Cardano Blockchain Hackathon 2026 in Vietnam

[Proposal setup] Proposal title

Please provide your proposal title

Cardano Blockchain Hackathon 2026 in Vietnam

[Proposal Summary] Budget Information

Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA

60000

[Proposal Summary] Time

Please specify how many months you expect your project to last

3

[Proposal Summary] Translation Information

Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated

No

Original Language

en

[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement

What is the problem you want to solve?

The Vietnamese community is lacking Hackathons to build the Cardano platform, which leads to a lack of connection to the 21 million cryptocurrency users and 530 thousand potential engineers in Vietnam

[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation

Supporting links

• https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A6j2UCpTi/
,
• https://www.bpsclub.com/
,
• https://x.com/bps_club

[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies

Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'

No dependencies

[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source

Will your project's outputs be fully open source?

Yes

Please provide details on the intellectual property (IP) status of your project outputs, including whether they will be released as open source or retained under another licence.

All event related materials are open source.

[Theme Selection] Theme

Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal

Hackathons

[Campaign Category] Category Questions

Who you’re targeting, how you’ll reach them, and why this matters for Cardano?

We are targeting university students and early-career developers in Vietnam, especially those studying computer science, information technology, economics, and engineering. These young builders are the next generation of founders, protocol engineers, and product teams for Cardano.

We will reach them through our existing network of partner universities and student clubs across Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and other cities), together with local tech communities and Cardano user groups. Our activities include on-campus roadshows, online info sessions, Cardano 101 workshops, social media campaigns (Facebook, Zalo, X, Discord), and direct collaboration with lecturers and club leaders to promote the hackathon and provide basic onboarding before the event.

This matters for Cardano because Vietnam already has strong Cardano activity, but there is still a very large pool of students and young developers who have never built on Cardano. A dedicated national hackathon lowers the entry barrier, gives them a concrete first project, and creates new teams, prototypes, and community leaders who can continue into Project Catalyst, ecosystem grants, or production dApps, strengthening Cardano’s developer base in a strategic region.

Provide a list of key activities of your project:

1. Design hackathon themes and challenge statements aligned with real Cardano use cases (DeFi, identity, governance, education, etc.).

2. Formalise partnerships with universities, student clubs, and ecosystem partners; secure mentors, judges, and sponsors.

3. Run a pre-hackathon onboarding program:

• Online/offline “Cardano 101” and smart-contract workshops.
• Idea-clinic sessions and team-formation / matching activities.

1. Marketing and outreach campaign across universities and online channels (social media, email, dev communities).

2. Organise a 2–3 day national hackathon event:

• Opening ceremony, keynotes, and technical deep dives on Cardano tooling.
• Hacking time with mentor support, office hours, and checkpoint reviews.
• Final pitch sessions, judging, awards, and community networking.

1. Post-hackathon support:

• Publish recap, videos, and project showcases.
• Provide follow-up mentorship to top teams.
• Help selected teams refine ideas and submit to Project Catalyst or other Cardano grant programs.

What are your success metrics?

Example target KPIs for the hackathon:

1. Participants & reach

• ≥ 300 applications and ≥ 150 confirmed participants.
• ≥ 30 project teams formed.

1. Cardano builder outcomes

• ≥ 20 Cardano-based project submissions, with ≥ 10 deployed to testnet or mainnet during/after the event.
• ≥ 5 teams remain active 3 months after the hackathon (GitHub activity, continued development).
• ≥ 3 teams submit proposals to Project Catalyst or other Cardano ecosystem grant programs within 6 months.

1. Learning & community

• ≥ 80% of participants report improved understanding of Cardano and willingness to build again (post-event survey).
• ≥ 50,000 total impressions across hackathon marketing content and ≥ 300 new members joining local Cardano/dev community channels (Discord/Telegram).

