Stellar Hacks: Real-World ZK hackathon launches June 15-29 with $10k in XLM prizes. The two-week competition invites developers to build zero-knowledge applications on Stellar, spanning privacy solutions, identity verification, confidential tokens, and trustless compute use cases. Minimal requirements: open-source repo and demo video.
The Stellar Development Foundation announced Stellar Hacks: Real-World ZK, a two-week hackathon running June 15-29, 2026. The competition invites builders to develop zero-knowledge applications across multiple use cases: privacy pools, private payments, confidential tokens, identity verification without document exposure, and trustless compute (executing computation off-chain while verifying results on-chain). The event distributes $10,000 in XLM prizes across the top five projects, with first place earning $5,000 and fifth place $750. Jeremy from SDF's developer marketing team and Ash Francis, a three-time Stellar Hacks winner whose prior hackathon entries included Splicers, Chickens, and Cards 402, mentor participants throughout the competition. Submissions require only an open-source repository, a two-to-three-minute demo video (talking heads optional), and meaningful ZK integration with Stellar mainnet or testnet. Developers may build on existing ecosystem code provided they clearly document pre-existing versus new contributions. Registration and full details available via the Dora Hacks platform; a dedicated Telegram group provides community support and direct access to mentors.
