ETHRome 2026
The questions every hacker asks, answered in one place. If it is not here, ask us directly: hello@urbe.build or the Telegram group.
FAQ
What ETHRome is, who gets in, and what it costs. Short answer: nothing, if you were selected.
ETHRome is an international hackathon for web3 builders, now at its 4th edition. It runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 September 2026 at Urbe Hub in Testaccio, Rome. 40 selected builders, focused on AI, Finance and Privacy for web3.
Anything you want. AI for web3, Finance for web3 and Privacy for web3 are the themes of the edition, and the areas where our sponsors and mentors are strongest, so building near them tends to pay off. You are free to work on one of them, across all three, or somewhere else entirely. One single ranking, one winning team.
Builders of all backgrounds: developers, designers and other skill sets. Applications are evaluated on interest and experience in the Ethereum ecosystem and on demonstrated ability to build. Participation is by selection: only builders who received an acceptance message can take part.
Nothing. ETHRome is free for approved hackers, and meals, drinks and snacks are included for the whole weekend.
No. ETHRome is an IRL hackathon and remote hacking is not allowed: every member of your team has to be physically at Urbe Hub, both to build and to present the submission to the judges. You declared this when you registered.
Maximum 3 people. You can also hack solo.
Only with written authorization from both parents or legal guardians, accompanied by the identity documents of the signatories. You must also be accompanied by an authorized adult for the whole duration of the hackathon.
FAQ
What happens between check-in on Friday and the submission deadline on Sunday morning.
ETHRome is a hackathon: the weekend is built around 40 hours of building. There are two short sponsor workshops on Friday evening, Arkiv at 19:00 and Team1 at 19:30, twenty minutes each. Everything else on the Schedule page is hacking, meals and ceremonies.
Yes, under three conditions, all of them mandatory:
Miss one and the team is excluded from the competition. Full detail on the Rules page.
Through a single Google Form. Deadline: Sunday 13 September at 10:00 (Europe/Rome). Everything the form asks is on the Submit page.
Yes, that is why it also exists in Markdown. The repo urbeETH/ethrome-2026-hacker-manual mirrors these pages: clone it next to your project, add it as a submodule, or point your tool at the raw single file version. Pull before each session, the repo is refreshed when the site changes. If the two ever disagree, the site wins.
Write to hello@urbe.build or ask in the Telegram group. During the weekend, any organizer on site can help.
FAQ
One prize from ETHRome, bounties from the sponsors. Two separate things, judged by different people.
To be judged you need the minimum requirements: open source code, contract addresses if you deployed, and a demo video of maximum 3 minutes. Then you present your project to a group of judges and answer their questions. How long each slot lasts is decided on the day and announced during the event. The full criteria are on the Judging page.
The winning team wins one year of Urbe Hub membership for every member, up to 3 people. On top of that, whatever bounties the sponsors decide to award: $4,500 is on the table.
Arkiv, Team1 and Swarm. See the Prizes page for what they bring. Open a sponsor there to read what it wants you to build.
Bounties are put up, chosen and paid by the sponsors alone: ETHRome has no say in the selection and does not handle delivery in any way. All three sponsors have confirmed: Arkiv $2,500, Team1 $1,000 and Swarm $1,000, for a pool of $4,500. What each bounty asks for sits inside its own block on the Prizes page: click a sponsor and it opens. All three briefs are there in full.
Yes. Apply to as many bounties as genuinely fit what you built, by ticking them in the submission form. Going after a bounty does not affect how the ETHRome judges score you.
Team1 is the one exception, twice over. Inside their bounty you enter one track only, Track A or Track B, and the form asks you which. They also run their own submission form on top of ours, so for that bounty you fill in both. Details in the Team1 block on the Prizes page.
Arkiv works the other way round: you can go for one, two or all three of their missions, but a team wins one Arkiv prize at most. Their block has the rest.
By the sponsor, directly. ETHRome does not distribute bounty prizes and does not run KYC on bounty winners: each sponsor pays its own winners and handles any checks on its own side. Each sponsor tells its winners how and when, after the event. Nothing about the payout changes what you build, so do not let it slow you down.
One link is still missing. Team1 runs its own submission form on top of ours and the link arrives before the event; it lands in their block on the Prizes page and in the Telegram group. Everything else on this page is confirmed.