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Key Takeaways
- Ore won the $50,000 USDC grand prize in the Solana Renaissance Hackathon.
- Mining had been paused weeks earlier as Solana faced heavy network congestion.
- Ore later launched version 2 and resumed mining in August 2024.
Updated: Aug. 20, 2026
Ore won the $50,000 USD Coin (USDC) grand prize in the Solana Renaissance Hackathon on May 6, 2024, less than three weeks after its pseudonymous creator paused mining amid network congestion on Solana.
Update note: Ore later released version 2 and resumed mining in August 2024, according to a technical guide published that month.
Colosseum Names Ore Grand Champion
Colosseum, the organizer of the Solana Renaissance Hackathon, named Ore the Grand Champion and awarded the project $50,000 in USDC. It described Ore as a digital currency that used a proof-of-work algorithm on the Solana blockchain and was designed to be mined by anyone.
The online competition drew more than 8,300 participants from 95 countries and received 1,071 project submissions.
Renaissance was the ninth Solana Foundation hackathon and included projects across infrastructure, gaming, decentralized finance, consumer applications and decentralized physical infrastructure.
Ore’s award followed a turbulent first month for the project. Its April launch generated substantial mining activity during a period when Solana users were reporting dropped and delayed transactions.
Ore Mining Stops Weeks Before Hackathon Win
Hardhat Chad, Ore’s pseudonymous creator, announced on April 16, 2024, that all mining would stop immediately. The project had launched earlier that month, and the pause came as Solana faced congestion affecting transaction processing.
“I have decided to pause all mining, effective immediately. I believe this action to be in the best interests of Solana, Ore holders, and the fastest path forward to v2.”
Ore’s mining activity was one factor during a broader period of congestion on Solana. Hardhat Chad said the pause would allow the team to focus on a second version of the protocol.
Solana Foundation Explains 48 Million Compute-Unit Block Cap
Before Ore’s launch, the Solana Foundation said high network usage was testing the network’s priority-fee system and transaction scheduler. It said blocks could reach their 48 million compute-unit cap during congestion, limiting the transactions that could be processed.
The Foundation advised applications to use priority fees and optimize their compute-unit requests. It also said it was preparing transaction-scheduler improvements for a forthcoming software release, while noting that the changes required testing.
