# Tether Developers Cup 🏆

**Build on Tether. Play like a knockout tournament.**

The Tether Developers Cup is a global developer competition that runs like a football knockout tournament. Teams of 1 to 4 build a real project on the Tether open-source stack, declare a nation to represent, and compete through five rounds until one team wins.

Each round is timed , Every cut...the field gets smaller. The last team standing wins the overall prize, and track winners are named along the way.

# **Key Dates**

- **June 29:** Registration opens and Kickoff. Building begins. The earlier you register, the more time you have to build.

- **June 28 to July 6:** Open registration plus free building. No cuts yet, everyone is just building.

- **July 6:** Registration closes. The field locks (Round of X).

- **July 8:** Round of 16: judges cut X → 16. **Everyone is expected to submit their project with a demo by July 8.**

- **July 10:** Quarter-Finals: cut 16 → 8.

- **July 12 to 13:** Semi-Finals: cut 8 → 4, finalists announced.

- **July 14, 23:59 (UTC+1):** Submission deadline. Finalists lock their build.

- **July 15:** Final: the 4 finalists pitch live, winners announced.

***Submit once on July 8th 2026. If your project survives a round, you keep building and improving it for the next one, all the way to the live Final on July 15.***

**Please read the [Rules](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F11bAFYqVfuFmAqTEdQrhAZ8EnE76xL_-8XNkgj5r3A/edit?tab=t.0) and [Terms of Participation](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pus59cd9Mg7QCzaM_vbU-Xq-w5-A9HgI/view) carefully before deciding if you want to participate. You are required to agree to both the Rules and Terms of Participation in order to participate in this Hackathon**. **The Rules and Terms of Participation should be read in conjunction with the [Privacy Statement](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5PGKRg8SzEOAj_HoDiP0PaIJB4WiVJS/view?usp=share_link) for the Hackathon.**

# What you can build

Pick one or any combination of multiple tracks:

**Pears Stack (P2P)**. Peer-to-peer applications deployed with the Pear CLI and the pear-runtime library, built on the Pears Stack with building blocks such as Hyperswarm, Hypercore and Autobase.see: [https://docs.pears.com/reference/#building-blocks.](https://docs.pears.com/reference/#building-blocks.)

Docs: [docs.pears.com](https://)

**QVAC (Local AI).** Apps that run AI models on the user's own device, with no cloud and no API keys, so data never leaves the machine. Language, speech, translation, or search

Docs: [https://qvac.tether.io](https://qvac.tether.io)

**WDK (Wallets).** Self-custodial wallet and payment apps, where the user holds their own keys, built with the Wallet Development Kit.

Docs: [https://wdk.tether.io](https://wdk.tether.io)

### **Your project must fit the theme: football and the global tournament moment. Ideas: match predictors, an AI coach or commentator, fan-to-fan messaging that works offline, group-tipping and ticket tools, watch-party apps. The theme is the filter, the stack is the point.**

# Prizes (8,000 USDt total)

- **Track Winners:** 1,000 USDt for the best build in each track (Pears, QVAC, WDK).

- **Cup Champion:** 5,000 USDt for the single best project across all tracks.

All prizes are paid in USDt.

# **How it works**

You build one project across the event and keep improving. Building starts on June 28, as soon as you register, so the earlier you join, the more time you have. Registration stays open until July 6, when the field is locked. From there the knockout rounds run until the Final on July 15, and each round the field gets smaller.

**The rounds are checkpoints, not restarts.** If you advance, you keep committing to the same project right up to the next round's deadline, so the work never stops until the Final. Your public GitHub commits between rounds are your progress, and judges can see how the project grew.

- Round of X: register and lock your spot by July 6, with your idea, track, and build plan

- Round of 16: a working prototype

- Quarter-Finals: a refined build plus a short demo video

- Semi-Finals: a short pitch

- Final: a live online pitch, streamed publicly, on July 15

The submission deadline on DoraHacks is July 14, 2026 at 23:59 (UTC+1). The live final is July 15.

# Who can join

- Open worldwide, all skill levels, free to enter. You must be 18 or older.

- One entry per person. Build solo or in a team of up to 4.

- You may not enter both solo and in a team, and you may not be on more than one team.

- If you are on a team, list every member on your DoraHacks project page. All members must be

added to be eligible.

- Tether employees and judges may mentor but cannot win prizes.

# What your project must do

- Build something meaningful per the chosen track. A Tether logo on an unrelated app does not count.

- QVAC track only: all AI work (inference, embeddings, RAG, multimodal, speech) must run

on-device through the QVAC SDK, with no cloud AI APIs. This keeps the track true to QVAC's on-device design.

- You may use any language or framework. Disclose all third-party services, APIs, and pre-built

components.

# What to submit

1. Register on DoraHacks and pick your track.

2. A public GitHub repo under a permissive open-source license (Apache 2.0 or MIT), available

during the event and for a reasonable time after.

3. Clear setup instructions so a judge can run it out of the box.

4. A demo video, 3 minutes maximum, uploaded to YouTube as "unlisted" and linked in your

submission.

5. Update your project as you build through each round, then pitch live in the Final.

Prior work must be disclosed. You may reuse your own earlier code, but judging looks only at

what you build during the event.

**How submitting works:**

- **Everyone is expected to submit their project with a demo by July 8.**

- **Eliminations begin from July 8** and the field is cut each round.

- If your project survives a round, **you keep building and improving it** for the next one, all the way to the live Final on **July 15**.

# How projects are judged

A panel of Tether engineers and community experts scores each build from 1 to 5 on:

- Technical ambition

- User experience

- Real-world utility

- Creativity

- Real use of the chosen Tether platform

Judges may ask you to walk through or run your project live. Organizer decisions are final.

# Signing up

Register through DoraHacks (https://dorahacks.io). Your use of DoraHacks is subject to the DoraHacks Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

By signing up you agree to these rules and the Tether

Developers Cup [Terms of Participation,](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pus59cd9Mg7QCzaM_vbU-Xq-w5-A9HgI/view) and confirm you have read and understood them.

# Questions

Post in the event [Discord](https://discord.gg/tetherdev) or reach us through the Contact details on this page.