Istanbul ETHGlobal Hackathon Selected Projects Summary: Account Abstraction, Governance, ZK Privacy

The industry-renowned hackathon competition ETHGlobal and Devconnect are jointly held in Istanbul. According to the official announcement, ten teams have been selected for the finals, covering areas such as zero-knowledge proof ZK, account abstraction AA, privacy, and asset security.

Istanbul ETHGlobal Hackathon Top 10 Projects

The ten teams selected for the final of the ETHGlobal Hackathon Istanbul are:

• Clade Club: DAO governance tool
• S.C.I: Anti-phishing tool
• BridgeBuddy: Account abstract wallet
• Buddy-Guard: Community security service
• Sarma: Privacy execution program
• AidDistribute: Tool to restrict asset usage
• TapTrust: NFC privacy activity participation tool
• Footy Stars: Zero-knowledge proof project for game results
• ZK vote: Zero-knowledge proof voting tool
• Lens & Frens: Zero-knowledge proof ticketing system

Clade Club

Clade Club aims to enhance DAO operational efficiency.

Traditionally, DAOs operate using tokens or NFTs, giving more power to those with more funds, with decision-making processes often lacking discussion.

Clade Club uses Worldcoin for governance, employing Quadratic voting and ensuring participants have undergone KYC through World ID. Influenced by Ray Dalio's Dot Collector concept, the team has created a Web3 version of a scoring system for voting.

Additional Note: Dot Collector is an internal employee rating system at Bridgewater Associates, where employees rate each other with points anonymously, aiming to improve company operations through transparent feedback. Interestingly, Coinbase recently announced the introduction of a similar system in the company.

S.C.I

Secure Contract Interactions (S.C.I) is an on-chain verification protocol that provides a more secure usage environment through domain and user verification mechanisms.

• Domain-Contract On-Chain Security Whitelisting: The team has built an on-chain domain associated with a contract verification system, where domain owners can add contracts to a security whitelist.
• User Tagging Functionality: Users can tag malicious domains or contracts using the Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS) to provide attestations, proving contract security and reducing reliance on domain owners' risks.
• Easy Usage: When users access risky contracts, alerts pop up using tools like Metamask Snap, among other methods.

BridgeBuddy

BridgeBuddy is a browser extension-based account abstract wallet that simplifies user experience by abstracting the complexity of cross-chain transactions across various EVM-compatible networks.

The wallet consolidates assets from all chains and displays them together, automatically facilitating cross-chain transactions. For example, balances of USDC on Ethereum and Arbitrum will be aggregated and displayed together, with automatic cross-chain transactions when a user's balance on one chain is insufficient.

Buddy-Guard

Buddy-Guard provides a community security mechanism.

Individuals feeling the need for protection, such as walking home alone late at night, can pledge tokens like ApeCoin or GHO and create orders. Buddy-Guards, who accept orders, need to monitor if the user has signaled reaching their destination within a set time. If no signal is received within the specified time, the Buddy-Guard must notify the police or others.

The project uses on-chain proofs from EAS to ensure the reputation of Buddy-Guards and NFC design for smoother offline experiences, fitting emergency use cases.

Sarma

The project implements a Sarma code format that enables public and private smart contract execution on any EVM, supporting cross-chain functions.

Users can write the public part of smart contracts in Solidity; when a private part is needed, they can use Noir to write and execute it using Sarma's blob of UXTO, concealing transaction information.

Sarma also supports cross-chain functions, achieving cross-chain private execution, which is more secure as cross-chain bridge protocols are unaware of the information being transmitted.

AidDistribute

AidDistribute is a project that ensures correct token usage and tracking.

The project utilizes ERC-4326 to create a treasury contract where the contract owner can deposit ERC-20 tokens, minting corresponding ownership tokens. These tokens can only be transferred, traded, or redeemed at whitelisted addresses, ensuring funds are used for the intended purposes. Daily withdrawal limits can also be set for whitelisted addresses.

The team currently uses GHO stablecoins issued by Aave for the project.

TapTrust

TapTrust optimizes activity participation experience using NFC and account abstraction technology, allowing users to automatically sign transactions with NFC chips while maintaining privacy through anonymous addresses.

This enables easier participation in Web3 activities with any transaction. Participants receive a new NFC chip with a unique public-private key pair, enabling interaction with Ethereum even without ETH, such as signing for voting or receiving POAP.

Footy Stars

FootyStars utilizes zero-knowledge proof technology EZKL verification to provide trustless match results, bringing real-world results onto the chain to simulate real-world matches.

Each player in FootyStars is an ERC721. Aggregating data from various sports sources like Opta/Squawka and professional teams' ratings from FootyStars juries selected by DAO using transparent algorithms, player performances are reflected on NFT chains.

ZK Vote

ZK Vote uses Polygon ID for private certificate verification and generates zero-knowledge proofs to ensure participants have voting rights without revealing personal information. It addresses two common issues in blockchain governance systems:

• User anonymity: Ensuring user privacy
• Vote uniqueness: Ensuring one person, one vote

Lens & Frens

Lens & Frens is a zero-knowledge proof ticketing system where related ticketing usage does not disclose privacy, allowing users to participate in activities using zero-knowledge proof tickets.

The underlying technology uses zk-SNARK and PCD to ensure the legitimacy of on-chain tickets without revealing other information.

Continuously Improve Your Thinking

Observing the latest hackathon projects can help generate interesting ideas and insights, offering another engaging way to participate in Web3.

Stay objective and keep thinking about how to improve. These projects often have room for improvement, and teams usually use corresponding technologies to win awards. For example, NFC technology is frequently employed, partly due to corresponding awards provided by NFT technology company Arx, but there may be better solutions. Therefore, these projects are not the end; when looking at them, always think about how to improve. This can often lead to unexpected rewards.