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About DoraHacks
A funding and hackathon platform for open-source developers and ecosystem foundations, expanded since 2014 from in-person hackathons into an online project registry, grant rounds and governance voting tools. It addresses the allocation problem in public-goods funding: who decides which early project receives the money. Quadratic funding serves as the pricing mechanism, where the cost of votes rises with the square of their number so broad small support outweighs a few large backers; voting runs on chain through MACI, with encrypted messages and zk-SNARK proofs of correct tallying that narrow collusion and vote buying. A companion AI system helps organisers draft tracks, review submissions and summarise judging.
It acts as the execution layer between foundations and builders, with BNB Chain, Aptos, Cosmos and Solana handing it quarterly grant rounds, while hackathons handle cold start and talent screening. Compared with foundations that simply disburse grants, it offers a verifiable voting and allocation process; compared with bounty platforms, it leans toward longer-horizon funding rather than one-off tasks. It serves several ecosystems at once, and its public voting and allocation records make it a reference case for public-goods funding.
In 2026 DoraHacks handed much of hackathon operations to agents. BUIDL AI reached version 3.0 with more than ten tools that automate track design, bounty setup, project review and marketing summaries, leaving organizers to make strategic calls. Funding formats widened too: Arc Microgrants with Circle ran from 16 September to 14 October with a 10,000 dollar pool of twenty 500 USDC grants for small apps and prototypes already deployed on Arc mainnet, while the Anna AI App Builder program from August to November pays monthly from a pool of up to 80,000 dollars, tiered by verified user growth.
Reviews and payouts are configurable modules, so organizers can release funds by milestone and reduce the risk of abandoned projects, while developers can submit one BUIDL across multiple tracks.
Future strategy and roadmap: DoraHacks will keep packaging grants, competitions and community into a developer acquisition channel, use BUIDL AI to cut organizer costs, and tilt resources toward projects that keep operating after the demo.
Eric Zhang — Founder & CEO; founded DoraHacks in 2014, pioneered quadratic funding for open-source builders and led Dora Factory and Dora Vota.
Penny Wang — Co-Founder & COO; leads global operations and the developer community.
Steve Ngok — Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer; also a partner at Dora Factory, heading ecosystem and partnerships.