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Nairobi, open source edtion
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Bitcoin++ Open Source Edition

Welcome to the Bitcoin++ Open Source Edition Hackathon!

This is the hackathon site for the bitcoin++ open source edition hackathon in Nairobi, Kenya.

The main hackathon competition will be open ended (overall 1st, 2nd, 3rd). Anything involving bitcoin is fair game. Bonus points for FOSS projects.

There are optional challenges that hackers may create projects around. Submitting for a challenge is optional, and ALL projects will be considered for the main competition.


Logistics 

 

Wednesday (6/17/26)
Kickoff Presentation: 3:00 PM (GMT+03:00)
Hacking Begins: 4:00 PM

Thursday (6/18/26)
Submission Deadline: 1:00 PM - On Devpost
Report to Expo: 1:15 PM
Judging Expo: 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM - MAX 3 minutes (practice & time yourself)

Friday (6/19/26)
Finalist Presentations: 2:30 - 3:30 PM - 5 minutes per team (main stage)
Awards & Closing: 5:00 PM

Submissions closed View project gallery → View schedule →
8.4M
Prize Pool (satoshis)
∞
Team size
36
Visible projects
10
Awards
§ Welcome

Welcome to the Bitcoin++ Open source edtion Edition Hackathon!

This is the hackathon site for the bitcoin++ open source edtion edition hackathon in Nairobi, Kenya.

The main hackathon competition will be open ended (overall 1st, 2nd, 3rd). Anything involving bitcoin is fair game. Bonus points for open source edtion related projects.

There are optional challenges that hackers may create projects around. Submitting for a challenge is optional, and ALL projects will be considered for the main competition.

§ Prizes

Prize pool.

Ranked rewards for the top projects. Challenges can stack on top.
★ 1st place · grand prize
2.5M satoshis
WestToEast + 1st Overall — future Bitcoin++ ticket
1st Overall · 2.5M satoshis
★ 2nd place
1.5M satoshis
Robin + 2nd Overall — future Bitcoin++ ticket
2nd Overall · 1.5M satoshis
★ 3rd place
1M satoshis
nairobi2 + 3rd Overall — future Bitcoin++ ticket
3rd Overall · 1M satoshis
+ Additional awards
[ Award ]

Best Contribution to Open Source

1M Satoshis - Bitcoin is built in the open. This prize will be awarded to the team that makes the most meaningful pull request into an existing open-source Bitcoin project during the hackathon. Contributions can include code, tests, documentation, developer tooling, design, UX, infrastructure, or anything else that helps a real project move forward.

Prizes
Best Contribution to Open Source prize 1M satoshis

1M Satoshis - Bitcoin is built in the open. This prize will be awarded to the team that makes the most meaningful pull request into an existing open-source Bitcoin project during the hackathon. Contributions can include code, tests, documentation, developer tooling, design, UX, infrastructure, or anything else that helps a real project move forward.

[ Award ]

Best use of Soapbox

1M Satoshis - Soapbox builds open-source tools for social media, AI development, activism, and the decentralized web. This prize will be awarded to the team with the best use of Soapbox technology to build an open, user-owned, censorship-resistant app, community tool, or Bitcoin-enabled experience. Learn more at https://canva.link/wy5s2n45dkquwb6

Prizes
Best use of Soapbox prize 1M satoshis

1M Satoshis - Soapbox builds open-source tools for social media, AI development, activism, and the decentralized web. This prize will be awarded to the team with the best use of Soapbox technology to build an open, user-owned, censorship-resistant app, community tool, or Bitcoin-enabled experience. Learn more at https://canva.link/wy5s2n45dkquwb6

[ Award ]

Solve Open Source Contribution Spam

1M Satoshis - Open-source maintainers are increasingly dealing with low-quality and AI-generated pull request spam. This prize will be awarded to the team that builds the best tool, workflow, policy, or protocol for helping maintainers stop spam while still welcoming serious new contributors. Projects can focus on PR quality checks, maintainer triage, contributor reputation, automated review, proof-of-work, issue claiming, or other approaches.

Prizes
Solve Open Source Contribution Spam prize 1M satoshis

1M Satoshis - Open-source maintainers are increasingly dealing with low-quality and AI-generated pull request spam. This prize will be awarded to the team that builds the best tool, workflow, policy, or protocol for helping maintainers stop spam while still welcoming serious new contributors. Projects can focus on PR quality checks, maintainer triage, contributor reputation, automated review, proof-of-work, issue claiming, or other approaches.

[ Award ]

Best Tool for Mobile Money brokers/agents using Bitcoin

210,000 Satoshis - Mobile money agents (human) are often the human layer that makes financial access work in local communities. This prize will be awarded to the team that builds the best Bitcoin tool for mobile money brokers or agents, helping them manage swaps, liquidity, customer requests, transaction history, disputes, accounting, pricing, or local on/off-ramp workflows.

