like in Rome and so all the people from outside maybe they spend only two days in a year uh about web three and they spend it in it Rome they know the format they know everything so they are comfortable in that in that in that format and so for me it's like we don't have to change the format We don't have to change also the audience scope and revenue model but we have to uh before that we have to be align with our values our scope and the sponsor scope and also we are we have to be also a little bit more humble and we have to say oh we are not going to on board a lot of hackers we are not going to put like being like the best hackathon in Europe or in the world or whatever but only we are organizing um cool event for on boarding new people inside ecosystem and this is what we are doing and um so yeah uh I think that's pretty much it. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Now moving on to the questions. What do we need to culturally hackable? Um, I don't know. Maybe it's like maybe they have to be seen more as a public good than a a business or uh um something else. They should be more a public good. Um because if you see the local as a public good, you can see that you are not like um trying to on board new developers that after that maybe you can do that as a sponsor. uh but you are funding that event that actually there are pretty much uh cheaper now because we are putting down the the sponsor sponsorship tires and uh so yeah if you actually like that probably good the it's good and actually I want to add something it's like um I say no to all the that changes because actually they are um difficult to to do that if We are not getting the funding to do the hackathon or all the events. We are not going to do that. It's not our problem. It's the sponsor problem. It's the it's the ecosystem problem because if you're not if we are not doing the AATON, we are not going to on board new people inside ecosystem. But it's not like a problem for us. It's a problem for the people that want to board more people in in the ecosystem. And next we have, how can we encourage more developers to continue building after the next hackathon? Many will mainly go to hackathons for the prizes and move on to the next one. >> Yeah. Okay. So, uh these are bounty hunters. I love bounty hunters actually. They they have a really good job and but the bounty hunters uh are really good because they teach to the new people how to do these kind of things. So, uh don't blame the bounty hunters. They are like very skilled developers and they are very good at what they do and also they raise the bar. Like if I am a beginner developer, I go to aon, I see a bunch of like I don't know people that go around all theons know all the sponsors and know what they are doing. I I'm more I'm more I think that I'm I'm more excited about what I'm doing. I want to compete with with them. It's a competition. Remember that. And so this is um that is very important actually that is what they are asking us all the people are asking us oh how we can do something after the acadon it's like I can do that we with our community uh with everything we can do some maybe postathon programs we can think about something but it's always we don't live by air and It's so if you if we want to do something after the AATON and we want to encourage builders to do something after the AATON, we need funding to do that because it's not easy. It's like accelatoral programs, incubation programs. Uh also think about that it's it's not easy. And uh in the other in the counterpart we have a sponsor with a ton of money that they should do that. So if they want us to do that okay uh we are able to do that and we want to do that but give us the possibility to do that. We don't have to do that before and then after oh you'll say okay okay you're good. No, no, because before if you do that before uh it's it's kind of impossible and actually we with urb.it and it roma we are trying to do that. It's like we are thinking more because uh not for the AATON part but for a community part we have more stable uh partners that able us to do this kind of things this kind of reasonment but maybe for a smalleron for them it's impossible I think so and I actually have a question as well do you think that potentially one of the ways to ensure these local hackathons stay alive is instead of focusing on the developers themselves find a way to attract uh non-developers and if you do uh how do you have an idea on how they may be able to approach this? >> No. Yeah. Uh like I said before they are uh like Bucharest and and Barava they are putting more the business developer part. So they asked to the teams to do also business model and so this engage more people actually Bucharest uh it was interesting because Bucharest is is all public in the report in the report is uh it went down by attendees during the conference. went by down by ticket sales uh sponsors sponsor funding but they went up in um in acton participants because they enabled to people to participate also without a skill without like um I don't know hackers portfolio whatever uh so yeah I think that is a good way um yeah that that's a good way for um enabling more people to participate and also to pumping up a little bit the numbers that is also always good and uh but like I don't know for it global also for us that we really are focused on the developer side also because we have to understand that um okay we need business developer we need a lot of skill set inside the web three ecosystem but the acadeons are made for on boarding more more developers in the uh web3 ecosystem system there