Legal

Hackathon Terms

Last updated: October 17, 2026

Winners are public

We post entries that win prize money on the public hackathon page so that we can celebrate finalists and be transparent with contestants.

Contestants keep ownership of what they submit. By submitting, they allow Mangrove and the event’s host to show a winning entry, its title, and the names on it, on Mangrove and when sharing the results.

Entries are visible on people’s profiles, but can be made private

To enhance people’s credibility when they apply for opportunities Mangrove hosts people’s entries on their profile page. If you would prefer to keep your work private, you can change your entry’s visibility in your profile settings. To ensure that credit is being fairly attributed to teammates that contributed to a submission, only participants that completed their peer reviews are listed as authors.

Everything else stays private

Public pages never show who registered, or entries that did not place. Contestant email addresses and availability are handled as the Privacy Policy describes.

Awarding prizes

Entering is free, and no purchase or payment is needed to take part or to win. Winners are chosen by the event’s judges on the merit of their entries, never by chance. Each event discloses its prize pool up front, and judge decisions are final. Prizes are paid after results are published, once finalists finish a short payout setup. Recipients are responsible for any taxes on their prizes, and Mangrove may ask for a tax form before paying. Mangrove cannot send a prize where the law or its payment providers do not allow it. If an event is cancelled before results are published, no prizes are awarded, and the host’s pool is returned to the host. Mangrove’s responsibility to any contestant is limited to paying a prize they have won under these terms.

Payment processing

Payout setup happens with one of our payment providers, Stripe or Wise. Bank details go to that provider, and Mangrove does not store them. If a prize recipient is under 18, a parent or guardian who is 18 or over can finish setup and receive the prize on the recipient’s behalf.

Prize money is paid through Mangrove’s payout partners. The transfer and currency fees for the chosen payout method come out of that payout. Mangrove keeps a 7% platform fee on hackathon prize pools. It is charged to the host on top of the pool, so it never comes out of a prize.

Hosts

Members and organizations can host events here. To run one, a host can see who registered, the teams, availability, and entries, but never contestant email addresses.

Honor code

We expect that contestants submit their own work and treat peers well. A host or Mangrove can remove an entry or a person from an event, for things like copied work or harassment. A removed entry is not judged, does not appear in results, and is not paid a prize it has not already received.

Updates

These terms may change between events. The version live when a contestant registered is the one that applies to that event.

Questions

Write to hello@mangrove.one. For data rights, see the Privacy Policy.