[Your Project and Solution] Solution

Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem

1. Problem We’re Solving

Vietnam is a major but underdeveloped opportunity for Cardano. It is one of the world’s largest crypto markets, with tens of millions of users and a very large pool of software engineers and IT students. Yet, compared with competing ecosystems, Cardano has very limited visibility on campus and in local developer communities.

There has been no dedicated Cardano hackathon in Vietnam in recent years, while ecosystems like Solana, Aptos and general Web3 programs are running large, well-funded hackathons that attract thousands of young developers. At universities, students mostly hear about Ethereum, Solana or other chains; Cardano is often perceived as “hard to build on” and lacks accessible Vietnamese-language learning paths.

As a result, talented students and young builders in Vietnam are being captured by other ecosystems, and Cardano is missing out on a strategic pipeline of future founders, protocol engineers, and product teams. The core problem we want to solve is this awareness and onboarding gap between Vietnam’s talent pool and the Cardano developer ecosystem.

2. Why a Cardano Blockchain Hackathon 2026?

Universities in Vietnam are the largest “talent ecosystem” in the country: they concentrate young engineers, economists, and entrepreneurs who will shape the next wave of Web3 innovation. A national Cardano hackathon is the most efficient way to:

• Give students and junior developers a concrete first experience building real Cardano applications, not just listening to theory.
• Position Cardano as a credible, exciting option alongside other ecosystems that already run large university-focused hackathons.
• Create new teams, ideas, and prototypes that can continue into Project Catalyst or other funding programs.
• Connect the Cardano global community with local universities, clubs, and tech companies in Vietnam.

Instead of one-off talks, the hackathon model combines education, hands-on building, mentorship, and competition. It compresses the learning curve into a memorable flagship event that can be repeated annually and scaled to more cities. Cardano Blockchain Hackathon 2026 aims to become the signature Cardano builder event in Vietnam, anchoring long-term engagement with the ecosystem.

3. Solution Details

Format & Scope

National hackathon focused 100% on Cardano, hosted in Vietnam (core venue in Hanoi, with participants from Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and other cities).

Duration: 2–3 day in-person hackathon (plus online pre-event onboarding).

Participants: Target 150–200 builders, forming 30–40 teams.

Tracks / themes (example):

• DeFi & Payments on Cardano
• Identity, Governance & Public Goods
• Tooling, Infrastructure & Open Innovation (explorers, SDKs, data tools, etc.)

Outputs: Working prototypes deployed on Cardano testnet or mainnet, public pitches, and open-sourced code repositories.

In the weeks leading up to the event, we will run a short pre-hackathon program (online + on-campus) to help students form teams, learn the basics of Cardano, and arrive at the hackathon with prepared ideas.

Workshop Topics Include:

Pre-hackathon and on-site workshops will cover:

• Introduction to Cardano architecture, native assets, and extended UTXO model.
• Getting started with smart contracts (Plutus, Aiken or chosen tooling) and dApp development.
• Building DeFi, NFT, and identity/governance applications on Cardano.
• Using existing infrastructure and SDKs (wallet integration, indexers, APIs, Blockfrost/DB-Sync/Ogmios, Mesh, etc.).
• Introduction to Project Catalyst and funding paths for teams after the hackathon.

Security, best practices, and how to ship maintainable, production-ready Cardano applications.

Organization & Implementation:

Core organizers: A dedicated organizing team with experience running blockchain events in Vietnam and building on Cardano (including student blockchain clubs and local Cardano communities).

Partners: Universities, student clubs, Vietnamese Cardano communities, and ecosystem projects providing mentors, judges, and prize sponsorships.

Event structure:

• Phase 1 – Outreach & Onboarding: university roadshows, online info sessions, team formation, and introductory workshops.
• Phase 2 – Hackathon: opening ceremony, technical deep dives, hacking time with mentor support, checkpoint reviews, final demos and judging.
• Phase 3 – Follow-up: mentoring for top teams, support to apply for Project Catalyst or other grants, community showcases and follow-up meetups.

Materials: Vietnamese slide decks, starter repos, challenge descriptions, and documentation that participants can reuse after the event.

