This past May, PayPal announced that PYUSD was live on Solana, marking a new phase of opportunity and adoption for stablecoin payments.

Today, we are excited to unveil the first Global PYUSD Portal Hackathon, a collaboration between PayPal and Portal, built on Solana.

The global virtual hackathon will start on August 12, 2024 and run until September 16, 2024. The winners of the hackathon will receive prizes from a total prize pool of 40,000 PYUSD and be showcased at the Solana Hacker House in Hong Kong from October 24 - 26, 2024.

Participants are also encouraged to continue building and be eligible for even more prizes by entering their projects to the Solana RADAR Hackathon, powered by Colosseum!

Apply for the Global PYUSD Portal Hackathon!

Hackathon Track and Prizes

The Global PYUSD Portal Hackathon will distribute 40,000 PYUSD in prizes to 6 hackathon winners:

• Grand Champion: 15,000 PYUSD

• Runner Up: 10,000 PYUSD

• Innovation Champion: 5,000 PYUSD

  • This prize goes to the team who creates the most novel project or proof of concept; the most fundamentally new application of PYUSD in the market.

• Popular Choice Award: 3,500 PYUSD

  • To be chosen by the fellow hackathon participants!

• “Consumer Knows Best”: 3,500 PYUSD

  • This prize goes to the top consumer application built during the hackathon.

• “Cha-ching!”: 3,500 PYUSD

  • This prize goes to the top DeFi / Trading application built during the hackathon.

Why Build with PYUSD on Solana?

The launch of PYUSD on Solana expands our efforts to make PYUSD the choice stablecoin for digital payments. On Solana, PYUSD can be transferred between web3 wallets through speedy and secure transactions with low-cost transfer fees. Whether on Solana or Ethereum, PYUSD can also be sent between your Venmo or PayPal wallet and your decentralized wallet, all with near-zero network fees.

For merchants and retail users alike, PYUSD on Solana comes with powerful features that Solana enables. These features allow for more nuanced ways to use stablecoins that reflect the type of customization that today’s web2 users are accustomed to in financial services:

• Confidential Transfers: allows merchants the option to maintain confidentiality of transaction amounts while maintaining visibility of other transaction details.

• Transfer Hooks: enables PayPal developers to invoke custom programs during token transfers for individuals and merchants using PYUSD. These hooks will enable an ecosystem of useful features that mirror today’s “plug-ins'' for commercial use.

• Memo Fields: enables senders and receivers to include information along with payments, creating a more user-friendly experience for daily payments and recordkeeping.

Explore more features of PYUSD on Solana in our announcement post and don’t miss out on the opportunity to join the Global PYUSD Portal Hackathon. Together, we can build the future of decentralized digital payments with PayPal’s PYUSD. Register here!