Last week marked the end of the second edition of the Canto Online Hackathon. Collaborating with the teams at Encode and Cadence, the four-week hackathon brought together 30 teams to build applications on the Canto blockchain. Emphasizing DEX tooling, launchpads, and lending protocols, the hackathon was not just a competition but an opportunity for teams to explore the Canto ecosystem and turn concepts into fully developed products.
Five teams won the finale, receiving an even split of 500,000 CANTO. These five teams, backed by both Canto and Cadence, demonstrated their technical skills and dedication to advancing the DeFi space.
Over the next few weeks, we will delve deep into the stories of the five winning teams. We will share a series of interviews with each team to uncover their individual experiences throughout the hackathon. These interviews will offer insights into their journeys, how they grew as a team during the hackathon, and their dreams for shaping the Canto ecosystem.
Today, we highlight the first team of this series: PieDeFi. In this interview, we spoke with Tomasz and Wojciech, two software engineers from PieDeFi, to gain detailed insight into their backgrounds, current projects, and future plans.
Interview with PieDeFi
Q1: Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your background and what drew you to Canto?
My name is Tomasz. I’m a Software Engineer, and together with Wojciech, a DevOps engineer, we are the creators of the PieDeFi project. We have several years of experience in software development and Web3. We have known each other since elementary school and have done side projects for over two years. We saw an opportunity to improve user experience on the Canto network by providing data visualization.
Q2: Can you walk us through PieDeFi and explain what problem it aims to solve?
Tomasz: PieDeFi is an on-chain activity data visualization tool that brings life into data. Our main thesis is that data visualization brings more users to DeFi, making data transparent and easy for every user to understand. Current solutions provide raw data, which is not exciting and complex - we call such tools Stage 1 DVT (Data Visualization Tooling). PieDeFi is Stage 2 DVT that introduces gamification and competition and breathing emotion into the data we provide.
Q3: How did participating in the Canto Hackathon help you grow as a developer and as a team?
Tomasz: The longer we work together, the more convinced we become that we are a well-fitted team capable of delivering the solutions we have established and deploying them for public use. Diving deep into Canto and understanding the importance of data for specific Canto protocols has been an amazing journey.
Q4: What are the next steps for your project? Are there any specific goals or milestones you’re aiming to achieve in the near future?
Tomasz: We would like to improve Canto UX by bringing more protocol integrations to PieDeFi, making it more accessible to new and existing users. The ultimate goal would be to become the DeFi hub for the Canto network and be the place where users begin their journey.
Q5: What kind of support or resources would be most helpful for you as you continue to develop and go-to-market?
Tomasz: Our intention is to be a public good project for the Canto network, and we think that grant support would be beneficial in the early stages of the PieDeFi journey. Supporting PieDeFi's visibility on social media by mentioning and sharing the content and updates posted on PieDeFi channels by official Canto channels would be beneficial too.
Q6: How do you see your project fitting into the broader ecosystem of Canto and the blockchain/developer community?
Tomasz: As Canto is a DeFi chain, we firmly believe that data visualization for DeFi projects is crucial for user adoption, ease of use, and making the whole process enjoyable.
Q7: Do you have any advice for other developers who are considering working on projects in the Canto ecosystem?
Tomasz: Do not hesitate to ask questions and be active in the Canto Discord community. There are people eager to help you build your project! We understand the importance of speaking loud about things we build.
To support Tomasz and Wojciech, you can check them out on:
Twitter: https://x.com/PieDefiCom
Github: https://github.com/wrybakiewicz/pie-defi-canto-hackathon
Website: https://piedefi.com/home
In the coming weeks, we will be featuring more winners and sharing their interviews on how they plan to drive their projects forward within Canto.