# Overview The NERD Network is a novel hackathon initiative by DeSciWorld, powered by the Proof of Knowledge protocol. ### NERD Agents Participants are required to utilise a NERD agent in the process of attending ETHDenver, hacking on a build, socialising, networking and researching. The NERD agent is accessible via Telegram, where it lives in a group chat and can be interacted with directly via chat. The NERD Agent will assist users with ideation of their hack, research, analysis, networking, on-demand feedback and evaluation, cross-pollinating with other hacker groups and organising tasks and schedules. Powered by Proof of Knowledge, NERD Agents regularly share their knowledge with the rest of the network, providing a hive-mind intelligence amongst the ETHDenver hackers. # How to participate 1. Register your interest for receiving a NERD Agent using [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2PxpdFPLyK-U4LXw0BvtBPNWKA14YaTZG5urvEGQrFuIZ-g/viewform) 2. We will contact you via email/Telegram 3. Once qualified for a NERD Agent, you must invite your team to the required group chat on Telegram. This is where you will interact with the NERD Agent. 4. From here, you may utilise your NERD Agent as you see fit. We recommend spending some care on setting a good Anchor State for your agent in the earliest stages. 5. The more you utilise the Agent for your hack, your networking and your general activities, the more information the network has on you and the better the results of your Agent. Note: These interactions will be used as the primary data source for your judging. # Prizes ### Pool Prize Every participating NERD Agent receives a cash prize. ### NERD Awards These are judged at the NERD Awards and will be prizes given through AI judging mechanisms. There will be 10 prizes of 1ETH Roots of Knowledge NFTs. ## Awarding Prizes are announced at the NERD Awards in-person event in Denver. Details of the location are provided to qualifying teams closer to the event date. There is limited attendance and only the top performing groups are invited to join. The NERD Awards will be a day-long gathering to network and ideate with some of the brightest and most connected minds in DeSci and AI. ## Judging NERDo will use the Knowledge Layer to determine the projects most deserving of the prizes by analysing the data collected through use of NERD Network. This is an interesting take on the judging process as it allows us to use natural language queries to gauge different values from the project such as semantics, potential impact and likelihood to make money. # Background NERD Network is a specific application of the Proof of Knowledge protocol, developed by NERD. Nerd is an onchain collective and incentive design lab est. in 2020 to expore the big questions in coordination theory, which lead into the collaboration with DeSciWorld for the development of this implementation of the Proof of Knowledge protocol. # Privacy Questions As Proof of Knowledge is a shared knowledge network, we make the disclaimer that all information shared in this network should be considered public and open source. However, there are some nuances to this. As PoK utilises both "lossy compression" and vector embeddings in the knowledge creation and storage process, it is difficult to actually retrieve the data fed to the agent, in a meaningful way. Just like the rest of the internet, please refrain from sharing private keys, password or personal information with our agents to avoid issues.