ETHRome 2026

Judging

How your project gets scored: the session, what judges need from you, how your slot runs, and exactly where the points are.

ℹ️

This page is about the ETHRome prize only. Sponsor bounties follow each sponsor's own criteria and process. ETHRome has no say in how sponsors pick their winners and does not handle delivery.

Sunday morning

The judging session

Judging starts on Sunday 13 September at 10:30, right after the submission deadline.

Each team is assigned to a group of judges. During the same window, teams also show their project to each sponsor whose bounty they applied to: that conversation is entirely between you and the sponsor.

Stay at the venue until the end of the closing ceremony, so you do not miss your slot.

Before you present

Minimum requirements to be judged

No links, no score. Have these three things ready when you submit.

A link to the open source code, for example a public GitHub repository.
If your project deploys on chain, the contract address or addresses of your deployed demo, on a testnet or mainnet of your choice.
A link to a walkthrough video of maximum 3 minutes showing what you built. See How to record your demo video.

Your slot

How your slot runs

Short, live and to the point. Practice the demo before your slot, not during it.

You show what you built to your group of judges.
Then they ask questions and you answer.
How long each slot lasts is decided on the day and announced during the event.

One finalist team demos live on stage during the closing ceremony: the best project of the weekend.

Out of 100%

Judging criteria

Four families of criteria. Code carries half the score, so ship something that runs.

🎨 Creativity10%

Is the project idea new and interesting? 0 to 5
Does the project fit the hackathon theme in an unexpected way? 0 to 5

🏋️ Feasibility15%

Does the project solve a real problem? 0 to 5
How likely is it to be implemented in the real world? 0 to 10

🧪 Innovation and significance25%

How innovative is the project? 0 to 10
How impactful is it in the space it touches? 0 to 15

👨‍💻 Code50%

Does the project have a live working demo? 0 to 5
Was all the stated functionality fully implemented? 0 to 15
How hard was the project to build? 0 to 10
How well does it leverage the underlying technologies? 0 to 10
Is the application easy to understand and navigate, or, for a tool or an API, easy to integrate? 0 to 10

🚨

Two things to know after the event. Judges keep a 7-day window to make the result official: if irregularities are found in the repository of the winning team, the judges can exclude the team and withhold the prize. To allow those checks, keep your code open source for at least 4 weeks after the closing ceremony.

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