Base Around The World: Celebrating Global Builders In Africa, India, Southeast Asia, LATAM

Open-source Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain Base on Monday announced Base Around the World, a series of buildathons that will kick off in four regions worldwide, as part of the Base team's efforts toward connecting with other builders whose visions align with its own: increasing innovation, creativity, and freedom.

All About Base Around the World

The buildathon series will cover Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America (LATAM), and will run from Sept. 27 through Oct. 13. A total prize pool of 100 Ether (ETH) will be provided to winners, with 25 Ethereum allotted for each region.

Two to eight winners will be selected from each region, and winners will receive between 3.125 ETH and 12.5 ETH from Base, with contributions from Talent Protocol.

The buildathons have a single prompt: build an on-chain app that will provide a solution to a specific challenge in a builder's community, or utilize existing on-chain tools to come up with real-world impact in the community by bringing non-crypto natives on-chain.

After the buildathons, the Base team, including Base creator Jesse Pollak, will hold in-person meetups with builders in Nairobi, Bangkok, Bangalore, Manila, and Singapore. A virtual meetup will also be dedicated for builders in Buenos Aires. The exact dates for the November in-person gatherings have yet to be announced.

During a Monday night livestream to discuss Base's new campaign, Pollak said that the blockchain wants to "support, listen to, and lift up" builders outside the U.S. who are helping build the future of blockchain technology.

He also said the "energy" that builders from Africa have contributed on-chain in the last two months has been "mind-blowing." Based Africa will be co-presented by Base Africa, Borderless Africa, Onboard, and Yellow Card.

Why the Four Regions?

Base has chosen the abovementioned four regions for its buildathons due to the "tremendous energy" from builders in the regions. Citing recent findings by Developer Report that found 74% of onchain builders are residing outside the United States, Base said in a blog post that it is seeing some of the fastest growth in on-chain adoption across Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and the LATAM region.

Base also noted that it is taking a "local" approach for its buildathons since every community has different challenges where on-chain technology can have a significant impact. "We want to zero in on the use cases that will bring people benefits in their everyday lives," the team wrote.