#ShockTheWeb’s Lightning Hackathon Returns June 16th

#ShockTheWeb is a virtual hackathon to promote, explore, build and design web applications that interact with lightning enabled wallets and browsers. Next week, Thursday, June 16th, BOLT🔩FUN’s signature event returns for another round of electric hacking.

#ShockTheWeb 2 ⚡️ promises to build on the success of BOLT🔩FUN’s debut hackathon back in March, which gathered over 80 hackers, 13 LN web app submissions, and saw $2600 in prizes distributed. Teams came together to create innovative solutions to issues such as fundraising, payments, subatomic swaps, parking in downtown Atlanta, content streaming, e-commerce, and more – all powered with lightning. View some of the submissions in BOLT🔩FUN’s app directory here.

Structured around a shorter 4 day format, #ShockTheWeb 2 ⚡️ aims to make bitcoin design and development even more accessible to makers – helping onboard them with educational content, mentorship, as well as some mandatory fun. The entire first day will be dedicated to providing hackers with some awesome lightning workshops, talks, discussions, and more from some of the industry’s leading experts! Once the hackers have developed an appetite for the tools and libraries used to build lightning web applications (such as WebLN and LNURL), they will get the freedom and mentorship to build their own products, either as individuals or as part of a team.

What Makes This Hackathon Unique?

As you may have noticed, BOLT🔩FUN’s efforts are based primarily around promoting lightning on the web. When asked why they had such a focus, co-founder Johns Beharry pointed to one of Stack Overflow’s 2021 surveys that listed JavaScript + HTML as the most commonly used languages by developers. He notes, “As they say so themselves, for many people, programming is web programming. Our mission is to build up bitcoin as the internet’s native currency, so to do that, we’re focusing our attention on onboarding new makers into lightning web development.”

If that’s not enough to convince you of their web-based views, BOLT🔩FUN’s other co-founder Ed Pratt notes, “most of our daily activities now involve interactions over the web. So lightning on the web seems like a natural decision. It’s a way to experiment and explore bitcoin use cases that can serve as low hanging fruit for adoption on both local and global levels.”

What To Expect From The Event?

Because #ShockTheWeb 2 ⚡️ is a virtual hackathon, makers can approach the event in any way they like. If they prefer to hack on the first day, or show up on the last with a finished product in hand – that’s totally fine. That being said, there are several workshops and talks on Thursday, June 16th to get makers excited about building on lightning.

To kick things off, Oluwasegun Kosemani will give an introduction to the opportunities awaiting bitcoin and lightning developers. Special guests Roy Sheinfeld, John Carvalho, and Christoph Ono will discuss the future of Web3.0 on lightning. Moritz Kaminski & Rene Aaron will provide an overview of their recently released WebLN guide, plus a live demo of a new lightning app template that allows people to jump-start their apps with a Lightning Node Connection, Lightning Auth, Payments, QR-Codes, and more. Anthony Potdevin from Amboss will talk about reimagining lightning UX on web. The Lightning Escrow team will demo their product and workshop on how to build HODL invoices. And finally, to round things off, some of the folks at Lightning Labs will host a workshop on how to get started with their brand new LNC web package.

By Friday, makers should be full of hacking ideas and ready to work on their projects through the weekend. Mentors will also be available to guide them. On Sunday evening from 17:00 – 19:00 UTC, makers will present their projects for a chance to win over $2500 in bitcoin prizes! Best thing of all? It’s totally free.

So what’s the hold up?

If you’re new to bitcoin, lightning, or web development – that’s no reason not to take part. #ShockTheWeb ⚡️ 2 not only provides user-friendly onboarding to new makers, but there are also over 10 hours of online tutorials, workshops, and talks from the first event on YouTube to get you hacking! You can also get started building your first lightning web app with WebLN using the guide mentioned above.

If you’re interested in joining other makers for #ShockTheWeb 2 ⚡️, you can register using this form, or join the BOLT🔩FUN Discord directly and start chatting to other hackers, discuss project ideas, form teams, and begin your lightning journey on the web!