1inch <> ETHGlobal events Grant Proposal 2026-2027

2.1 General Proposals
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Simple Summary

The 1inch ecosystem continues to support global developer activity through participation in hackathons, conferences, and technical community events that drive protocol adoption and ecosystem growth.

This proposal requests DAO funding to support 1inch ecosystem participation in a structured series of ETHGlobal hackathons and conferences throughout 2026–2027. These activities are designed to accelerate developer engagement, support product adoption, and strengthen the broader DeFi ecosystem.

A core focus of this program is supporting the development and adoption of 1inch Aqua, 1inch’s shared liquidity infrastructure, by enabling developers to build, test, and integrate solutions across a unified liquidity layer.

The selected events focus on builder participation, technical experimentation, and ecosystem collaboration, with a strong emphasis on hackathons as a primary driver of innovation and integration.

This proposal is submitted by Degensoft Ltd Events Team, an ecosystem service provider, on behalf of the 1inch community to support decentralized ecosystem growth. All requested funding will be allocated by Degensoft Ltd directly to ETHGlobal to cover sponsorship costs for the listed events.

The list of events:

  • 2026 ETHGlobal New York Hackathon

  • 2026 Pragma Lisbon

  • 2026 ETHGlobal Lisbon Hackathon

  • 2026 ETHOnline Hackathon

  • 2026 Pragma Tokyo

  • 2026 ETHGlobal Tokyo Hackathon

  • 2026 Pragma Mumbai

  • 2026 ETHGlobal Mumbai Hackathon / Devcon

  • 2027 Online Hackathon 1

  • 2027 Pragma 1

  • 2027 Hackathon 1

  • 2027 Online Hackathon 2

  • 2027 ETHConf

  • 2027 ETHGlobal New York Hackathon

  • 2027 Pragma 2

  • 2027 Hackathon 3

  • 2027 Online Hackathon 3

  • 2027 Pragma 3

  • 2027 Hackathon 4

  • 2027 Pragma 4

  • 2027 IRL Hackathon 5

Note: Locations for all 2027 events will be announced in November 2026.

Total Grant Value: $695,000 in USDC

Abstract

This proposal requests grant funding from the 1inch DAO to support the ecosystem’s participation in a global builder-focused program across 2026–2027.

The program combines:

  • global hackathon participation (online and IRL)

  • conference engagement with developer focus

  • recurring technical ecosystem activations

The budget covers ETHGlobal sponsorship packages across 21 events spanning 18 months and multiple geographies (US, Europe, Asia), with a focus on Aqua protocol adoption and developer onboarding.

These activities are designed to directly support developer onboarding, accelerate protocol integrations, and strengthen 1inch’s position within the global DeFi builder ecosystem.

Motivation

● Developer ecosystem growth:

Hackathons represent one of the most effective channels for onboarding new developers into DeFi. This program enables direct engagement with builders actively experimenting with infrastructure, creating a pipeline of integrations and new use cases.

● Product development & Aqua adoption:

From a product perspective, this program directly supports the development and growth of Aqua infrastructure. By engaging developers in hackathons and technical environments, 1inch enables projects to be built using Aqua, contributing to real-world integrations, experimentation, and expansion of its use cases across the ecosystem.

● Global ecosystem presence:

This program ensures consistent visibility across key global hubs including the US, Europe, and Asia, strengthening 1inch’s position within the developer ecosystem.

● Ecosystem collaboration:

These events bring together protocols, infrastructure providers, and developers, fostering collaboration and accelerating innovation across the DeFi landscape.

Specification

The Grant will cover Sponsorship & participation fees.

Expenses summary:

All sponsorship costs are predetermined and agreed in advance with ETHGlobal. Degensoft Ltd will provide a full financial report following completion of the program, documenting all expenditures against the approved budget.

Total Grant Value: $695,000 in USDC

Funds will be sent to a Degensoft Ltd-managed multisig designated for approved ecosystem activities. All transactions will be publicly verifiable on-chain. Disbursement will be executed as a single transfer following receipt of the funds.

Receiving address for funds distribution:

0x9eeb2a2946Ee0Ba3553E64918DB10288256BE185

Rationale

This program is designed around a builder-first approach, where hackathons and technical conferences serve as the primary engine for ecosystem growth, with a strong focus on Aqua development, developer adoption, and long-term talent acquisition.

Hackathons

ETHGlobal Hackathons are the core drivers of this proposal.

For the ecosystem, they:

  • enable developers to experiment with DeFi infrastructure in real time

  • generate new integrations, tooling, and use cases

  • accelerate innovation across the protocol layer

For 1inch Network, they:

  • directly support 1inch Aqua development, enabling teams to build products using shared liquidity infrastructure

  • create a pipeline of real integrations contributing to Aqua’s growth and usage

  • provide early access to high-quality developers actively building in the space

Pragma Conferences (Lisbon, Tokyo, Mumbai, 2027 series)

Pragma events gather highly technical audiences focused on infrastructure and research.

For the ecosystem, they:

  • facilitate deep technical discussions and knowledge sharing

  • connect builders with infrastructure providers

For 1inch Network, they:

  • support positioning Aqua as a core infrastructure layer within the evolving DeFi stack

  • enable direct engagement with high-signal developers and researchers

  • strengthen relationships within the global builder community

ETHConf & Devcon-aligned events

These events combine developer, business, and ecosystem participants.

