I saw the Stellar build challenge page up yesterday: https://www.stellar.org/lumens/build/, and the first phase of the 2018 challenge was scheduled for Feb 15. However, that information has been removed since then.

Are there any details on the next Stellar build challenge?

5 days later

I love Stellar, but I wish the SDF ---> community communication channel was a little bit clearer. The fact that there's been no mention at all in regards to this is kind of a bummer.

8 days later

KINKCreative Where did you hear that? Also, is it correct that winning projects in the application category in the past have been rewarded 2M lumens per project?

    It looks like the Stellar Build Challenge page has been (partially?) updated: https://www.stellar.org/lumens/build/

    "A total of 550,000 lumens will be distributed amongst the winners, as determined a panel of judges."

    Only 550,000 XLM being distributed this time?

      cha5m yep... updated now to say March 15th as the deadline and 550k lumens distributed amongst all the winners. last SBC seems to have about 38 winners.

          Cynthia That's pretty disappointing. Not even 10% of the XLM distributed last time. ☹

            550K lumens... probly 50 entries... ?

            It seems a bit uncouth to change the rules and end date of a competition mid-cycle. I'm very surprised there hasn't been any word from SDF on this front. I think we all understand the value of Lumens has gone up, but does that justify changing the competition without notice?

            Since they announced the last build challenge in September the value has gone up like 40 times though.

            but ppl want to develop b/c it goes UP in value, not stays the same... besides stellar is supposed to give aways a gazillion lumens arent they?? well at this rate it will take until the next geological epoch

              When I started out in open source software and contributing to ASF and Linux projects there were no rewards at all. Everybody contributed because they were passionate about developing and open source. The quality of software was a lot higher because of the type of developers it attracted and also because they were more likely to collaborate on something than compete against each other. I wouldn't mind if SDF just stopped the SBC entirely. The money is a distraction, attracts the wrong people, and discourages collaboration. I won a pretty prize last SBC and that is great, but I would have created my app regardless. I'll probably be moving on soon because I'm not happy with what drives this community at all.

                sheba The distribution is always adjusted to the current Lumen price. If it takes an epoch it takes an epoch, nothing really changes.

                In retrospect it always looks like a huge prize. For example in the forum category (removed now):

                • 1st challenge in 2016 rewarded 5.5 million XLM
                  Price in USD before the challenge: Under $10 000
                  Price in USD today: Over $2 million

                • Last challenge in 2017 rewarded 150 000 XLM
                  Price in USD before the challenge: Under $10 000
                  Price in USD today: Over $70 000

                The prize in USD before the challenge didn't change much, but because of XLM's exponential growth it looks like it's shrinking. Still, I don't know of any other competition giving such big prizes to developers every 3 months.