TRUSTCHAIN Online Hackathon

TRUSTCHAIN Hackathon: Building a Human-Centered, Trustworthy, and Sustainable Decentralized Internet

The TRUSTCHAIN Hackathon is now open for applications! Taking place online from 17 to 25 November 2025, this pan-European event invites developers, startups, researchers, and SMEs to build innovative digital solutions that champion privacy, sustainability, interoperability, and trust in the next-generation internet.

The TRUSTCHAIN Hackathon is designed to demonstrate the transformative potential of the TRUSTCHAIN ecosystem by addressing critical challenges in creating a decentralized internet that prioritizes users. Our goal is to foster innovation in digital identity, data privacy, interoperability, regulatory compliance and sustainability, ensuring seamless integration with existing decentralized applications (dApps). Participants will build upon the core technological building blocks of at least two TRUSTCHAIN-funded projects and develop practical solutions that bridge gaps between them, help with ‘quick and easy’ technology adoption that will address real user needs, delivering tangible advancements for a more transparent, ethical, and user-empowered digital future.

As part of the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, TRUSTCHAIN has already funded 73+ projects across five Open Calls, tackling key areas such as:

Digital Identity: Self-sovereign identity (SSI) and eIDAS-compliant frameworks.
Data Privacy & Governance: Tools for secure, user-controlled data sharing that comply with the GDPR, the EU Data Act, and other relevant regulations.
Trustworthy Data Exchange: Systems ensuring integrity and transparency.
Multi-Chain Interoperability: Cross-blockchain compatibility for seamless operations.
Sustainable DLTs: Green, scalable distributed ledger technologies.

This hackathon will connect these innovations, enabling participants to build integrated solutions that will form the platform necessary to deliver the next generation decentralized services to benefit the citizens of Europe. For example:

Combining SSI tools with privacy-preserving data systems to create seamless, compliant and portable, identity management frameworks that’s scalable and interoperable.
Developing cross-chain applications that operate sustainably across Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, and other state of the art networks.
Enhancing user transparency and data ownership with dashboards that can track data access and control and help the user to revoke/delete when needed.

Tracks & Prizes

The hackathon features two competitive tracks:

Track 1: Internal – TRUSTCHAIN Teams
Track 2: External – Open to New Applicants

Prize Structure for Each Track:

1st Place: €3,000
2nd Place: €2,000
3rd Place: €1,000

Hackathon Themes & Focus Areas

Participants are encouraged to build solutions using at least two TRUSTCHAIN-funded projects. Innovations should target one or more of the following areas:

1. Digital Identity & Privacy

Cross-domain digital ID systems (“TrustChain Passport”)
Personal dashboards for data access logs & revocation
Digital wallets combining identity and digital assets
GDPR/eIDAS plugins for SMEs

2. Interoperability & Integration

Cross-chain modules (e.g., Ethereum, Polkadot)
Wallet interoperability tools
FIWARE-compatible plugins for smart SLAs

3. Sustainability, Inclusivity & Transparency

Blockchain energy tracking dashboards (“Chain-o-meter”)
Privacy-preserving supply chain trackers
Tools designed for marginalized communities

4. Decentralized Marketplaces & Incentives

Marketplaces with verifiable credentials and portable reputations
Tokenized carbon credits and incentive models
Smart contract-based revenue sharing

5. Web3 & Gaming

Gasless dApps for mainstream adoption
Educational mini-games rewarding civic participation
Web3 anti-scam and auto-recovery tools

Application Domains

Solutions can span across industries, such as:

Healthcare: Secure, interoperable health data sharing with patient consent.
Supply Chain: Transparent, tamper-proof tracking of goods and provenance.
Public Services: Decentralized solutions for e-voting, digital citizenship, or social benefits distribution.
Finance: Privacy-preserving DeFi tools or decentralized credit scoring.
Automotive and transportation: decentralized solutions to enable secure vehicle data marketplaces, transparent supply chains, autonomous coordination, and fair usage-based services, empowering users and businesses with trustless, privacy-preserving data exchange and automation.

How to Apply?

Applications will be accepted only via F6S platform and submitted before 13 November, 12:00 PM [noon] CET/Brussels time

Eligibility

Only applicants legally established/resident in any of the following countries (hereafter collectively identified as the “Eligible Countries”) are eligible:

The Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including their outermost regions.
The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) linked to the Member States^[1];
Horizon Europe associated countries, as described in the Reference Documents and the List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe according to the latest list published by the European Commission.
Additional rules apply. All applicants must:

Hold a valid EU VAT number
Applicants must form teams (no individual participants alone) such as:
- SME
- SME + Individual
- SME + SME
- SME + Academic/ Research entity
- Academy/ Research entity

Past and current participants of NGI TrustChain are welcome to apply abut it is mandatory they sign up for the internal track.
NEW applicants should apply to the external track.

Supported Material and Kit for Application

Application template will be made available only to the registered applicants eligible for the hackathon.

Service Catalogue

Hackathon Terms & Conditions