4. Importance to Cardano

Cardano Blockchain Hackathon 2026 directly addresses a critical strategic gap: the lack of a visible, dedicated Cardano builder program in one of the world’s most important crypto and developer markets.

By focusing on university students and young developers, the hackathon:

• Expands Cardano’s presence in Vietnam and increases brand recognition in a high-growth, high-talent region where competing ecosystems are already very active.
• Creates a sustainable funnel of contributors: participants move from “I’ve heard of Cardano” → “I’ve built my first Cardano app” → “I’m maintaining a project, applying to Catalyst, or joining a Cardano team.”
• Generates concrete ecosystem value: new open-source tools, dApps, and experimental use cases that can be iterated on after the event.
• Builds local capacity in Vietnamese: talks, slides, and code examples become reusable educational assets for future courses, meetups, and hackathons.
• Strengthens community and partnerships: universities, clubs, and local companies become long-term partners for Cardano education, internships, and pilot projects.

In short, this hackathon turns Vietnam from a “missed opportunity” into an active engine of builders for Cardano, with measurable impact on developer growth, project pipelines, and long-term ecosystem resilience.

5. Why Expand Cardano in Vietnam?

• Vietnam is a strategic market for cryptocurrency expansion — http://en.baochinhphu.vn/dunamu-regards-viet-nam-as-strategic-market-for-crypto-expansion-111250730094557238.htm
• Vietnam has the 2nd highest cryptocurrency ownership rate in the world — https://www.visualcapitalist.com/countries-with-the-highest-rates-of-crypto-ownership/#google_vignette
• Vietnam is projected to become a regional leader in blockchain by 2030 — https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-to-become-a-regional-leader-in-blockchain-by-2030-post304488.vnp

[Your Project and Solution] Impact

Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

This project turns Vietnam from a “silent audience” into an active engine of builders for the global Cardano ecosystem. By running a national, Cardano-only hackathon in a country with a very large and fast-growing developer base, we directly grow the pool of people who can meaningfully contribute code, tools, and products to Cardano over the next 3–5 years.

Developer growth & new contributors.

The hackathon will onboard hundreds of students and young engineers who have never shipped a Cardano dApp before. Through structured workshops, mentoring, and hands-on building, participants leave with real repositories, deployed prototypes, and a clear understanding of how to work with Cardano infrastructure. These teams become new contributors to open-source libraries, wallets, indexers, and dApps that the global community can reuse.

Pipeline for Catalyst and ecosystem grants.

We will actively support top teams to continue beyond the event by mentoring them into Project Catalyst proposals or other ecosystem grant programs. Over time this creates a recurring pipeline of Vietnam-based teams submitting high-quality proposals, increasing the geographic diversity of funded builders and bringing fresh perspectives and use cases to Cardano.

Reusable educational assets in Vietnamese.

All workshop materials, examples, and starter code will be produced in Vietnamese and published openly. This fills a known gap in non-English developer education, enabling meetups, universities, and community groups across Vietnam (and the wider Vietnamese diaspora) to run their own study groups and mini-hackathons using these resources.

Strengthening global community links.

By involving international Cardano projects as mentors, judges, and partners, the hackathon builds bridges between Vietnam and the wider Cardano community. This leads to collaborations on tooling, cross-regional dApps, internships, and research, contributing to a more globally connected and resilient ecosystem rather than isolated local communities.

Long-term ecosystem resilience.

Finally, by establishing Cardano Blockchain Hackathon 2026 as a recurring flagship event, we create a predictable yearly “heartbeat” for Cardano builder activity in Vietnam. Each edition brings a new cohort of trained participants, new ideas, and new open-source contributions, compounding over time into sustained growth of Cardano’s developer base, user adoption, and brand strength in a strategically important region.

