Charli3 Oracles Hackathon

Participant Guide

Welcome to the Charli3 Oracles Hackathon. This guide contains everything you need to make the most of your 3-day build.

Key Timeline

Event	Date	Time
Official Kick Off & Challenges Release	Thursday April 16, 2026	11:00 AM EST
Day 1 Live Help Session	Thursday April 16, 2026	6:00 PM EST
Day 2 Live Help Session	Friday April 17, 2026	11:00am EST
Day 3 Live Help Session	Saturday April 18, 2026	TBD
Submission Deadline	Sunday April 19, 2026	TBD
Closing Ceremony + Winners Announced	TBD	TBD

Prize Pool

<aside> 🏆

Total Prize Pool: 40,000 ADA

Funded by Project Catalyst and the Cardano Foundation.

🏆 Grand Prize

🥇 Best Overall — 20,000 ADA

The single best project across all tracks. Solo or team, any track.

🏆 Best in Track

🥇 DeFi Track — 5,000 ADA 🥇 Real World Settlements Track - 5,000 ADA 🥇 Oracle Tooling Track (Bonus) - 5,000 ADA

🏆 People's Choice — 5,000 ADA Voted by the Cardano community after submissions close.

Additional perks: Charli3, Cardano Foundation, and Project Catalyst will run a coordinated spotlight on all hackathon winners.

Note: Solo or team - prizes go to the project. teams split however they agreed amongst themselves.

</aside>

Categories and Challenges

Two + 1 Bonus tracks. You may choose any.

<aside>

Track 1: DeFi Applications & Integrations

CHALLENGE: Demonstrate a financial scenario on Cardano where the outcome depends on verified market data fetched on-chain during the action time.

IDEAS:

Borrowing or lending decision that executes based on a live collateral price
Trade or swap that settles at a verified market rate at execution
Liquidation or margin call triggered when an asset price crosses a threshold
A synthetic asset that mints or redeems based on verified underlying price </aside>

<aside>

**Track 2: Real World Settlements

CHALLENGE:** Demonstrate a real-world scenario on Cardano where a fair outcome depends on verified external data fetched on-chain at settlement.

IDEAS:

Insurance payout that releases automatically when oracle data confirms a qualifying event
Escrow or milestone contract that resolves when oracle data confirms a condition
Dispute resolution mechanism that uses oracle-verified data as source of truth </aside>

<aside>

BONUS TRACK: Oracle Tooling

CHALLENGE: Make it easier for Cardano builders to integrate the MIT open-source pull oracle infrastructure. Lower the friction. Help the next builder ship faster.

IDEAS:

SDK or library for integrating Charli3 pull oracle in a few lines of code
Sample contracts and integration templates for common patterns
Developer tooling — CLI, scaffolding, deploy scripts, testing utilities
Documentation, tutorials, or video walkthroughs that meaningfully lower the barrier </aside>

Judging Criteria

Criteria	What judges look for
Technical Implementation	Does it work? Is the oracle integrated meaningfully? Code quality and completeness. Did this require solving a difficult technical challenge?
Innovation & Creativity	How novel is the approach? Did the builders need to research and develop something previously unavailable?
Impact on Cardano	Will this drive on-chain transactions, TVL, or new users to Cardano? Will it improve the ecosystem?
Business Growth & Potential	Did the integration unlock a new business concept or grow an existing one? Will it enable real growth on Cardano?

Official Hackathon Judges: