BUILDATHON
BUILDATHON
The Era of Short-Term
Hackathons Is Over
Beyond
Hackathon
:
long-term, milestone-funded creation cycles
that turn ideas into ecosystem-native killer apps
The Era of Short-Term
Hackathons Is Over
long-term, milestone-funded creation cycles
that turn ideas into ecosystem-native killer apps
HACKS DON'T BUILD BUSINESSES. NOW'S THE TIME TO BUILD THE REAL.
2025 marks a decade since Ethereum launched. Ten years of promise. Ten years of potential.
We've run thousands of hackathons. Funded hundreds of accelerators. Scattered billions in grants across every chain and protocol.
Yet here we are: still waiting for the first web3 product that normal people actually use every day.
No apps to book a room.
No apps to get you from A to B.
No apps to think with, ask questions, or get help.
web3 has yet to serve real human needs.
Instead, we got meme coins and speculation. Weekend prototypes that die on Monday. Prize money for demos that never see real users.
The brutal truth? The old playbook failed.
Backing the Buildathon Movement.
AND MORE
The missing component from hackathons is a formal path to getting long term support for an idea after the main event ends. The risk/reward of spending time and effort on a project after a hackthon makes it hard for even passionate teams to continue development. I love the idea of a buildathon and look forward to seeing the projects that come out of this format.
While hackathons and grant programs work well to initiate attention and raise awareness of an ecosystem, the perpetual question is how do we keep builders engaged in the same ecosystem and being dedicated to it? A program like a Buildathon that can engage builders in a way that they are not only long term, but also dedicated to an ecosystem, would be the ideal to complement the traditional hackathons and grant programs.
Too many hackathons reward short-term code over long-term impact. Projects often win without ever solving real problems or reaching real users. Writing code should be the easy part, the hard part is building something that fits the ecosystem and serves a community. Akindo rewrites the playbook by making hackathons about product-building, not just coding. It helps teams go beyond demos and into real adoption. That’s how to turn builders into founders.
Hackathons come with a certain kind of expectation that doesn't usually produce lasting results. It tends to attract bounty hunters and not serious founders. There's a time and a place for a Hackathon, but we think it's important to make a distinction when we're looking to incubate businesses.
Traditional hackathon lack the long-term support for projects, and it's harder than ever to separate the wheat from the AI-slop chaff these days. The real way to grow hackathon projects into long term successes, and to monitor how much thought and effort was put into them beyond a vibe coding prompt, is to provide a long-term support plan with a streamed payout which is large enough for people to live off of until they find PMF, and extreme dogfooding support from the organizers and funders - nothing else can yield good products.
Web3 doesn't need more noise—it needs signal. What the space truly needs are long-term builders who understand infrastructure, governance, and community incentives. At DFG, we're focused on supporting mission-driven teams building for decades, not just hype cycles. The future belongs to those who stay.
Many ecosystem leaders, builders, and top investors have already endorsed the Buildathon movement, so add your name and join the movement now.
01
Zombie projects that never reach production.Projects are often abandoned after the event ends.
02
Prize money spent before user feedback arrives. Sponsors cannot trace impact to TVL, DAU, or revenue. Participants focus on winning rather than solving real problems.
03
Builders chase the next bounty instead of compounding progress. Quantity of submissions rewarded over quality of adoption.
To build the future of Web3, we need more than Hackathons.
We need a new approach.
The Buildathon Framework:
Simplified Yet Powerful
A Buildathon combines the focused energy of hackathons, the structural support of accelerators, and the funding of grant programs into a single powerful framework optimized for Web3 product success.
The 5 Keys to the
Buildathon Advantage
KEY 01
3–12+ months of sustained, goal-oriented building
KEY 02
Funding flows automatically at each milestone achieved
KEY 03
Final goal is real adoption on partner networks
KEY 04
Program structures, mentors, and KPIs are optimized for venture-ready founders
KEY 05
Leverage AI tools for rapid prototyping while incorporating real-time feedback from users and ecosystem members — enabling smarter, faster, and more relevant product development.