[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & Feasibility

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Blockchain Pioneer Student Club fully understands the importance of trust and accountability when building on Cardano. As a pioneering blockchain student organization in Vietnam, we have built a strong track record through educational initiatives, public events, and successfully delivered Catalyst-funded projects with transparency, efficiency, and a community-first approach.

We have successfully organized previous cardano hackathons:

• Cardano Blockchain Hackathon Vietnam 2024

• Cardano Blockchain Hackathon 2025

In addition, we have organized seminars to connect speakers and founders of prominent projects on Cardano such as: Minswap, C2VN, VTechCom...

Most recently we also had the opportunity to meet with the IOG team and discuss some of the activities we have been contributing to building the Cardano ecosystem.

Validation of Feasibility

To ensure effective financial management, we will adopt the following strategies:

• Budget Planning: We will meticulously allocate funds for development, operations, and marketing activities.
• Transparent Cost Tracking: Maintaining clear records of all expenses will promote accountability and visibility.
• Regular Reporting: Regular reports will help us evaluate financial performance and guide our decisions.

To validate the viability of our approach, we will use both quantitative and qualitative measures:

Quantitative Validation:

• Track the number of modules upgraded and added via GitHub.
• Track the number of tasks exported from Jira
• Track user engagement through the number of active users on the platform.

Identity Validation:

• Conduct user satisfaction surveys to gather insights.
• Measure the level of excitement in project presentations to gauge interest.

Transparency and communication are fundamental to us. We prioritize open dialogue with all stakeholders, provide regular updates, and foster a collaborative atmosphere so that everyone is involved in the project’s progress.

[Milestones] Project Milestones

Milestone Title

General planning and event design

Milestone Outputs

1. Plan the entire Cardano Blockchain Hackathon Vietnam 2026 event

2. Design media publications and event posts

3. Create a list of media partners supporting the event

4. Implement communication on social media platforms

Acceptance Criteria

1. A comprehensive plan page with full details such as: date, time, event location, media posting plan

2. Fully designed publications, publicly shared

3. List of at least 10 event media partners

4. Posts are publicly shared

Evidence of Completion

1. Link to the master plan page

2. Link to the designs

3. Link to the partner summary page

4. Link to the post summary page

Delivery Month

1

Cost

18000

Progress

30 %

Milestone Title

Event deployment

Milestone Outputs

1. Organize 2 workshops to introduce the platform and tools to build on Cardano

2. Organize 4 intensive training sessions to build dApps on Cardano

3. Organize the final round of the Hackathon event

Acceptance Criteria

1. Successfully organized 2 workshops, the posts about the workshop images were shared publicly.

2. Successfully organized 4 intensive training sessions, the posts about the workshop images were shared publicly.

3. Successfully organized the event final round, the posts and recap videos of the event were widely shared on social networks

Evidence of Completion

1. Link to the conference posts

2. Link to the masterclass posts

3. Link to the video and images of the event finals recap

Delivery Month

2

Cost

18000

Progress

60 %

Milestone Title

Evaluation and Reporting

Milestone Outputs

1. Final project completion report summarizing number of workshops, participants, survey data, and community impact.
2. A project summary video (≤ 5 minutes) highlighting results, testimonials, and key achievements.

Acceptance Criteria

1. A comprehensive final closeout report will be compiled, summarizing all activities, outcomes, metrics, and lessons learned, and will be made publicly accessible to the Cardano community for transparency and reference.
2. A final closeout video will be produced, showcasing event highlights, student testimonials, and project impact, and will be publicly shared across Cardano Forum and social media platforms to celebrate results and ensure visibility.