Prizes
Best Tool for Mobile Money brokers/agents using Bitcoin prize 210k satoshis

210,000 Satoshis - Mobile money agents (human) are often the human layer that makes financial access work in local communities. This prize will be awarded to the team that builds the best Bitcoin tool for mobile money brokers or agents, helping them manage swaps, liquidity, customer requests, transaction history, disputes, accounting, pricing, or local on/off-ramp workflows.

[ Award ]

Best use of Pontmore

210,000 Satoshis - Pontmore is a Nostr-native protocol for coordinating Bitcoin-fiat swaps, (human) agent discovery, escrow assumptions, swap state, and dispute resolution across open rails. This prize will be awarded to the team with the best use of Pontmore to build wallets, (human) agent tools, swap interfaces, indexers, dispute systems, SDKs, or other infrastructure for open Bitcoin-fiat exchange. Learn more at https://pontmore.xyz/

Prizes
Best use of Pontmore prize 210k satoshis

210,000 Satoshis - Pontmore is a Nostr-native protocol for coordinating Bitcoin-fiat swaps, (human) agent discovery, escrow assumptions, swap state, and dispute resolution across open rails. This prize will be awarded to the team with the best use of Pontmore to build wallets, (human) agent tools, swap interfaces, indexers, dispute systems, SDKs, or other infrastructure for open Bitcoin-fiat exchange. Learn more at https://pontmore.xyz/

[ Award ]

Best Beginner Hack

Tickets to future Bitcoin++ event - Only eligible to teams where EVERY member is a high-school/undergraduate student OR a first-time contributor to open-source bitcoin.

Prizes
Best Beginner Hack — future Bitcoin++ ticket 1 satoshis

One ticket to a future Bitcoin++ event for each winning team member.

[ Award ]

Honorable Mentions

Tickets to future Bitcoin++ event - Awarded to up to 6 “honorable mentions”

Prizes
Honorable Mentions — future Bitcoin++ ticket 1 satoshis

One ticket to a future Bitcoin++ event for each winning team member.

§ The judges

11 judges.

Scoring is handled by the assigned hackathon judges and coordinators.
Alex Gleason
JUDGE #01

Alex Gleason

Soapbox
Fabian Jahr
JUDGE #02

Fabian Jahr

Brink
Hadi Alamdar
JUDGE #03

Hadi Alamdar

Judge
Jodom
JUDGE #04

Jodom

Fedimint
Judy Imasuen
JUDGE #05

Judy Imasuen

HRF
Kelvin Isievwore
JUDGE #06

Kelvin Isievwore

Judge
Mark Kamau
JUDGE #07

Mark Kamau

Designing Africa
Marvin Charles
JUDGE #08

Marvin Charles

Judge
Mikey
JUDGE #09

Mikey

Judge
niftynei
JUDGE #10

niftynei

bitcoin++
Sy⚡
JUDGE #11

Sy⚡

Judge
§ Overview

Build in public.

Projects stay private until organizers open the public gallery. Judges and admins can review submissions while the event is running.
Submissions closed

Welcome to the Bitcoin++ Open Source Edition Hackathon!

This is the hackathon site for the bitcoin++ open source edition hackathon in Nairobi, Kenya.

The main hackathon competition will be open ended (overall 1st, 2nd, 3rd). Anything involving bitcoin is fair game. Bonus points for FOSS projects.

There are optional challenges that hackers may create projects around. Submitting for a challenge is optional, and ALL projects will be considered for the main competition.


Logistics 

 

Wednesday (6/17/26)
Kickoff Presentation: 3:00 PM (GMT+03:00)
Hacking Begins: 4:00 PM

Thursday (6/18/26)
Submission Deadline: 1:00 PM - On Devpost
Report to Expo: 1:15 PM
Judging Expo: 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM - MAX 3 minutes (practice & time yourself)

Friday (6/19/26)
Finalist Presentations: 2:30 - 3:30 PM - 5 minutes per team (main stage)
Awards & Closing: 5:00 PM

Conference
Nairobi, open source edtion
Timeline
TBA
View schedule →
Team size
Unlimited
§ Featured builds

Built in public.

Winning and featured projects from this hackathon. Explore the full gallery →
★ 1st Overall

WestToEast

Unassigned
XOF, XAF, GNF <> KES bridge, using the lightning network and LNURL, through the new Tando feature.
bitcoinlightninglnurl
nourou4them Nourou
Video Docs
★ 2nd Overall

Robin

Unassigned
Learn how to contribute to open source before making a pr
javascripttypescript
Fidel Otieno Chris Oketch
GitHub Docs
★ 3rd Overall

nairobi2

Unassigned
Permissionless ridesharing app with market based price discovery and Sybil protection through verifiable Bitcoin notarization
claudelightningnostrrustslint
GitHub Docs