Introduction
NearX and the Stellar Development Foundation present PULSO Hackathon, a 10-day fully online builder competition running simultaneously across Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. Teams build on Stellar infrastructure, complete a minimum of 5 customer discovery interviews, and deploy on testnet.
The top finalists from each country pitch live on July 6 in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Bogotá simultaneously. The top 3 winning teams per country earn a fully sponsored trip to São Paulo for Stellar House SP and the Stellar Summit immersion.
PULSO is built for builders who are ready to ship.
Timeline
- Until June 20 - Applications open
- June 21 - Hackathon begins
- June 30 - Submission deadline
- July 1 - Finalists announced (up to 10 per country)
- July 6 - In-person pitch sessions · São Paulo · Buenos Aires · Bogotá
- July 8 - Winners announced
- Late July - Winner travels to São Paulo
- July 30 / August 6 - Stellar Summit SP · 8-day immersion
- August 6 - Stellar House SP
Submission Requirements
We're keeping requirements very balanced. To be eligible, your submission needs:
1. An open-source repo. A public GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket repository with your full source code and a clear README.md explaining what you built. The more detail, the better.
2. Integrations on Stellar. Your project should use integrations in a meaningful way and it should touch Stellar - for example, on/off-ramping values, or otherwise integrating the Stellar testnet or mainnet. The integration should be load-bearing: it powers a real part of how the project works, rather than appearing only on a slide.
3. A pitch-deck. A presentation for you to show the most relevant aspects of your project, such as the problem that you're solving, how your solution differs from others, and anything else you feel is relevant to highlight. Do something beautiful; you might need to pitch IRL.
4. A short demo video. A 1-2 minute walkthrough showing what you built. It doesn't need to be heavily technical or produced, just clearly show the prototype working and explain which real-world problem you're solving with it. You do not have to be in the video.
That's it. No exhaustive mandatory framework, no bounty to apply for, no specific track to fit into (rather than the local track). Just build something amazing.
Prizes
1st. Place: Instawards + fully sponsored trip to São Paulo
2nd. Place: Instawards + fully sponsored trip to São Paulo
3rd. Place: Fully sponsored trip to São Paulo
Eligibility
- Open to participants aged 18 and above
- Teams of 2 up to 4 people
- Open to residents of Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia
- Open to both early-stage teams and already-launched projects
- Each project is evaluated at its current stage
Judging criteria
- Integration depth & technical complexity
- Impact on the Stellar ecosystem
- Customer discovery & validation
- Quality of testnet / mainnet deployment
All submissions must include evidence of at least 3 customer discovery interviews and a live testnet deployment on Stellar. Mainnet deployment or live traction is a scoring advantage.
Contact us
https://t.me/+nR071cZP3LY2OGQx
About us
NearX is a builder-focused innovation organization operating across Latin America. We design and run hands-on programs, like hackathons, acceleration sprints, and immersive builder events, that connect talented developers with real ecosystem infrastructure and funding opportunities.
PULSO Hackathon is part of Stellar Summit SP 2026, a two-phase program that surfaces the best builders in Latin America and brings them together in São Paulo for an 8-day immersion right before Stellar House SP.