We’re excited to announce the winners of HackSecret 4!

This hackathon received 49 project submissions with a wide range of use-cases, including data protection, healthcare, DeFi, AI, crowdfunding, social media, RWAs, gaming, e-commerce, governance, education, hiring, NFT auctions, 2-factor authentication, fraud detection, and real estate. From these 49 projects we selected 8 winners, all of which we felt were high quality and deserved a portion of the prize pool.

HackSecret 4 featured two distinct tracks: Cross-Chain dApps and Native Secret dApps. For Cross-Chain dApps, participants needed to develop applications that utilized Secret's Confidential Computing Layer. For Native Secret dApps, participants needed to build their dApp entirely on Secret Network.

And now, presenting the winning projects!

Cross-Chain dApps Track

PARC (Private Acknowledge Receipt on-Chain)

PARC creates an immutable record on the Secret Network blockchain when a set of confidential data has been accessed by a specified party. This has many potential use-cases, and can be used as a building block in more complex applications. For example, a dApp that proves delivery of legal notices like lawsuits, summons, or injunctions ("you've been served"). Or, a dApp similar to Docusign that allows multiple parties to sign an agreement. Or, a simple "read" status for a messaging dApp. PARC also makes use of Secret's Confidential Computing Layer to enable this functionality cross-chain, in this case for dApps deployed on Sei.

Here's how it works:

1. Create an NFT with Public and Private Content: Using PARC, you can mint an NFT that contains both public and private data. The public portion is visible to everyone, but the private content is locked and only accessible to the designated recipient.

2. Transfer the NFT: You transfer the NFT to the intended recipient. They can view the public content, but the private information remains encrypted and hidden until the recipient decides to access it.

3. Sign a Transaction to Unlock Private Content: To view the private data, the recipient must sign a transaction on-chain. This not only gives them access to the hidden content but also triggers an acknowledgement receipt to the NFT owner, notifying them that the content has been accessed.

4. On-Chain Notification: Once the private content is viewed, an immutable record is created on the blockchain, confirming that the recipient has seen the information.

SecretHacks

SecretHacks eliminates popularity bias and the bandwagon effect in grants, hackathons, and community funding initiatives. By leveraging vote encryption through the Secret Network, SecretHacks ensures anonymous, secure, and unbiased voting, leading to fairer outcomes for all participants. It also makes use of Secret's Confidential Computing Layer to enable this functionality for EVM dApps, specifically for dApps on Sei.

In many grant and hackathon systems, participants often vote based on popularity bias or follow the bandwagon effect, where projects with more visible support gain disproportionate attention. This results in skewed voting patterns and unfair competition. High-quality projects that don't attract mass attention end up receiving less funding from the matching pool during Quadratic Voting/Funding, which unfairly limits their growth and potential impact. By encrypting votes across projects, SecretHacks creates a private, unbiased, and secure voting environment where the true quality of projects determines their success — not their popularity.

Native Secret dApps Track

Great Walk NFT Experience

The Great Walk NFT Experience is an evolving NFT project that brings New Zealand's iconic hikes to life in the digital world. Users can purchase NFT tickets that represent their journey along famous trails, such as the Routeburn Track. As they progress through the walk, their NFT evolves to showcase new badges, images, and metadata, reflecting their personal achievements. This immersive experience not only gamifies outdoor adventures but also demonstrates dynamic, evolving NFTs, powered by Secret NFTs that contain encrypted metadata. You can test out a live demo here.

OnChain 2FA

OnChain 2FA is a simple but powerful demonstration of what Secret Network's encrypted smart contracts are capable of, and provides an extremely useful building block that can be utilized by many different types of applications. Developers can enhance the security of Secret Network dApps by integrating Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) using Google Authenticator. OnChain 2FA enables users to secure their accounts and smart contract interactions with Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP). Imagine a DeFi dApp like Shade Protocol requiring 2FA in order to perform a swap, or withdraw LP or staking rewards. Or, an NFT marketplace like Stashh requiring 2FA in order to list an NFT for sale. Or, a liquid staking derivative like stkd-SCRT requiring 2FA to claim rewards and convert back to the native token. This project opens up many different possibilities.

KittyMix

KittyMix is a 2D cat collecting game similar to the Web3 classic CryptoKitties, where users can combine their cats with other players to obtain new types of cats. When users join the game, they gain a randomly generated pixel-art cat. The shape of the face, body, tail, and ears are all randomized as are the color and the texture of the cat’s coat. Different shapes, colors, and textures have different rarities, so you may be lucky when you first join the game, or you may not. To gain more cats, you have to offer to remix your cat with other players. To increase the genetic diversity of the cats in the game available to remix with, more people need to join. By increasing the genetic diversity, you can end up with rarer and rarer cats in your collection. Each cat is stored on the Secret Network blockchain using Secret NFTs.

Straw-Hat Builds

Straw-Hat Builds is a developer education platform born from the belief that true growth in software development happens when we push our work beyond the boundaries of our local testing environment, and into the hands of real users. This project seeks to inspire developers to embark on a journey of building and shipping meaningful products. By focusing on real-world technologies like blockchain and Rust, Straw-Hat Builds offers a unique experience where learning is tied to creating tangible applications— tools, apps, and websites that don’t just exist in isolation but serve real-world needs. It was built almost entirely in Rust and features educational content for writing Secret smart contracts.

Saffron

Saffron is a peer-to-peer trading platform that essentially acts as an escrow service, locking tokens into a contract until each side has provided the agreed upon assets for the trade. It facilitates the trading of both fungible tokens (SNIP-20) and non-fungible tokens (SNIP-721) using Secret Network's privacy-preserving smart contracts. Users can create trade offers, accept trades, and view trade-related activities in a secure, private manner. Users can also communicate with others via a messaging feature or filter and search current trade offers to find suitable ones.

Secret Password Manager

Secret Password Manager allows users to safely store sensitive data like passwords on the Secret Network blockchain. It's similar to services like 1Password, LastPass, and BitWarden, but instead of storing the data on centralized servers, the encrypted data is stored on Secret's decentralized blockchain network.

Calling All Builders

That's a wrap for HackSecret 4, but there are always more opportunities for builders on Secret Network! As a leading decentralized confidential computing (DeCC) blockchain, Secret enables developers to build groundbreaking Web3 applications through the use of encrypted data. Secret is also highly interoperable, having the ability to provide DeCC to nearly any EVM, Solana, or Cosmos-based blockchain. We invite anyone interested in learning how to build privacy-preserving dApps to join our Secret Network developer Telegram group or Discord. Also check out our grants program and builders program, which provide funding and other types of support to projects that are ready to take it to the next level. You can also contact our team directly through this form or email if you have any questions.

Build the future of Web3 with decentralized confidential computing (DeCC), powered by Secret Network.

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