I have decided to participate as a sponsor in this hackathon, engaging with the NEMTUS community to promote development on Astar Network and Soneium .
At the upcoming NEMTUS Hackathon 2026 HACK+ , I will serve as a judge for both the overall evaluation and the sponsor category. In particular, I will review submissions that utilize Astar Network / Soneium and present the Sponsor Prize .
The prize money for the Sponsor Prize will be provided directly from my own wallet . In addition, I would like to offer a bonus prize to further encourage participants. Depending on the ideas, I may also propose involving the community to support the provision of such a bonus.
I would greatly appreciate your input on what kind of bonus prize would be meaningful and motivating for participants.
What kind of bonus prize would be most appreciated by participants?
How can the bonus prize best support developer activities and community engagement?
Should the bonus be more practical (e.g., technical books, cloud credits, NFT memorabilia) or more commemorative (e.g., exclusive merchandise, community titles)?
With your support and ideas, we can create a bonus prize that truly reflects the spirit of our community.
Thank you for the proposal!
It’s quite a long-running hackathon.
Just to confirm — regarding the sponsor prizes, when you say they will be “provided directly from your wallet,” does that mean you intend to use your own crypto assets as the base prizes?
And additionally, you are considering offering extra bonus prizes on top of that, and you’re seeking feedback on what those could be — is that correct?
If so, it might help everyone to understand what the baseline prizes you plan to provide personally will be. That would make it easier to think about any additional bonus prizes.
It could also be useful to define the eligibility criteria for the sponsor prize.
For example, since this hackathon is mainly focused on Nem and Symbol, you might specify that “to qualify for the Astar sponsor prize, the project must utilize Astar Network,” or something similar.
First, regarding the sponsor prize, we plan to evaluate teams that have developed on either Astar or Soneium. The specific details of eligibility for this sponsor prize have not yet been disclosed. (I will confirm with the NEMTUS members about how and when to announce this.)
The prize amount is set at USD $500, which I will personally provide from my own wallet.
The prize will be sent in tokens, though I’ll decide the exact type at the time. Most likely, it will be in USDT or USDC.
What I am currently seeking feedback on is whether there are any ideas for an additional “bonus prize.” Depending on the ideas, there is also the possibility that we may decide not to include such a bonus prize at all.
Mentorship or a private session with the winners: If your background is technical, this would be much easier and more helpful for the winning projects, especially if they want to continue developing them within the ecosystem after the hackathon.
Commemorative NFT: As a certificate of participation.
It could even be a combination of both. For example, you could award an exclusive NFT to the winners. This NFT would unlock exclusive benefits such as access to a mentorship or private technical session, exclusive merchandise or a merch kit, or even access to subsequent events.
I think both of these would be highly motivating if you decide to implement this Bonus Prize, since having the opportunity for mentorship or a private technical session, especially with someone involved in the project, is of great interest to hackathon participants and can be truly useful.
Hackathon prizes are usually tokens, and beyond that, the main rewards tend to be things like mentorship, technical support, or marketing assistance to help with real-world implementation.
For Astar, I think it would make sense to offer support for joining UCG or dApp Staking, especially since you’re a member of the ACC and can provide appropriate guidance.
On the other hand, if the winning projects don’t intend to actually implement or operate their solutions, then rewards other than prize money may not have much value.
As @CJorgeSaez mentioned, participation NFTs might be appropriate. If you still have any past merchandise, that could also be given out.
Hi @tksarah, thanks for wanting to promote project creation on Astar and Soneium from Japan! This is always appreciated.
Regarding this, could you orient it more towards Astar’s core products?
ASTR
DApp Staking
Governance
Others
In my view, this reduces hackers meandering around and wasting time on invented solutions. It would give them a clear path to follow while still allowing for creativity.
As for the bonus, my proposal is: exclusive, high-quality merchandise.
You could commission a unique design and produce a limited quantity of that merchandise (t-shirt, hoodie, socks perhaps). This would make winners feel very special and set them apart.
I’m not sure if this aligns with Japanese culture, but it’s worked well for me at previous events.
Both versions work well, choose based on your preferred tone.
To add a bit more context about the hackathon: this event is designed with a high degree of freedom, and we expect engineers to enjoy exploring the world and technologies of Web3.
Based on everyone’s feedback, here are the points I am considering going forward:
Clarifying the scope of the sponsor prize
→ To be published on related websites.
Sharing information with participants
→ Inform them that initiatives such as UCG exist within Astar Governance.
→ This can motivate participants to pursue continuous product development rather than ending with a one-off project.
Bonus for winning teams
→ If a winning team aims for ongoing product development and operation, I will commit to acting as a bridge to Astar Governance, providing support, and following up on dApp Staking and UCG.
As for NFTs, while it would be ideal to design solid future utilities, I realized that supporting this solely with my own resources would be too demanding.
Therefore, I decided not to pursue it this time, though I appreciate it as a reference idea.
If your goal is to attract and reward teams interested in building something truly useful, the incentive will almost always be money or access to courses/experiences (which ultimately translates into money as well).
When it comes to community engagement and creating some buzz, I believe stickers work very well — they’re affordable and effective. I don’t see much difference between giving a sticker, a notebook, or a T-shirt. The person using it, or anyone exposed to that indirect marketing, is not going to join the core project just because they saw the item.
At that point, it really just depends on your budget.
Suggestions like NFTs or other onchain items are cool, but teams ultimately want practicality: “I will receive X for delivering Y.” The core motivation is financial.
Anything that adds friction, extra steps, or delays in receiving the reward ends up being negative from the builder’s perspective. In the end, teams prefer clear, straightforward compensation without unnecessary barriers.
Great initiative → sponsoring the NEMTUS Hackathon and serving as a judge is a strong way to promote building on Astar Network and Soneium. Offering a bonus prize on top of the Sponsor Prize is a meaningful gesture and will definitely motivate participants.
From a developer perspective, practical rewards tend to create the most impact: cloud credits, useful tools, or resources that directly support building. Exclusive NFTs or limited merch can also add a nice community touch.
Do you prefer the bonus prize to focus on supporting long-term development on Astar/Soneium, or on rewarding creativity and participation during the hackathon itself?
@pitcoin777,
Thank you for your comment.
In fact, the part corresponding to the “sponsor award” can be individually designed in terms of purpose and budget. However, in terms of monetary value, I believe this award is not the main one, so it should be kept modest.
I agree that keeping it as simple as possible is best.
Do you prefer the bonus prize to focus on supporting long-term development on Astar/Soneium, or on rewarding creativity and participation during the hackathon itself?
Thank you for the good question.
In this regard, the priority is on “participation in the hackathon and creativity.” Beyond that, we hope participants will also develop interest in Astar and Soneium, and for outstanding ideas, we would like to introduce and facilitate support such as UCG or dApp Staking so that they can continue development in the long term.
Good question on bonus prizes. Developers usually prefer practical stuff — infrastructure credits, dev tools, or mentorship. Commemorative NFTs work if they unlock future perks. What’s your budget range and do you want something that helps them keep building or more recognition-focused?
Thank you for reading @BoomBLB,
My thoughts have started to come together to some extent. I was planning to decide the budget while taking everyone’s opinions into account. As for the “secondary prize,” I was thinking not to place much value on the monetary aspect, but rather to provide support that enables the participating teams to continue being involved in the development of Astar/Soneium.
