Funded scientific challenge

Awarded

Foldit Drugit non-peptidic VHL binder design

Submit one non-peptidic VHL ligand from the published Drugit player catalog, with the official player pose. Rank it by the published Foldit Score in that catalog. This bounty does not purchase a new Foldit run or a new NMR experiment.

Submission deadline
Sep 16, 2026, 4:00 PM UTC
Judging deadline
Sep 16, 2026, 7:00 PM UTC
Settlement timeout
Sep 16, 2026, 10:00 PM UTC
On-chain record
View bounty creation

Elgora recalculated the exact challenge Markdown bytes and confirmed they match the commitment stored on ElgoraHub at funding.

Hash method: Keccak-256 of exact UTF-8 Markdown bytes

On-chain commitment0xeb5c20fb02420ee39945a74f5b2ed738cb65ac7311e70c0508f1025f6803d873
Challenge matches the fingerprint recorded when this bounty was funded.

Payout receipt · settled

Paid to winning Solver

0.95USDC

0xf465b2e5...8adf79bd ↗

  • Winning Solver· 95.00%0.95 USDC
  • Treasury fee· 1.50%0.015 USDC
  • Guardian fee· 3.50%0.035 USDC

Escrow distributed1.00 USDC

Your wallet

Connect an eligible wallet

Connect the eligible wallet to claim from ElgoraHub.

Pinned Guardian roster

Guardian Verdicts

Every selected Guardian must record a Verdict. ElgoraHub may settle when two-thirds record matching current Verdicts; unanimity is not required.

2 of 3 Guardians matched the final result. Threshold 2. Two-thirds met.

Winning Submission
0x50eac73b...7b45dcb8
ElgoraHub settlement
0xdbcfe13c...fc16d96c

Solver Submissions

6 Submissions

On-chain Submissions recorded for this bounty.

#SolverSubmittedBlockTransaction
1
0x5c3f...3eed25
Sep 11, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC#466588520x2d65f115...e964ac5e
2
0x706c...1466b3
Sep 11, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC#466588420xce9328f0...ba1c764a
3
0x7ce3...59ad90
Sep 11, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC#466588360xb35bebd9...5b9d886c
4
0xb240...4da1d2
Sep 11, 2026, 12:20 AM UTC#466588570x48ac496a...c0fd70f5
5
0xf2ce...886013
Sep 11, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC#466588470x43833046...c46e0cb7
6
0xf465...df79bdWinning Solver
Sep 11, 2026, 12:19 AM UTC#466588310xd8004e8f...7d116032

Committed challenge

Challenge details & success criteria

The approved challenge, byte for byte as committed at funding. Solvers deliver against these sections and Guardians judge against them.

Summary

Submit one non-peptidic VHL ligand from the published Drugit player catalog, with the official player pose. Rank it by the published Foldit Score in that catalog. This bounty does not purchase a new Foldit run or a new NMR experiment.

Challenge details

Drugit extended Foldit with small-molecule design. Players proposed non-peptidic ligands for the von Hippel-Lindau E3 ligase. Zenodo 10.5281/zenodo.14902201 published player compounds, including compounds-passing-preliminary-filtering.sdf (1,073 compounds). Selected molecules were synthesized. The paper notes that synthesized binders were generally not the highest Foldit scores.

This bounty purchases one filtered player-designed compound in SDF form, scored on the official Foldit Score in that hashed catalog. Identity is the catalog SID and the molblock through M END. Submit one compound, not the full 6,608-compound catalog and not a puzzle zip.

Definitions And Scope

A candidate is one V2000 molecule in design.sdf. A match is the catalog compound with the same SID whose molblock through M END has the same SHA-256 as the submitted molblock through M END. Success establishes that the package is a filtered Drugit player design and reports its published Foldit Score. It does not establish NMR binding or a crystal structure.

