---
layout: post
title: "Cuprate Fast Sync Hackathon Submission Wins Enhancement to XMR Usability Award"
excerpt: "The MAGIC Monero Fund supported the Monero Konferenco 2024 Hackathon, and the winner of the prize implemented fast sync for Cuprate, a Monero node implementation in Rust."
date: 2024-06-17
Author: magicboard
---

The [MAGIC Monero Fund](/funds/monero) donated €2,000 in XMR to the [Monero Konferenco](https://monerokon.org) to support their [2024 hackathon](https://monerokon.devfolio.co/). This donation allowed the MAGIC Monero Fund to select a submission to receive the "Enhancement to XMR Usability Award".

The [winning submission](https://github.com/dllud/fast-sync-pitch) from [jomuel](https://github.com/jomuel) and [dllud](https://github.com/dllud/) [implemented fast sync](https://github.com/Cuprate/cuprate/pull/155) in Cuprate. [Cuprate](https://github.com/Cuprate/cuprate) is an open-source alternative Monero node implementation in Rust.

According to the authors, fast sync reduces initial Cuprate sync time from 15 days to 4 days.

Alternative implementations of node software help make decentralized systems more robust and secure. MAGIC Grants is excited to further its charitable mission to maintain public infrastructure by making it easier for users to operate the most essential piece of this infrastructure: nodes.

### About Monero Konferenco

[Monero Konferenco](https://monerokon.org) ("MoneroKon") is an annual Monero-focused academic conference, currently held in Prague in June. It is organized by Twisted Edwards, a Czech non-profit. It is an annual meeting of privacy advocates, cypherpunks, researchers, and developers and is designed to disseminate scientific and technical results in privacy-enhancing technologies and distributed systems.

### About MAGIC Grants

MAGIC Grants is a 501(c)(3) public charity that supports cryptocurrency networks, which are essential public payment infrastructure. MAGIC Grants empowers communities to set up MAGIC Funds for various projects deemed essential. These Funds are semi-autonomous and can choose to fund various qualifying activities, including educational materials, essential developer maintenance, research, and security audits.

### About MAGIC Monero Fund

The [MAGIC Monero Fund](/funds/monero) was established in December 2021 and is overseen by the MAGIC Monero Fund committee.