Unlike traditional approaches, Buildathon takes a long-term view and focuses on sustained business growth.
| BUILDATHON | HACKATHON | ACCELERATOR PROGRAM | GRANT PROGRAM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DURATION | 3-18 months | 3-30 days | 3 months | 3-6 months |
| FOCUS | Product-market fit | Prototype | Product-market fit | Mainnet Deployment |
| SUCCESS METRIC | Working product with real users | Demo impressiveness | Fundraising | Deliverable completion |
| FUNDING MODEL | Milestone-based streaming funds | Lump-sum prize | Equity swap | Up-front grant |
| COMMUNITY INPUT | Continuous iteration and feedback | Minimal / one-shot | Late-stage mentor feedback | Scheduled reviews only |
| PROGRESS TRANSPARENCY | on-chain, real-time view of milestones and fund flow | Only final demo scores | KPI sharing optional | Periodic reports |
| INVESTOR CONNECTION | Structured intros across phases | Demo-day only | Core focus | Rare |
| ROI/CAPITAL EFFICIENCY | Streaming funds per milestone—capital deployed only when value delivered | Lump-sum prizes, low traceability | Heavy equity dilution | Up-front grants—high waste |
| ENGAGEMENT | Sustained, milestone-driven engagement through TGE and early post-launch traction. | High in the short term | Builder focus shifts to investor pitch prep; interaction peaks at Demo Day. | Regular check-ins continue until main-net deployment; limited follow-up afterward. |
| VALUE OF ENGAGEMENT | Token launch, first users, on-chain revenue | Short-term buzz for sponsors | Investor introductions for founders | Code merged to repo / contract deployed |
| DURATION | FOCUS | SUCCESS METRIC | FUNDING MODEL | COMMUNITY INPUT | PROGRESS TRANSPARENCY | INVESTOR CONNECTION | ROI/CAPITAL EFFICIENCY | ENGAGEMENT | VALUE OF ENGAGEMENT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 3-18 months | Product-market fit | Working product with real users | Milestone-based streaming funds | Continuous iteration and feedback | on-chain, real-time view of milestones and fund flow | Structured intros across phases | Streaming funds per milestone—capital deployed only when value delivered | Sustained, milestone-driven engagement through TGE and early post-launch traction. | Token launch, first users, on-chain revenue |
 | 3-30 days | Prototype | Demo impressiveness | Lump-sum prize | Minimal / one-shot | Only final demo scores | Demo-day only | Lump-sum prizes, low traceability | High in the short term | Short-term buzz for sponsors |
 | 3 months | Product-market fit | Fundraising | Equity swap | Late-stage mentor feedback | KPI sharing optional | Core focus | Heavy equity dilution | Builder focus shifts to investor pitch prep; interaction peaks at Demo Day. | Investor introductions for founders |
 | 3-6 months | Mainnet Deployment | Deliverable completion | Up-front grant | Scheduled reviews only | Periodic reports | Rare | Up-front grants—high waste | Regular check-ins continue until main-net deployment; limited follow-up afterward. | Code merged to repo / contract deployed |
From prototype to scale, only one model covers the full journey.
Buildathon combines
the rapid spark of a hackathon with the staying power of grants
and the growth engines of accelerators.
Join the Movement. Get featured.
Let’s move beyond legacy approaches that don’t deliver real outcomes.
Build long-term, stay committed, and create products that truly matter.
Leave your endorsement now and join the movement of builders leading the way. You are the one who will accelerate the onchain future. This is the time to build, today is Day 1.
Choosing Your Path:
Buildathons are ideal for technical founders who want to validate and build real products with users — not just prototypes or business plans. Projects that need technical guidance, user validation, and staged funding will benefit most.
Now that AI has made building easier than ever, a Buildathon is the only true path to turning demo products into real, scalable businesses.
