What we built at the first Waku Internal Hackathon
The Waku team recently hosted an internal hackathon to explore the potential of our technology stack and protocol suite.
Over several days, developers from the Waku team explored the capabilities of our tech stack, experimenting with new ideas, testing out different use cases and building working prototypes from scratch.
The primary goal of the event was to assess the readiness of the Waku libraries, protocols, and software, while also encouraging cross-team collaboration and having some fun along the way.
The results were impressive. The hackathon not only surfaced fresh thinking and practical insights into how Waku protocols could be applied to real-world problems but also gave rise to several early-stage applications that can be carried further beyond experimentation.
As a result of this successful event, some of these prototypes have clear real-world potential and are now being considered for further development into fully-fledged products or integration with applications using Waku, such as Status.
Let’s walk through the projects that came out of the hackathon, examining what they are, how they work, and the challenges they aimed to solve.
Waku Sign
Waku Sign is a novel and decentralised alternative to popular tools such as WalletConnect, which allow users to easily sign transactions by connecting supported wallets.
The project is a browser extension that uses the Waku network to relay RPC requests related to web3 transactions, including digital signature requests, without the need to rely on centralised infrastructure, as is currently the case with WalletConnnect.
The approach proposed by Waku Sign retains the improved dapp-wallet experience offered by tools like WalletConnect while reducing risks associated with centralisation, such as censorship or infrastructure failure.
Further investigation is needed into how this project could best be monetised or whether it should be integrated with the Waku SDK or Status app.
WhisperBox MVP
A great example of an immediate use case for Waku which is widely applicable, WhisperBox is a decentralised, privacy-preserving form submission platform. It allows users to create forms, surveys, and polls while fielding responses in a way that protects the identities of respondees and preserves their privacy.
The project offers a clear and compelling alternative to traditional services like Google Forms, with the added benefits of security, decentralisation, and censorship resistance. It is lightweight with minimal resource requirements, features native end-to-end encryption, and is built entirely on decentralised, peer-to-peer infrastructure.
There is already demand for an application of this type that aligns with web3 principles both within and without IFT, and it has the potential to serve a broad market. Features that could be added to WhisperBox in future include encrypting forms in addition to responses, incentivisation and spam protection, and integrating with Codex for long-term decentralised storage of forms and responses.
WhisperBox effectively demonstrates the practical value of Waku’s messaging layer. It serves as both a compelling use case for the tech stack and a showcase of how Waku can support real-world applications with universal utility in the decentralised web.
Waku Phone
Waku Phone is a mobile application concept that enables users to make voice calls over the Waku protocol, using their existing contact list.
By leveraging Waku’s p2p communications protocol, the app aims to offer a privacy-first alternative to conventional VoIP services, with no reliance on centralised infrastructure for signalling or communication.
Waku is responsible for the signalling, and WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) facilitates the direct real-time voice communication without requiring any third-party intermediaries.
The project highlights Waku’s potential in the communications space, particularly for users who value data sovereignty and censorship resistance. It presents a strong use case for integrating Waku into day-to-day voice communication tools, positioning itself as a viable option for privacy-conscious individuals or organisations. The functionality outlined in the Waku Phone project could also be integrated directly into the Status app.
While the business model remains to be defined, ideas such as token-gated access could offer a lightweight path to monetisation.
Passkey for RLN
This project explored the use of passkeys to simplify the registration and management of RLN (Rate-Limiting Nullifier) credentials.
By allowing users to register and reconstruct their RLN keystore using a passkey, this project streamlines the user experience and lowers the barrier to entry for applications that rely on RLN.
This allows users to retain full control over their credentials while improving the usability of applications with RLN integrations, although the UX problem addressed by this project may be solved in other ways, depending on the evolution of the wider ecosystem.
The question of how best to handle RLN credentials remains open, and work on this solution may resurface if relevant when real-world RLN integrations begin.
Waku Remote
Waku Remote is a prototype that allows users to control a computer remotely by scanning a QR code with their phone and then, for example, adjusting the computer’s volume directly from the mobile device. It demonstrates how Waku can be used for secure, device-to-device communication without relying on centralised infrastructure.
This project serves as a proof-of-concept for peer-to-peer interdevice communication over Waku that could be expanded to encompass more large-scale IoT use cases if adapted appropriately.
The ability to remotely control devices using a decentralised protocol like Waku opens up potential use cases for home servers, staking nodes, or other self-sovereign setups where privacy and local control are priorities.
The project is still in an exploratory phase, however, and it requires a sharper focus on the live connection protocol to ensure reliable, low-latency communication. If refined appropriately and positioned well, Waku Remote could evolve into a lightweight, privacy-preserving alternative to conventional remote management tools.
WNS (Waku Name Service)
Waku Name Service (WNS) is a concept for a privacy-preserving name resolution system, similar to ENS, designed to operate over the Waku protocol.
Unlike ENS, WNS avoids linking domain names directly to wallet or IP addresses. Instead, it maps domains to public keys, with further communication negotiated privately via Waku. This approach aims to offer identity resolution without compromising user anonymity.
The project presents an initial experimental foundation for a decentralised and private naming layer, which could be especially valuable in peer-to-peer contexts where privacy and censorship resistance are critical. However, its business case remains somewhat less defined: it is unclear how it could be monetised or if there is sustained interest in this type of name resolution service.
WNS could play a key role in Waku’s future marketplace infrastructure, though - especially where service providers need a pseudonymous, secure identity layer for discovery and negotiation.
The first of several hackathons for Waku
The hackathon concluded with a retrospective session to capture lessons learned and identify improvement areas. It was a chance to reflect on what worked and where and how our tools and protocols need to evolve.
Twelve Waku core contributors participated in the event, with their projects examined by several panellists, and every project involved collaboration across different Waku sub-teams.
We thank all contributors who participated for their devoting their time and energy to this initiative, and we hope this marks the first of many internal hackathons for the Waku team. In fact, we have already planned two more of these events for this year.
We are excited to see how the Waku ecosystem grows over this period and how applications such as WhisperBox and Waku Phone could evolve, as these were identified as strong candidates for further development and real-world applications in the Waku and wider IFT ecosystem.
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