Hunting for Pearls 🦪
It started with Otter Judges. Then came OtterTank. Then OtterTrack. And now we’re introducing: Best Pearls. Showcasing the best builders and projects emerging from the CryptoCanal community! 🦦
Built to Last
Do you remember our 1st OtterTank? January 2024, where we met the Grid? (ps: they still building!) We had gathered Amsterdam’s toughest Otter Judges to crack shells and uncover pearls.
What started as a standalone experiment evolved into the first Otter Track during ETHDam II in 2024, followed by a second edition at ETHDam III in 2025. But we kept thinking about it.
How can CryptoCanal foster a healthier builder ecosystem?
Not another parade of projects hacked together in 72 hours and forgotten 72 hours later. No hate - we know how difficult it is to build.
Hackathons are fun. They’re meant for hacking, experimenting, and building with frens. But somewhere along the way, the ethos got a little distorted.
For years, there was an abundance of VC money encouraging developers to play with the latest shiny tech stack. That era is fading. The capital has largely moved to AI, and for crypto builders, it’s time to get back to the building board.
To the builders who keep showing up.
To the teams who ship after the demo day.
To the founders who are still working on the same problem six months later.
Because the future won’t be built in 72 hours. It will be built by people who keep building after everyone else goes home.🦦
Introducing Best Pearls
hand picked projects built by CryptoCanal peeps
Please meet
Militereum - a firewall for your crypto wallets
How does your project contribute to privacy, security, decentralization, or digital autonomy? Why does this matter?
Militereum keeps you safe and prevents you from getting phished/drained/rugged. Because there is no privacy without security, Militereum contributes both to your security and your privacy.
What problem are you solving?
Militereum is a success if our users are prevented from getting phished/drained/rugged at least once.
Please meet
Paperweight - take back control and delete your personal data
How does your project contribute to privacy, security, decentralization, or digital autonomy? Why does this matter?
Every company holding your data is a risk you don’t control. A breach waiting to happen or profile being built. Most people have their personal scattered across hundreds of sites and services. In privacy and crypto circles this is the root of scams, doxxing, targeting, and actual money at stake. It all starts with leaked personal data.
Paperweight maps that footprint and lets people exercise their right to delete it. It runs fully local-first and open-source, with no servers and no data collection. The tool itself never becomes another custodian of your data.
What problem are you solving?
Managing your digital footprint
All the Best Pearls
Apply
Build with intent
we will just hold your hand while you do so
“The weight of the vision can be overwhelming, but remember: every castle, cathedral, and civilization began with a single block placed with purpose.” 🖤
Privacy is Common S3nse
Join Common S3nse our annual conference and hackathon dedicated to Privacy, Security and DeFi, which will take place during Cypherpunk Week on the 4-5 of September 2026 at de Hallen Studio in Amsterdam.
🎟️ Get Tickets
🎤 Apply to Speak
💻 Apply to Hack
✨ Apply to Volunteer
🗞 Apply as a Media Partner
🙌 Apply as a Community Partner
Common S3nse is proudly sponsored by:
🎖Zcash - The first cryptocurrency to develop zero-knowledge encryption for private peer-to-peer payments.
🎖Zano - The blockchain where transactions, assets, staking, trading, and applications are confidential by protocol design, not by option.
