Hackathons are hard and we need to use the right tools efficiently to build our projects under pressure. We got Eman Herawy, a blockchain leader and advocate for the Arab community and women, to guide us on how to build efficiently. 

She founded Arabs in Blockchain, a community platform that promotes knowledge sharing and collaboration. She also co-founded NoonDAO, an Arab women-led DAO that supports women’s involvement and leadership in blockchain and Arab Blockchain Week, an annual event that highlights blockchain opportunities in the Arab region. 

The workshop focused on:

1. The most important tools to develop a web3 app. 
2. Using a starter kit can help you focus on finding/writing the code that is important for your specific project. 
3. Deploying smart contracts to a testnet
4. Calling a smart contract function in the frontend
5. Setting up a separate development wallet. Never use a wallet with actual funds for your development.

Quick Snapshot of the tools and tips discussed:

• Tools and Resources:

• Composer: A tool to install various packages and supports both Hardhat and Truffle for blockchain development.
• OpenZeppelin: Provides pre-packaged smart contracts which can be customized for different projects.
• MetaMask: For managing blockchain transactions; advice on setting up separate development wallets to mitigate risks associated with handling private keys.
• Hardhat For configuring networks in your project; includes an example of testing contracts on a test network.

• Deployment:
• Eman explained the process of deploying contracts using preferred packages, and managing deployments across different networks.
• Post-deployment, JSON files containing APIs and addresses are generated for interacting with deployed contracts.

• Component Greeting:
• Eman went throught the steps of fetching contract addresess and ABI for interacting with smart contracts.

• Github:
• Eman’s advice to developers is to regularly push updates to GitHub, to constantly track their progress and  revert to previous versions if needed.
• She also highlighted the importance of documenting user flow and presenting the project effectively to judges.

• Final Tips
• For the idea think big, for the actual product go as small as possible. Finish one feature after the other.
• Always submit. If you finished 70% and submit you submitted 70%. If you submit nothing, it’s 0%. Most hackathon projects are not complete. 
• The most important part is your presentation. The judges have to understand what you are building. Otherwise it serves no one.

‍

Head ➡️ here to check the full workshop branch for the code and written tutorial

To participate in our upcoming Venturethon (November 27 to December 3) which has a prize pool of  upto $24k and a $125k funding opportunity, learn more here. 

‍

Register for the Venturethon.

‍

Join our discord

‍