are alpha of developers that are in Google and the market cap is quite the same. So uh we have we are we are addressing a problem there. So and also um it's the problem is is not like that is is we if we have the funding to run a proper araton every year um we are not like focusing our minds on how to get funding but how to get more people inside like we should do um university boot camps uh university lessons uh going to the coding school we are doing that actually but if we are splitting our minds between funding and how to encourage people. It's I I think it's a kind of waste of time. We should do only the second part and the sponsor should pay us for doing the second part. That's great. Thank you very much. Is there any other questions from the crowd? >> Hey, thank you, Gallo. Um so I I work for a DAO right now and uh I used to work for an interoperability protocol and we used to fund a lot of these um hackathons and I think we're not aligned. And we have different perspectives but you know we as an organization I don't think we can afford to fund an event just for the sake of onboarding a developer into the overall ecosystem right that there you know we need to first of all prove that there's going to be some some some tangible return for us as in our organization and then it also needs to be in the relatively no I'm not saying short term but medium term right because yes I can I can teach you 10,000 people how to programming solidity before they add value to our ecosystem, it's going to take a lot of time and even if we are if I'm a protocol and I do only right we we even we fund something a project then as the question was saying right it's very hard for them to actually keep building with us uh so yeah like the question I think is like how do we how can we shift the I don't know how can we create initiatives that actually you know uh where sponsors can actually feel incentivized to to really provide money or like fund fund those initiatives because they feel there is value coming back. Um actually I always thought uh in 2023 also in 2024 I always thought oh sponsor are like wasting money for sponsoring aons that's a that's a that's a reality and uh but yeah it's like let's see if you want to on board new people in your projects and if you want to retain that them it's like um what you have to do as a as uh protocol you have to hire a devil uh I don't know de pay payrolls in the web three ecosystem are pretty high uh so maybe uh you say I'm giving uh I don't know sponsorship tires in the local agathons are like 5k for the pre first tire 10k for the second one and maybe 20 25k for the maximum gold platinum tire that is fantastic or whatever um maybe okay let's say that you are not a good maybe um a big protocol. So, you're going to put 5K in the in the first tire. Okay. And you board like I don't know three, four, five uh protocol um projects. Um let's say oh no, that's not a good a good one. So what I have to do in um instead I can do a proper um uh on inside uh web three hackathon or maybe online or maybe I can do a a fellowship uh using my devril and all my team to do that. Um but we are sure that uh um 5K is less than engaging uh the whole team of uh of your projects to do an online hackathon and an online means that you have to you have to build like the notion page. You have to build like all the system to onboard new people. You have to do communication. You have to follow the people during the hackathon. you have to follow people after the acton and maybe to on board I don't know um five projects more 10 projects more and then you have to follow up with that projects so it's like um yes for like I think that for projects and for protocols is better to host online hackathons and acathatons by themselves but I don't think that is cost effective more is it's is like that And if you structure the uh after part of the hackathon you're you're having like um you're having I think that you have you're having more retention because that is an e-real life hackathon and that the other part is a online hackathon because if you're organizing an real life hackathon with your protocol you are spending so much money it's it's like that um but it's with online I think also So the uh you will have always bounty hunters, you are always people that are don't care maybe about your c protocols are always there to farming something. So yeah, it's tricky. Uh it we should do and it's difficult. uh we should do like um some of uh like uh return returnment on on investment and we should compare like the the the two the two approach like uh I don't know uh mantle salo they are doing like this monthly uh kind of hackathons uh like mantle they are doing six months of monthly with like 15k of prizes every month and I'm in touch with the mantle uh montal team they are friends of us and uh it's a good effort for them it's like it's not easy to that and they are putting uh I don't know 90k in bounty prices and all the effort from the team it's um with like it will be like an expenses of maybe 200k if you count also the payrolls for the diver and everything and with 20k 200k you have uh the whole hero in it global with uh maximum tire and so you are going to engage if you are mount solar layer two you're going to have like maybe I don't know 50 projects per acon so six acton 300 project after that if you structure a pipeline after that you are going to have a lot of a lot of project after that so it's we have to balance we have to balance it's interesting to do Anyone else? No. Is that it? Thank you very much, guys. This has been a lovely presentation. Give it up for Marco.