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As architects of complex and intricate systems, a developer at Cere–and blockchain-based technologies overall–sees no shortage of challenges and obstacles to overcome. Just as there are self-imposed challenges, there are those that come naturally from the chaotic and uncontrollable outside world; less forgiving, less predictable, and to some, more satisfying to tackle.
Hackathons exist somewhere between these two realms. They’re very versatile in format, address relevant needs in the industry, provide an ideal space for collaborations, and put promising groups under the spotlight with promises of grants, prizes, and other forms of support.
This past week, Berlin became home to numerous hackathons during its blockchain week, chief among them were the Solana and Farcaster BasedBerlin hackathons. For the Cere team, these events were an opportunity to demonstrate the transformative potential of content delivery networks (CDNs) for Web3 apps, now fully decentralized via Cere’s first data cluster Dragon 1.
Our Objectives
The goal of joining the hackathons was to illustrate how Cere’s technology, especially Freeport and the Cere Media SDK (leveraging Dragon 1’s decentralized streaming capabilities), could be integrated seamlessly with new blockchain ecosystems like Base and Solana in mere hours of development.
It is common to see blockchain-based projects attend such events, but less so when it comes to infrastructures of the same scope as Cere to take part as well. This is a key point to consider, since, instead of exclusively utilizing the resources of the host networks, Cere saw this as an opportunity to also share its technology and showcase its potential on other networks–a demonstration of skill, possibilities, and interoperability.
So, how did Cere fare in Berlin?
Farcaster/Base
Base, a leading Ethereum Layer-2 network, provided an ideal environment for Cere to showcase Dragon 1’s decentralized content delivery capabilities. The goal was to create a Farcaster Frame—a mini-application within the Farcaster network—that could stream NFT-permissioned video content.
The team started by deploying Freeport Smart Contracts on the Base Sepolia network, after which they began manually transferring NFTs and updating the registry using customized scripts to accurately ensure ownership records for permissioned streaming. With the foundational contracts in place, the focus shifted to integrating the Media SDK with the Farcaster Frame. Then came authentication and authorization, where, by verifying NFT ownership against the global registry the Media SDK would grant access to video streams stored on Cere’s Decentralized Data Cloud (DDC).
We’d like to thank Farcaster and Base for organizing this amazing event, it was a pleasure building on Base and seeing our work come to life on another network.
Solana
Building on their success at the Base hackathon, Cere’s team tackled the Solana hackathon next. Solana, a top-tier network known for its high throughput, low transaction costs, and vibrant developer ecosystem, presented different challenges and opportunities. The goal was to develop a decentralized video streaming platform using Cere’s tools and Solana’s blockchain infrastructure.
There were similar fundamental processes involved, however, Solana’s natural differences from Base presented a different terrain to navigate. The team started by deploying ERC-1155 compatible smart contracts on Solana to enable NFT minting and management. Given Solana’s architecture, the team adapted its deployment strategies to ensure compatibility and performance with its existing tooling.
With the smart contracts deployed, the next step was integrating the Media SDK with the Solana network. This required an understanding of Solana’s transaction mechanisms and signature schemes. The team added support for Solana’s ed25519 signature scheme within the Media SDK, ensuring secure and efficient content access authentication.
A special shoutout to Solana for hosting this hackathon in Berlin; having to adapt and think outside the box was a challenge we deeply enjoyed, which was further amplified once our efforts bore fruit.
Of course, none of these missions were without their challenges.
Overcoming Challenges
Having to adapt to two different networks is an intimidating task in and of itself, to do so quickly and efficiently would require a high-caliber team full of determination and driven by extensive knowledge and experience in this space.
Having said that, we are proud to inform you that, despite these obstacles, the team was able to overcome them and deliver results at the end of the day. For Farcaster, the team optimized the SDK’s performance to ensure quick response times and minimal buffering, and for Solana, after extensive testing and optimization, they ensured the SDK could manage the rapid pace of transactions without compromising security or performance, leading to minting NFTs on the Solana network, streaming on DDC via these NFTs, and turning fans into collectors.
This also highlights the capabilities and flexibility of our toolkit, with which, developers can build and adapt to a variety of networks and ecosystems. While we knew of our SDK’s potential, these events allowed us to go above and beyond and demonstrate their effectiveness.
And now we’d love to see what you can do with them.
Wrapping Up the Events
For as much as there was to showcase in Berlin, the team walked away with more than a sense of pride and accomplishment. Hackathons attract some of the most talented and dedicated programmers from around the world and place them in very competitive environments, resulting in very impressive feats of programming in relatively short time frames. Conversing and interacting with other teams not only gave us valuable insights and approaches to building new tech, but also, being among so many aspiring and motivated developers strengthened our inspiration and gave us more reason to continue developing Cere.
If you fit that description, you fit in Cere’s ecosystem; where we are building a developer community of passionate and curious people who are looking to build impressive applications on new and innovative technologies.
Join today, and build tomorrow.
