How Our Community Hacked Its Way to the Top at the Global Solana Hackathon

Superteam Germany, our passionate community of Solana builders, made it into the top five superteams with the most submissions in the local tracks at the Global Solana Hackathon! With impressive 130 project submissions, our teams truly shined.

While we're still waiting for the final results as I write this, I can tell you that I’m “bullish” on this unique community of Solana builders, creators and entrepreneurs.

Only possible on Solana

For those of you new to the industry, let me briefly explain what I am talking about. Solana is a high-performance blockchain designed for fast, low-cost transactions. With its low fees and fast transactions, it’s built to support decentralized applications at scale, making it ideal for developers and founders looking to create efficient blockchain-based solutions.

From fun games where you can win cryptocurrencies, over founders that tackle copyright issues to infrastructure projects and fitness apps. Our community is grinding and there is more to come and Solana hackathons are a huge part of that.

The Global Solana Hackathon

But as anything in Solana, the hackathons are special, too. It's not just a basement where nerds sit together to write code. Solana hackathons are about starting businesses and solving real-world problems.

Twice a year, Colosseum hosts the Global Solana Hackathon—one of the most competitive online hackathons worldwide. With over 70,000 builders, 5,000 launched products, and more than $650 million raised by winners, it's a thriving event. Some of the top projects in the Solana ecosystem – like Squads, Tiplink, and Kamino – got their start in past hackathons.

This brings builders and founders to the question, how to stand out in this crowded competition. That's where Superteams come in.

Superteam Germany's Role in the Solana Ecosystem

Superteam Germany is a community of developers, founders, and blockchain enthusiasts based in Germany who are dedicated to building on the Solana blockchain. It’s all about supporting those who bring value to the ecosystem.

Superteam Germany is part of a larger network of Superteams around the world, bringing together a diverse group of people with a shared interest in Solana and help strengthen the blockchain ecosystem both locally and globally.

If you’re interested in blockchain technology, building decentralized applications, or investing in Solana startups, Superteam Germany provides a supportive environment to learn, collaborate, and innovate.

They organize events, workshops, provide resources, mentorship and have a huge network they can leverage to help Solana founders to kick-off their blockchain startups. Since Solana hackathons are a such great and efficient way to build an MVP and gain visibility, Superteam Germany dedicates a huge part of their resources to helping projects to succeed in the global Solana hackathon.

Build Station - The real world event that completes the virtual Solana hackathon

This year it was the first time for me to experience the great energy and momentum that Superteam creates with their Build Station. I knew that Build Station is a multi-week event, where Superteam provides co-working, workshops and mentorship to participants of the Solana hackathon. But to be honest, this description of what Build Station is doesn’t even come close to what actually happens there.

For weeks, Superteam Germany has been working tirelessly to ensure the hackers have everything they need to deliver their best work. They literally flew in top developers from the ecosystem to lead workshops and offer mentorship.

Ecosystem projects sponsor local prizes and send experts from various fields to support teams in integrating their solutions. Plus, Superteam Germany is the only Superteam with a dedicated Developer Relations professional, ensuring Solana builders receive top-tier support.

It’s a season of inspiration and growth, a time to fully immerse yourself in this bubble of optimism, where friendships are forged, and momentum is built.

Solana vibes you can't resist

These vibes are highly infectious. The participants are actually adopting this behavior, helping each other succeed even though they might be competing for prizes in the end. I’ve had some ventures before and attended many events, startup programs, and workshops, but nothing comes close to what Solana and Superteam create with Build Station.

It’s no wonder that the results from these initiatives are remarkable. While I’d love to tell the story of each team that submitted their project under Superteam Germany this fall, that would be a job for at least the next 50 weeks! So, for now, here’s a spotlight on the winners of the local main tracks:

CTRL+X - Decentralizing the Future of Digital Publishing

You might think that once a journalist publishes their article it's there forever, right? Let me tell you from my own experience that this is wrong. We rely on platforms run by companies to publish and spread our content, our work and reputation. But it's up to them to decide what, where and when to show it. They might shut their service down at some point, choose to go into another direction with their business and therefore remove your work forever.

