Canton Network is the public blockchain built for institutional finance, where the world’s biggest banks and asset managers are moving more than $6 trillion in real-world assets with privacy and control. To drive product adoption and grow a lasting developer pipeline, Canton partnered with us to run Canton Core Academy, a three-phase program with a $28,000 prize pool, taking developers from their first Canton lesson to a finished finance app ready to launch.
Canton’s challenges in recruiting developers
Building on Canton means working with Daml, a language most developers have never used – and learning a language takes serious time and effort. A single hackathon can draw a burst of interest, but it rarely leaves a lasting group of active developers behind. That is why Canton needed a structured, multi-stage program to to cover the entire developer recruitment and retention journey.
What we built with Canton Network
AngelHack designed and organized a 3-phase developer program for Canton, with AngelHack Platform as the hosting platform. That covered program structure, day-to-day operations, and developer support across all three phases.
- Canton Core (Learn & Earn): A set of guided lessons on AngelHack Platform covering how Canton works, the basics of Daml, and how to build simple smart contracts. Developers earned rewards as they progressed, and top performers received a free Daml certificate.
- Canton Construct (Ideathon): An idea-and-build contest across five finance themes such as lending, prediction markets, and tokenized real-world assets, where teams formed, shaped a concept, and built a working prototype judged against a clear standard. The ideathon was hosted on AngelHack Platform and managed end-to-end by AngelHack, from sign-ups and mentorship to submission, judging, and rewards.
- Canton Catalyst (Mentorship): A four-week mentorship program that guided the top ideathon teams toward a final showcase and helped them turn prototypes into applications ready for Canton’s developer network. We connected the mentors from Canton’s partner network, including Copper.co, TradeWeb, and Proof Group, and facilitated the sessions that kept teams progressing each week.
What the program delivered
The program worked as a funnel, with each stage carrying developers into the next.
- Canton Core (Learn & Earn): 25,861 developers joined the campaign, with 1,613 completing the full path from first lesson to final project and 393 earning a free Daml certificate.
- Canton Construct (Ideathon): 938 sign-ups and 114 teams produced 45 submissions across five finance themes.
- Canton Catalyst (Mentorship): 10 teams took part, 3 won grand prizes, and 6 were selected to keep working with Canton Network.
In the ideathon, teams produced solutions across all five finance themes, covering lending, prediction markets, real estate tokenization, fraud detection for banks, and privacy-preserving collateral tools. The grand prize winners were:
- Cantara Finance (First Prize): a lending platform connecting crypto lending with real-world credit.
- Pebble (Second Prize): a privacy-focused prediction market and trading exchange with instant, all-or-nothing settlement.
- Unlockit (Third Prize): a real estate platform that turns property records into verifiable digital assets.
Several ideas from the ideathon were later developed into working prototypes that are now live on Canton’s developer network.
From learners to Canton builders
Canton Core Academy set Canton Network up for long-term product adoption. With more than 25,000 developers participating, the program produced a core team of developers now building practical applications on the network. As those builders ship and others follow their lead, Canton develops the steady base of active developers it needs to keep the network growing.
If you want a similar program to turn developers into builders and advocates for your platform, book a consultation with AngelHack to see how we can help you get it off the ground.
