Announcing the Grant For The Web Hackathon on DEV
Tags: gftwhackathon, opensource, meta, webmonetization
Published: 2020-05-07 14:38:39

---
title: Announcing the Grant For The Web Hackathon on DEV
published: true
description: Details about the Grant for the Web Hackathon hosted on DEV.
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/q19vviykh0oi1s5tkbqe.png
tags: gftwhackathon, opensource, meta, webmonetization
---

We are so excited to announce the Grant For The Web x DEV Community hackathon. 

[Grant for the Web](https://www.grantfortheweb.org/) is a collaboration between Mozilla, Creative Commons, and Coil. They are working towards a healthier internet, using open standards to give people more independence and control over how they distribute and monetize content. It’s a future where creators and their publishers can leverage open standards and protocols like [Web Monetization](https://webmonetization.org) instead of relying on invasive ads, paywalls, and the abuse of personal data.

We are deeply aligned with Grant For The Web’s [mission](https://www.grantfortheweb.org/charter), and are very excited to support their open [Call For Proposals](https://www.grantfortheweb.org/apply). They are funding projects that contribute to an ecosystem of content, users, tools, and infrastructure over the next 5 years. The grants will range from $5,000 to $100,000 USD!

In order to help drive exploration and experimentation around Web Monetization and possible grant proposals, we’re excited to host a Community Hackathon right here on DEV. We hope that you’ll participate in the DEV contest, and then consider expanding your submission into a full-on Grant for the Web proposal via the [Grant for the Web CFP](https://www.grantfortheweb.org/apply).

Read on for more details about the contest, categories, prizes, and key dates.

### What is Web Monetization?

For many of you, this might be your first exposure to [Web Monetization](https://webmonetization.org/). Web Monetization provides content creators with an alternative solution to get paid for the content they share on the Web. When a user visits a monetized Web page, their browser (if it supports Web Monetization) may send micropayments to it. The Web page can detect these micropayments and give the user  a better experience, for example by removing advertisements or by unlocking [additional content](https://coil.com/p/coil/The-100-20-Rule-for-Premium-Content/3l1ALJ3M6). All this is made possible thanks to a new Web API developed at W3C, the Web Monetization API. This API is intended to be implemented natively in browsers but is already available today via a [Web extension](https://help.coil.com/using-coil/coil-extension) for popular desktop browsers and [Puma Browser](https://pumabrowser.com) on mobile.

In order to add Web Monetization to your project, you’ll need to:
- Set up a “wallet” for _receiving_ payments
- Get your wallet’s “payment pointer”
- Add a special <meta> tag to your page with your payment pointer

```html
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Web Monetized Site</title>
    <meta name="monetization" content="$wallet.example.com/sloan">
  </head>
</html>
```

From that point on, you can use the [JavaScript API](https://webmonetization.org/docs/api) to react to the small payments from users who have a Web Monetization provider, like Coil. You might choose to reward these monetized browsers by removing ads, unlocking exclusive content, or enabling special features. We’ve outlined a few example projects a little bit lower down in this announcement post.

Here are a [few options for wallets](https://webmonetization.org/docs/ilp-wallets) that can _receive_ payments.  The first Web Monetization provider for _sending_ payments is [Coil](https://coil.com) but others will likely crop up as the ecosystem grows.

## Categories

Now that we’ve gone through the basics of Web Monetization, let’s get to the fun part: the DEV Community hackathon. For this contest, we are looking for projects in these three categories:

- **Foundational Technology**: projects that innovate around the technology itself: i.e.building plugins, documentation, APIs, and templates for monetizing the web, etc.
- **Creative Catalyst**: projects that use existing Web Monetization technology to explore the creation, distribution, and discoverability of content online.
- **Exciting Experiments**: an innovative or unexpected web monetized app that doesn’t necessarily fit any of the above categories, but is a clear winner nonetheless.

The Foundational Technology and Creative Catalyst categories mirror Grant for the Web’s call for proposals, should you wish to consider expanding your Hackathon submission into a full-on application.

### Prizes

**3 Grand Prize Winners (one in each category):**
- $2,000 USD gift card or equivalent 💸
- $300 USD credit to the DEV Shop 🎁
- DEV “Grant For The Web Hackathon” winner badge 🏆

**Runner-up Prizes (10 total):**
- $400 USD gift card or equivalent 💸
- $150 USD credit to the DEV Shop 🎁
- DEV “Grant For The Web Hackathon” runner-up badge 👏

**Participants (with valid projects):**
- $50 USD credit to the DEV Shop 🎁
- DEV “Grant For The Web Hackathon” participation badge 💪

--- 

### How To Participate

In order to submit a valid project, please follow the submission process and rules closely.

