In March 2020, Binance and WazirX collaborated on Blockchain for India initiative to boost the Indian blockchain ecosystem. This was followed by Polaris, a crypto-entrepreneur program that helps startups build blockchain solutions with real-world use cases, and provides support in terms of investments, marketing expertise, and technological know-how.
Today, in the same cryptopreneurial spirit, we’re excited to launch Build for Bharat, a twofold program with hackathon and acceleration opportunities; initiated to bridge the gap between blockchain and mass adoption.
The hackathon is sponsored by Google Cloud, Matic Network, Marlin Protocol, Band Protocol, Ankr cloud infrastructure while the acceleration is sponsored by Polaris Accelerator Program.
Build for Bharat invites creators, innovators, and BUIDLers from all over India to come and showcase their talent by building unique and creative products utilizing digital assets and blockchain technology. The program strongly aligns with our vision of spreading financial sovereignty and bringing blockchain to all; also making it our first DeFi-focused hackathon and acceleration program.
Who can apply?
We’re calling on startups and individuals who work on Mini-Tokens, Micro Financing Products, Blockchain Datasets, Blockchain-AI Solutions and more to come join us. We encourage cryptopreneurs working on a proof-of-concept, building a minimal viable product (MVP) or a blockchain-based innovative use case to participate as well; the hackathon is DeFi-focused but we welcome out-of-the-box blockchain based projects too!
“India has been one of the most interesting countries Binance has tapped into! We’ve seen entrepreneurs create robust blockchain-based solutions from scratch and scale it. With the second largest blockchain developer base in the world – India has already kickstarted the revolution of decentralization and we’re here to fuel it!”
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO at Binance
Through Build for Bharat, shortlisted startups will receive rewards from a pool of 30,00,000+ INR and winning teams will receive an acceleration (push in terms of funding) via Polaris, along with close mentoring from leading industry experts, founders, and the Binance team itself.
The winning teams will gain access and support from Binance’s blockchain ecosystem that comprises Binance Chain, Binance Cloud, Binance Launchpad, Binance DEX, and more.
Program Timeline
Build for Bharat is a three months long twofold program with hackathon and acceleration opportunities divided into 3 cohorts:
| Duration | Cohorts | Details |
| 24th Aug – 11th September | Genesis | Accepting applications till 11th September Shortlisting top 100 teams |
| 12th – 30th September | Trial | Meetups, AMAs and Qualifier roundsSelecting top 20 finalists |
| 1st – 31st October | Conquer | Mentoring sessions and evaluating performance Results of top 5 winners |
How do I sign up?
Head over to the event registration website to sign up for Build for Bharat! (Event and process is managed by Lumos Labs – A Singapore-based innovation management platform.)
More information:
The dual-chain architecture of Binance Chain & Binance Smart Chain empowers the developer community to build their own decentralized apps and digital assets on one blockchain, while also taking advantage of the fast trading performance offered on the Binance Decentralized Exchange (DEX).
Polaris an initiative by Binance and WazirX under the Blockchain for India Fund is designed to meet the needs of first-time cryptopreneurs and tech talents who want to explore working on crypto and blockchain-related projects. Individuals/Entities can apply for two Polaris programs, Kickstart and Blitzscale, depending on which stage of development the teams and individuals are in.
Launched in 2018, WazirX is India’s fastest growing cryptocurrency exchange with over 600,000 users. The goal of WazirX is to make crypto accessible to everyone in India. WazirX is a part of Binance ecosystem, and available for global audience.
Google Cloud wants to help startups focus on their ideas, innovate and grow into the next great company. We empower startups to grow with the same tools and infrastructure used to build Google.
- Scale with reliability and confidence using App Engine or leverage Google Kubernetes Engine for scaling containerized applications.
- Make the most of your data with AI Platform, get access to experimental AI technologies curated from Google’s research teams with AI workshop, and build and deploy ML models with TensorFlow.
- Use the Cloud Public Datasets, which allow you to conveniently access popular public data, such as real-time updated public blockchain data. Use Data Studio to unlock the power of your data with interactive dashboards and engaging reports that inspire smarter business decisions.
- Use the same technology used to build Google. Key examples of this include Android, Chromium, TensorFlow, and Kubernetes. Google is the largest contributor of open source software to GitHub.
Get up and running quickly with mentorship, training, and Cloud credits from the Google Cloud for Startups program.
Marlin is a secure platform-agnostic networking protocol that enables faster transmission of blocks and transactions between miners and incentivized full nodes, making web 3 experiences smoother and cheaper. It is interoperable with a wide range of consensus algorithms helping scale blockchains at layer-0.
Band Protocol is a cross-chain data oracle platform that aggregates and connects real-world data and APIs to smart contracts. Blockchains are great at immutable storage and deterministic, verifiable computations — however, they cannot securely access data available outside the blockchain networks. Band Protocol enables smart contract applications such as DeFi, prediction markets, and games to be built on-chain without relying on the single point of failure of a centralized oracle.
Ankr is building an infrastructure platform and marketplace for Web3-stack deployment. The blockchain infrastructure aims to enable resource providers and end-users to easily connect to blockchain technologies and DeFi applications. The Ankr proprietary cloud infrastructure operates independently from public cloud providers and is powered by geographically distributed enterprise-grade data centers to increase resilience and stability.
Matic Network is a Layer 2 scaling solution backed by Binance and Coinbase that is providing a generalized Layer 2 platform, enabling Ethereum developers to scale their DApps for large-scale usage. For the initial phase, we have launched our hybrid PoS+Plasma sidechain on top of Ethereum which is already gaining huge traction – making Matic one of the fastest growing DApp platforms in the space.
We believe the answer to enabling widespread adoption of blockchain technology lies with second-layer solutions focused on scalability. To this end, Matic Network provides massive scaling capabilities whilst leveraging the security and decentralization of the mainchain.
Lumos Labs is a Singapore based innovation management firm that specialises in running technology open innovation programs. Founded in 2018, the company has run several accelerators and open innovation programs for international firms.