This is just a small part of what the first grant prize winner of Superteam Germany's main local track CTRL+X is solving. They are hustling hard to provide licensing software to help journalists maintain ownership of their content. For the Solana hackathon they've built a system for journalists to import their content archives from the Ghost CMS and mint a license of their published articles as NFTs on the Solana blockchain.

The text is encrypted and stored on Arweave, a decentralized network that keeps data available indefinitely. When these articles are turned into NFTs, they can be bought through a marketplace and viewed in a Reader. Readers can access the full article content with small payments, even as low as $0.01. This setup allows readers to purchase individual articles easily and provides journalists with a new way to earn revenue and share their work directly with audiences.

SandwatchAI - Create and vote on exclusive, AI-driven films and series

The winners of the second prize, SandwatchAI combine the hottest tech available at the moment, AI and blockchain to create entertaining movies on scale. Right now they are preparing for their big launch so you can't watch it right now, but they showed me some of their episodes and it was hilarious! I couldn't believe what's possible by combining the creativity of scriptwriters and creators with the accelerating power of AI.

SandwatchAI is building a streaming platform on Solana focused on AI-generated movies and series, creating a decentralized production studio for Web3. Their goal is to engage communities through innovative, interactive content that reflects their culture while ensuring fair compensation for all contributors.

Gigentic - Revolutionizing the gig economy with AI agents and decentralized marketplaces

I’ve been freelancing for over a year now, and often the deal looks like this: I sign a contract for a project, work hard for a month, and send out my invoice at the end, with a 30-day due date. This means I’m often waiting up to two months to get paid.

In some of the worst cases, payments didn’t arrive on time, leaving me chasing down my money even three months after I started working. I repeatedly tried to negotiate partial upfront payments, but I know from my experience hiring freelancers in my former startup that clients can be hesitant, fearing the work might not get done if they pay in advance.

I’ve faced this dilemma many times from both sides, which makes me even more excited to see that Gigentic, the third-place winner, is solving this exact problem. Gigentic is a decentralized platform reimagining collaboration between human freelancers and AI agents.

Gigentic uses smart contracts for secure, escrow-based payments and an immutable on-chain review system to build trust and transparency. By reducing platform fees and enhancing payment security, Gigentic creates a more inclusive and efficient freelancing ecosystem where both humans and AI agents can thrive.

These projects represent just a slice of the incredible outcomes from Build Station. A full list of all project that pitched at Build Station Berlin will follow soon.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Solana Innovation in Germany

As I reflect on all the amazing projects showcased during this hackathon, from CTRL+X's mission to protect journalists' content to Gigentic's solution for freelancer payments, one thing becomes crystal clear: the Solana ecosystem in Germany isn't just growing – it's thriving in ways I never imagined possible.

What makes this community truly special isn't just the technical innovations or the prize money (though those are certainly exciting). It's the spirit of collaboration at Build Station, where competitors became friends, and ideas transformed into real solutions that could change how we work, create, and connect.

The success of our Superteam Germany community – landing in the top five superteams globally – speaks volumes about the talent and dedication within our local ecosystem. But more than the numbers, it's the quality of solutions and the real-world problems being tackled that make me incredibly optimistic about what's ahead.

To all the builders, mentors, and community members who contributed to making this season of the Global Solana Hackathon unforgettable: you're not just coding Solana programs or building dApps – you're laying the foundation for a more decentralized, accessible, and innovative future. And if this hackathon is any indication, that future is in very capable hands.

Want to be part of this journey? The doors of Superteam Germany are always open to passionate builders, creators and anyone who wants to make their mark in the Solana ecosystem. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just getting started with blockchain, there's a place for you in this community where innovation meets impact.

The next hackathon will start soon, and the energy, connections, and momentum built during this season are already transitioning into ideas and excitement for the next Build Station Berlin. This is just the beginning of what our vibrant Solana community can accomplish together.

Follow us on Twitter/X and see yourself what's happening!