Evidence of Completion

1. A publicly accessible link to the final closeout report will be provided, allowing the Cardano community and stakeholders to review the project’s full scope, outcomes, and impact assessment.
2. A published link to the final closeout video will be shared across relevant platforms, offering a visual summary of the workshops, meetups, student engagement, and key achievements throughout the project

Delivery Month

3

Cost

24000

Progress

100 %

[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs

Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Here are the costs for the entire event:

1. Venue rental (2 Conference Room, 4 Classroom, 1 Large Hall): 10,000 ADA

2. Speakers, mentors & judges honoraria (speaker, mentor, judges): 10,000 ADA

3. Design, filming & photography: 5,000 ADA

4. Gifts, swag & branded collateral: 5,000 ADA

5. Marketing & online promotion: 2,000 ADA

6. On-site materials (standees, banners, badges, stationery): 2,000 ADA

7. Hackathon prize pool: 20,000 ADA

8. Event organization and coordination team: 6,000 ADA

==> Total: 60,000 ADA

[Final Pitch] Value for Money

How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?

Our requested budget delivers high developer reach and long-term ecosystem value at a relatively low cost, especially given Vietnam’s lower operating costs compared to Western markets.

1. Majority of funds go to direct ecosystem impact

The budget is structured so that most costs are tied directly to delivering value for builders and the Cardano ecosystem, not overhead:

• Event operations: venue, logistics, and technical support for the national hackathon.
• Developer experience: workshops, mentoring, starter kits, and infrastructure so teams can actually deploy on Cardano.
• Prizes and follow-up support: rewards that incentivise serious building and help top teams continue after the event.
• Content production: Vietnamese-language slides, examples, and documentation that remain available as reusable assets.

Administrative overhead and coordination are kept lean by using an experienced local team and existing university / student-club structures.

2. High leverage per ADA spent

With a single budget, we aim to:

• Engage 150–200 builders and form 30–40 teams.
• Produce 20+ Cardano project submissions, with a significant portion deployed to testnet or mainnet.
• Create open, reusable educational materials in Vietnamese for future meetups, classes, and mini-hackathons.
• Seed a pipeline of teams ready to apply for Project Catalyst and other ecosystem grants.

Measured on a “cost per trained builder”, “cost per project prototype”, and “cost per university partner activated” basis, this hackathon delivers strong leverage for the requested funding.

3. Reuse, recurrence, and compounding returns

The hackathon is designed as a repeatable model:

• All materials (curriculum, slides, challenge statements, starter repos) are open and reusable for future events.
• Relationships with universities, clubs, and ecosystem partners can be reused for follow-up workshops and later editions of the hackathon.
• Top teams are actively supported to continue building, so the initial investment keeps paying off through future proposals, products, and contributions.

This means the impact of the initial funding compounds over several years as cohorts of builders, projects, and partnerships grow.

4. Local execution, global benefit

Running the hackathon in Vietnam captures the advantages of local cost levels (venue, logistics, staffing), while the resulting projects, tools, and contributors serve the global Cardano community. In other words, the budget buys more developer hours and more experimentation than in many other regions, while still producing open-source outcomes and new teams that any Cardano stakeholder can collaborate with.

For these reasons, we believe the requested budget represents strong value for money: it converts a relatively modest investment into a scalable pipeline of developers, projects, and educational assets for the wider Cardano ecosystem.

[Self-Assessment] Self-Assessment Checklist

I confirm that the proposal is a non-technical initiative, with ≤20% of the budget for tech support.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal provides verifiable evidence (portfolio, links, reports) of the team's ability to deliver the project.

Yes

I confirm that the proposer and all team members are in good standing with prior Catalyst projects.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal includes clear objectives with both Output Metrics (what proposal did) and Adoption-Focused Metrics (what effect proposal had).

Yes

I confirm that the proposal clearly explains the user journey and provides a credible plan for how the project will equip and motivate users for future on-chain activity.

Yes

I confirm that the initiative clearly demonstrates how it will grow the Cardano ecosystem or onboard users.

Yes

I confirm that the project plan and timeline (≤ 12 months) are realistic and well-defined.

Yes

I confirm that the proposal commits to public outputs and justifies any exceptions.

Yes

I confirm that the budget adheres to all policies: it is for future work, follows the merchandise rule, and excludes establishing local treasuries, incentives/giveaways, re-grants.

Yes

[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation

I Agree

Yes