Brief Summary

The Blockchain CTF 2026 was an intensive, four-hour offline cybersecurity tournament hosted by the Coding Club of RV College of Engineering on 23rd April 2026 at the Design Thinking Huddle (DTH). Organized and managed by student leads Vivaan Hooda, Sathvic Sharma, Unmesh Raj, Anirudh Kulkarni, Hrithik Bhattacharya, and Abhiram K, the competition was crafted to step away from purely theoretical security lessons and give students a real taste of hands-on ethical hacking. Over the course of the afternoon, participants worked through a set of 22 practical security challenges hosted on a custom Capture The Flag platform. These challenges spanned several modern security disciplines, including Blockchain Security, Cryptography, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), Web Exploitation, Computer Vision, and Digital Forensics.

Theme

The heart of the event revolved around real-world cybersecurity, blockchain security, and practical vulnerability assessment. Instead of taking written quizzes, teams worked interactively to analyze raw code, decipher cryptographic ciphers, track down digital footprints, and uncover hidden security flags embedded within vulnerable web applications and smart contracts. The goal was to build a strong foundation in ethical hacking and blockchain defense while encouraging creative problem-solving and technical curiosity.

Number of Participants and From Which Year

The event drew a strong turnout of 118 student participants who formed over 70 competing teams. The competition primarily targeted undergraduate students across various academic years, drawing heavy participation from core engineering disciplines like Computer Science (CSE), Information Science (ISE), Electronics and Communication (ECE), and other allied technical departments.

Prize Pool if Applicable & Winners

The organizers backed the competition with a cash prize pool totaling ₹15,000 to reward the top-performing teams. The four-hour session saw high engagement, resulting in 487 successful flag submissions across all challenges. The event wrapped up with a official prize distribution ceremony acknowledging the top coders and security enthusiasts.

Judging / Evaluation if Applicable

Scoring was handled completely in real time using an automated CTF platform built specifically for the event. As teams discovered and submitted valid flags, the platform instantly verified their solutions, awarded points based on challenge difficulty, and updated a live leaderboard visible throughout the venue. This automated setup kept the contest transparent, competitive, and fast-paced from start to finish.