For the ecosystem, they:

  • create alignment between builders, protocols, and capital

  • support large-scale collaboration opportunities

For 1inch Network, they:

  • expand integration opportunities for Aqua and core aggregation products

  • generate high-quality developer and business leads

  • strengthen visibility within the global Ethereum ecosystem

Online Hackathons

Online formats provide global accessibility and scale.

For the ecosystem, they:

  • enable participation from geographically diverse developers

  • support continuous engagement beyond physical events

For 1inch Network, they:

  • ensure a consistent developer pipeline throughout the year

  • expand Aqua adoption across new geographies and communities

  • create scalable opportunities for experimentation and integration

Hiring & Talent Pipeline

Across all events, it is expected that approximately 26,000 developers will participate.

For the ecosystem:

  • strengthens the global builder base contributing to DeFi innovation

For 1inch Network:

  • creates a highly efficient hiring channel with direct access to pre-qualified developers

  • enables identification of contributors already familiar with Aqua and 1inch infrastructure

  • supports recruitment of high-quality technical talent with reduced onboarding time

Overall, this program is designed to deliver both immediate and long-term value by combining:

  • Aqua-focused product development and integration growth

  • large-scale developer engagement across global hackathons

  • ecosystem expansion across key builder hubs

  • a scalable hiring pipeline for technical talent

Considerations

Management & Execution

Managed by Degensoft Ltd in collaboration with Events, DevRel, Communications, and Business Development contributors. All event operations and reporting will be documented and made available to the DAO.

KPIs Tracked:

  1. Total event attendees

  2. Developer participation & hackathon submissions

  3. Protocol integrations and technical leads

  4. Aqua-related integrations and experimentation

  5. Media reach and ecosystem visibility

Following completion, the Degensoft Ltd Events Team will provide a comprehensive report covering all funded activities, including developer engagement, integrations, hiring outcomes, and full financial reconciliation.

All media content produced under this grant will be made available to the 1inch community under a perpetual, royalty-free license.

Grant Terms

Grant Recipient: Degensoft Ltd, an ecosystem service provider contributing to 1inch protocol development and community operations. Degensoft Ltd will serve as the operational lead and accountable party for all activities funded under this grant.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure: Degensoft Ltd serves as the primary development and operations entity for the 1inch protocol. This relationship is disclosed to ensure full transparency. The DAO previously funded event activities through 1inch Labs under the legacy development structure. Degensoft Ltd has since assumed this role as the designated ecosystem service provider. This proposal is submitted in good faith to advance the interests of the 1inch community and the broader DeFi ecosystem.

Refund & Clawback: If any event listed in this proposal is cancelled or materially reduced in scope, Degensoft Ltd will return the corresponding allocated funds to the DAO treasury within 60 days. Any aggregate unspent funds exceeding 10% of the total grant value will be returned following the final reconciliation report.

Content Ownership: All photo, video, and media content produced under this grant will be made available to the 1inch community under a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive license. The DAO and any community member may use this content for ecosystem promotion and educational purposes.

Phase-3 Temperature Check

Do you support this proposal?
  • Yes
  • No
0 voters
1 Like
2

Thank you for the proposal. We’re broadly supportive of the direction and see good value in pushing Aqua builder adoption but want to flag some general concerns.

Need Better Forward Guidance
The first one mostly has to do with planning. We were under the impression that the US-centric event proposal that recently passed Snapshot was the only pending request for 2026. There was no indication prior that would allow us to assess this present proposal and that proposal holistically. The proposal was also titled “[1IP-96] 1inch events Grant Proposal 2026”, which made us presume that there would be no more event grants requested in the near term. We request that the team, in the future, more clearly indicate prospective budgets, with clear forward guidance, so they can be analyzed collectively.

We’re Fans of the Aqua Focus
The Aqua-centric framing is the strongest part of this proposal and we’re fans of it. Looking at it from the perspective of a delegate, hackathons like these are a natural dealflow pipeline for the 1inch DAO itself. Teams building on Aqua during these events are exactly the kind of projects the DAO could selectively support via follow-on grants, creating a flywheel where event sponsorship surfaces builders, the DAO funds the most promising ones, and those projects in turn drive Aqua volume and revenue back to the DAO. We’d encourage the Events team to pass on the Aqua incubator opportunity to strong hackathon participants. Aqua adoption and experimentation is also the main KPI that we are most interested in seeing from these events.

Event Amount Seems High
21 events across 18 months is more than one per month, and our concern is that this volume dilutes both budget and team focus. Not all events deliver equivalent ROI. It would be helpful to perhaps look at historical data around how successful certain events were for 1inch. Without that, it’s hard to assess whether the marginal 5th, 10th, or 15th event is worth the spend versus concentrating/reducing budget on the top-performing eight to ten. In this present more precarious market, we’d prefer focus on tried-and-tested events. The added US-focused events further dilutes focus.

Budget Breakdown
Online events have substantially lower sponsorship costs than IRL events, and we want to confirm the allocation reflects that rather than treating all events as equivalent line items. The 2027 events are also not confirmed/fully detailed. We’d suggest splitting this into two tranches: approve the 2026 events now and have the team return for a separate vote on 2027 once details are known.