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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.

Enrique from Creit Tech discusses why his team's developer tools are everywhere in the Stellar ecosystem. Built on a philosophy of filling gaps—Expo Wallet, Stellar Wallet Kit (5k-7k weekly downloads), Router SDK, Soroban Domains—his work is mostly invisible infrastructure. He stayed in Stellar not for money, but for the community.

Templar Protocol's Royal Fool discusses a technical departure from Stellar's Blend: chain-abstracted lending without bridges or wrapped assets. By leveraging Near's MPC network for cross-chain asset custody, Templar lets users borrow USDC, Paxos USD, and other stablecoins against Bitcoin, Ripple, Cardano, Stellar RWAs, and XLM. The protocol's isolated market design separates risk by asset class, allowing cleaner risk management and better loan-to-value ratios. Fool explains why this model appeals to institutional allocators.

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.

Boundless, a Web3 platform built on Stellar using Soroban smart contracts, launched to solve trust issues in project funding by releasing funds in milestones rather than lump sums. The platform supports hackathons, crowdfunding, bounties, and grants for both technical and non-technical contributors across the African builder community.

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.