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Ash Francis, a three-time Stellar Hackathon winner, shares his journey from burnout in other ecosystems to finding success building on Stellar. He discusses his winning projects (Splicers, Chickens, Cards 402), his hackathon playbook, and why Stellar's developer experience and community convinced him to commit fully.

Hosts recap December highlights in the Stellar ecosystem, including Stellar House Miami event, Protocol 25 (X-Ray) testnet launch for ZK privacy, and tools like Smoothie Capital. Lightning round covers Marshall Islands UBI on Stellar, RWA milestones over $1B, Blend integrations, and upcoming events. Emphasis on DeFi growth, developer tools, and community initiatives.

Stellar Development Foundation and partners launch a free two-week bootcamp starting October 20 teaching developers to build on Stellar and Soroban, with top students winning scholarships to DevConnect in Buenos Aires and access to a 15k USD hackathon.