Announcing the Grant For The Web Hackathon on DEV

We are so excited to announce the Grant For The Web x DEV Community hackathon.

Grant for the Web is a collaboration between Mozilla, Creative Commons, and Coil. They are working towards a healthier internet, using open standards to give people more independence and control over how they distribute and monetize content. It’s a future where creators and their publishers can leverage open standards and protocols like Web Monetization instead of relying on invasive ads, paywalls, and the abuse of personal data.

We are deeply aligned with Grant For The Web’s mission, and are very excited to support their open Call For Proposals. They are funding projects that contribute to an ecosystem of content, users, tools, and infrastructure over the next 5 years. The grants will range from $5,000 to $100,000 USD!

In order to help drive exploration and experimentation around Web Monetization and possible grant proposals, we’re excited to host a Community Hackathon right here on DEV. We hope that you’ll participate in the DEV contest, and then consider expanding your submission into a full-on Grant for the Web proposal via the Grant for the Web CFP.

Read on for more details about the contest, categories, prizes, and key dates.

What is Web Monetization?

For many of you, this might be your first exposure to Web Monetization. Web Monetization provides content creators with an alternative solution to get paid for the content they share on the Web. When a user visits a monetized Web page, their browser (if it supports Web Monetization) may send micropayments to it. The Web page can detect these micropayments and give the user a better experience, for example by removing advertisements or by unlocking additional content. All this is made possible thanks to a new Web API developed at W3C, the Web Monetization API. This API is intended to be implemented natively in browsers but is already available today via a Web extension for popular desktop browsers and Puma Browser on mobile.

In order to add Web Monetization to your project, you’ll need to:

Set up a “wallet” for receiving payments
Get your wallet’s “payment pointer”
Add a special tag to your page with your payment pointer

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Web Monetized Site</title>
    <meta name="monetization" content="$wallet.example.com/sloan">
  </head>
</html>

From that point on, you can use the JavaScript API to react to the small payments from users who have a Web Monetization provider, like Coil. You might choose to reward these monetized browsers by removing ads, unlocking exclusive content, or enabling special features. We’ve outlined a few example projects a little bit lower down in this announcement post.

Here are a few options for wallets that can receive payments. The first Web Monetization provider for sending payments is Coil but others will likely crop up as the ecosystem grows.

Free Coil trial for all #gftwhackathon participants

Ben Halpern for The DEV Team ・ May 15 '20

#gftwhackathon #webmonetization

Example Projects

Need some inspiration on what sorts of projects to build? There are several examples you may want to check out in the WebMonetization.org Docs. You’ll find examples related to:

There are some additional examples on Coil’s Glitch page.

Community Support

We’ve set up a GftW Hackathon Discussion / Help Thread where you can discuss ideas, find collaborators, and receive support from experts in Web Monetization. Team members from Grant for the Web and Coil will be spending time on DEV and answering questions in this thread.

We’ll also be setting up a dedicated DEV Connect group channel for more synchronous help. To join this group, just leave a comment in the discussion / help thread. This will be a great place to spend time with the team from Grant for the Web + Coil, and to engage with you fellow community participants.

Call For Proposals

In addition to the hackathon hosted right here on DEV, Grant For The Web is welcoming submissions to their call for proposals. They are looking to fund individuals, projects, and global communities that contribute to a privacy-centric, open, and accessible Web Monetization ecosystem with grants ranging from $5,000 to $100,000 USD.

The $100 Million, five-year fund will prioritize innovative ideas that incorporate or build upon the Web Monetization standard and protocols. Funds will support projects, content, experimentation, and learning around natively integrating monetization into the web using open protocols and standards.

Our hackathon categories are intentionally similar to the call for proposal tracks in order to make your life easier. We strongly encourage you to submit to both the hackathon and the call for proposals if you’d like to take your project a step further!

Important Dates 🗓

May 7: Hackathon Begins!
~~June 5~~ June 14: Hackathon Submission Due at 11:59pm PST.
~~June 10~~ June 18: Hackathon Winners Announced
~~June 12~~ June 22: Grant for the Web Call For Proposals Due

DEV Is Participating Too

During the hackathon, the DEV team will be taking on a Web Monetization project of our own. We’ll start by adding a Payment Pointer right here on the open-source platform! Once we get a deeper sense of how the technology works, and feel confident that we’ve implemented everything correctly, we’ll enable Web Monetization for everyone in the community. This means that every DEV member will be able to add a payment pointer to their profile and published posts!

We’re so excited to be supporting Grant for the Web as they push the internet towards more fair and open standards. We hope you have fun, learn some new things, and build something you’re proud of. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Happy Coding!

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Announcing the Grant For The Web Hackathon on DEV

Ben Halpern

What is Web Monetization?

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Prizes

How To Participate

How To Submit

Additional Rules

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