#### How To Submit
- Document your project journey along the way with the [#gftwhackathon](/t/gftwhackathon) tag.
- Submit your project as a DEV post by [filling out this template]( https://dev.to/new/gftwhackathon) 
- Please be sure to include the code repository in the post with embedded live demos, screenshots, and/or code snippets.

#### Additional Rules

- Your project must be started and completed between May 6 - June 5.
- Your code must be licensed with a permissive license (i.e. MIT, Apache-2).
- You may work in a team but only one person should submit the project. Only one prize will be awarded to each team
- You must be 13 years of age or older to participate in the DEV Hackathon.  To submit to the Grant for the Web CFP, your team lead must be at least 18 years old (though younger people are allowed to participate as part of the team).

#### Coil Trial

Coil is generously offering a free trial to Grant for the Web Hackathon participants.  More information in this post:

{% link https://dev.to/devteam/free-coil-trial-for-all-gftwhackathon-participants-3n7m %}

#### Example Projects

Need some inspiration on what sorts of projects to build?  There are several examples you may want to check out in the [WebMonetization.org Docs](https://webmonetization.org/docs/getting-started).  You’ll find examples related to:

- [Exclusive Content](https://webmonetization.org/docs/exclusive-content)
- [Removing ads](https://webmonetization.org/docs/remove-ads)
- [A Micropayment counter](https://webmonetization.org/docs/counter)
- [Probabilistic revenue sharing](https://webmonetization.org/docs/probabilistic-rev-sharing)
- [Starting / Stopping monetization](https://webmonetization.org/docs/start-stop)

There are some additional examples on [Coil’s Glitch page](https://glitch.com/@coil).

#### Community Support

We’ve set up a [GftW Hackathon Discussion / Help Thread](https://dev.to/thepracticaldev/grant-for-the-web-hackathon-help-thread-19pb) where you can discuss ideas, find collaborators, and receive support from experts in Web Monetization.  Team members from Grant for the Web and Coil will be spending time on DEV and answering questions in this thread.

We’ll also be setting up a dedicated DEV Connect group channel for more synchronous help. To join this group, just leave a comment in the [discussion / help thread](https://dev.to/thepracticaldev/grant-for-the-web-hackathon-help-thread-19pb). This will be a great place to spend time with the team from Grant for the Web + Coil, and to engage with you fellow community participants.

### Call For Proposals

In addition to the hackathon hosted right here on DEV, Grant For The Web is welcoming submissions to their [call for proposals](https://www.grantfortheweb.org/apply). They are looking to fund individuals, projects, and global communities that contribute to a privacy-centric, open, and accessible Web Monetization ecosystem with grants ranging from $5,000 to $100,000 USD. 

The $100 Million, five-year fund will prioritize innovative ideas that incorporate or build upon the Web Monetization standard and protocols. Funds will support projects, content, experimentation, and learning around natively integrating monetization into the web using open protocols and standards. 

Our hackathon categories are intentionally similar to the call for proposal tracks in order to make your life easier. We strongly encourage you to submit to both the hackathon and the call for proposals if you’d like to take your project a step further!

### Important Dates 🗓

- **May 7**: Hackathon Begins!
- ~~**June 5**~~ **June 14**: Hackathon Submission Due at 11:59pm PST.
- ~~**June 10**~~ **June 18**: Hackathon Winners Announced
- ~~**June 12**~~ **June 22**: Grant for the Web Call For Proposals Due

### DEV Is Participating Too

During the hackathon, the DEV team will be taking on a Web Monetization project of our own.  We’ll start by adding a Payment Pointer  right here on the [open-source platform](https://github.com/thepracticaldev/dev.to)!  Once we get a deeper sense of how the technology works, and feel confident that we’ve implemented everything correctly, we’ll enable Web Monetization for everyone in the community. This means that every DEV member will be able to add a payment pointer to their profile and published posts!

We’re so excited to be supporting Grant for the Web as they push the internet towards more fair and open standards.  We hope you have fun, learn some new things, and build something you’re proud of.  We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Happy Coding!