[troupo]

It's good that the person is young and rather clear-headed.

Here's what the actual sceptic would immediately see and say "nah":

Goal: "hackathon during which we had to develop an innovative app or web app using NEAR's blockchain"

Result: "During the hackathon we made a decentralized exchange (DeX or "swap" in web3 jargon) named "Far Far Away Swap". This app's goal was to let our users exchange coins hosted on the NEAR blockchain using an automated market maker (AMM) algorithm"

Yup. Yet another currency speculation exchange. As a more jaded person, I would stop there. However, I see it as a good learning experience for the author, and I wish them the best of luck on their path.

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This also made me chuckle: "I met many skeptics there. Often they were on the older side of the attendees (most of them were looking like 40 years old)".

Yup :)