Introduction
I am Ian, one of the competitors during Miami Hackweek 2022 and 1st place winner alongside the Cosmic NFT team. This is the story behind Cosmic NFT (from my perspective) and the events that came after winning Hackweek 2022. I also am including the original blog I wrote nine months ago on the plane ride home from Miami Hackweek.
As a precaution I must say that all perspective is mine and does not represent anyone at Miami Hackweek, other participants, Sonr, or other Cosmic NFT members.
Original Blog - Written 9 Months Ago
After getting interviewed by Brendan from LoanMySole (a sneaker company looking to break into the web3 space.) I then was told about Miami Hackweek. I went to the website he sent me and signed up for the Jumpcut house because of the goals of the hacker house, as well as the sheer beauty of the home I would be working in for seven days. After working up some encouragement on making some large purchases (with the lovely help from my amazing Mother) we picked up a new laptop and the plane tickets I'd need to fly to Miami.
During registration, my father and I decided to stop by the Annex. The Annex is where I met most of my actual teammates for this competition. Nick and Peyton were standing around. While waiting around, Peyton made a particularly great joke about timing and I knew I had found some great people... They reminded me of home. The same way, my friends and I would joke around and give each other a hard time. I ended up inviting everyone waiting outside of that Annex to lunch a few doors down. It was simply a gesture of good faith and hope that we could network before the competition. Maybe it would give us some upper hand (which in retrospect did nothing other than introduce me to these amazing guys).
Later after registration, we all met at Le Rouge (the welcoming party), and since I had never been to a hackathon and started to build a relationship with Nick, Peyton, Chan Yuk Chi, and a few others I decided to sit in the back next to the Taco truck That night we forced many individuals to come and talk to us, share their life stories and what they were currently working on. That is now what we jokingly call the “Black Table Society” due to the tables having a black cloth as shown in the ERC-721 token I released to commemorate the moment.
At the table, Nick had made quite the crazy idea, send a weather balloon as high up into the air as possible and see what the outcome was with a camera. Most sane people would just shrug this off as a joke but we didn’t. The next morning we decide to meet up again and Nick shows a confirmed Amazon order for a few weather balloons. I loved that adrenaline pump when I realized that we are about to try to send something up into space, and jumped on the HardTech team to fulfill my duty constructing the ERC-721 contract and the API that hosts the image from the satellite API Peyton created.
Channing, Allie, and the rest of the Hard tech house welcomed us with such open arms that we set up shop there for the rest of the Hackweek to continue on this crazy project and the journey we decided to start on. I want to make something obvious to everyone - We didn’t expect to win, candidly speaking, I could have cared less if we won. The main idea was to send something into space because we thought it was cool - not for some prize money or the idea of a victory and I truly think that is what gave us the advantage. While people were stressing out because of deadlines or partying a bit too much (or spending too much time in Figma) we were just trying to send a weather balloon with a small camera and get an image beamed down from it. Don’t get me wrong this was very difficult and something that the team and I will remember forever (especially the feeling of realizing someone robbed the vehicle stealing a Garmen module and 2 weather balloons).
One of my key memories was walking into the Sonr House. Everything was Versace (that Medusa Head was around every corner). The Sonr Team was throwing a party but in true Cosmic fashion, we were there to Network. In the house stood a tall soft-spoken man named Michael, he was the Chief of Staff at Sonr.
Michael had somehow heard about the crazy idea we were trying to accomplish and was bullish from the start. As soon as he heard Go was involved, he called over to an eccentric young man with bleach-blonde hair named Prad. Prad also knew Of Cosmic MFT and gave us amazing encouragement to continue on our path. Later on, Sonr went on to donate $1,500 to the Cosmic Team to help with the personal funds spent by the team.
The rest of the story is a blur other than what the camera footage and drone footage have captured. We sent it up and got an image down. Next year it will be bigger, better and done more efficiently. Whether we decide to try to go up higher than 15km or go lower hasn’t been chosen. We just want to provide the most extreme projects we could come up with in a short time.
Thank you to everyone involved in this project, whether funding, emotional support, or anything else my half-asleep self cannot think of. Miami Hackweek was the best experience in my short life to date and I can’t help but thank everyone involved.
So - what happened?
Shortly after Miami Hackweek, I was contacted by Prad - CEO of Sonr and offered a Software Engineer position shortly after. I have spent the past 9 months at Sonr working on a project I love. I also have the incredible opportunity to call some of my Cosmic NFT team members my coworkers, that in itself has been nothing but a blessing.
I also made it a goal to work harder as an advocate for LearnWeb3 as I truly felt that they were one of the reasons I was able to refine and sharpen my skillsets. I shortly after became a moderator and am still close with everyone on the LW3 team. I truly can't wait to meet the team in person.
Retrospect
Wow, this is the first time I have seen what I wrote nine months ago on the plane ride home. Never once did I think I would be in the position I am now, and I am grateful for everyone who has been alongside me on this journey. A lot of appreciation for many wonderful people.