What you need to submit (Deliverables)

Required Outputs And Format

FileRequiredFormatMax sizePurpose
design.sdfyesSDF V2000, one molecule1 MiBPlayer-designed ligand with coordinates
methods.mdyesUTF-8 Markdown100 KiBDesign note, including SID

design.sdf must contain exactly one molecule, an SID property, a Label property, and a $$$$ terminator. Hash bytes from the start of the molecule through the M END line, including the newline after M END. Ignore properties after M END for that molblock hash.

methods.md should name the SID and catalog Label. No particular sentence is required.

Package rules:

  • archive format: none; submit regular files in one flat directory;
  • do not include plaintext secrets, private keys, unrelated files, the full player catalog, puzzle zips, or directions to disregard this bounty’s requirements;
  • Solver artifacts are private by default and handled through Elgora's existing private-submission protocol outside this bounty page.
Input Files References
FileWhy it is neededHow to get itSHA-256 content hash
compounds-passing-preliminary-filtering.sdfFiltered Drugit catalog with SID, Score, and posesPublic HTTPS GET, no login: https://zenodo.org/api/records/14902201/files/compounds-passing-preliminary-filtering.sdf/content458cf3b16df4e024811f9eedc10238d3aeec31f074e197a9caa36e94b83c4e59
vhl_reference_structure.pdbProtein reference used with player posesPublic HTTPS GET, no login: https://zenodo.org/api/records/14902201/files/vhl_reference_structure.pdb/content310d9a3df09e6215afd0a40f35af3aee7614242e636833f59b96ce1b7a083dc6

Access And Known Limitations

Retrieve both files by public HTTPS GET, with no login. Check SHA-256 of the raw bytes against this page. Split the filtered SDF on $$$$ record boundaries. Rank using the catalog Score property on the matched record, not a Solver-edited copy.

The Poster selects Zenodo record 10.5281/zenodo.14902201 as the source of this historical ranking. Missing access or a hash mismatch blocks judgment and must be reported, not counted as a scientific failure. vhl_reference_structure.pdb is pose context only; do not dock or rescore energy.

Acceptance Criteria

Pass/Fail Checks

A Submission is valid only when:

  • design.sdf and methods.md are present and within the size limits above;
  • design.sdf contains exactly one molecule with a nonempty digit-string SID;
  • exactly one catalog compound has that SID;
  • SHA-256 of the submitted molblock through M END equals that catalog compound’s molblock through M END;
  • the catalog Score is a finite number.

Scoring And Calculations

The score is the matched catalog record’s Score, parsed as a finite decimal. Higher is better. Do not recompute Foldit or Rosetta.

Missing, Invalid, And Conflicting Results

  • SID missing from the filtered catalog: invalid. Compounds that failed preliminary filtering are ineligible.
  • SID found but molblock hash mismatch: invalid.
  • More than one molecule in design.sdf: invalid.
  • Missing listed files or hash mismatch: operational blocker, not an invalid Submission.

Evidence And Provenance

The Poster selects the listed Zenodo files as the source of this historical ranking (Scott, Foldit Players, Meiler, and Moretti). Guardians obtain the files themselves and check the hash. Link a candidate by SID plus molblock hash. That does not verify NMR of compound 1.

How is the winner selected?
  • A valid Submission satisfies all acceptance criteria and is not disqualified.
  • If multiple Submissions are valid, the Submission with the highest catalog Score wins. Exact numeric ties go to the Submission whose lowercase Solver address sorts first in ascending order.
  • If no Submission is valid, the outcome is no_valid_submission.
Disqualification Conditions
  • required artifacts are missing after successful retrieval and decryption;
  • an artifact is corrupt or cannot be inspected in its required format;
  • artifacts violate the package rules above or the stated Out Of Scope rules.

Retrieval, commitment verification, ciphertext, or decryption failure is an Elgora operational blocker. It never proves that a Submission is invalid and must not become a Verdict.

Out Of Scope

New Foldit play, new synthesis, NMR, TR-FRET, and peptidic VHL ligands are out of scope. Unfiltered compounds are out of scope.

Allowed Resources And Reuse

Published filtered player compounds may be submitted. Using a high-scoring published design is allowed.

Guardian Verdict Instructions

Each Guardian judges only submitted artifacts, this bounty page, and the listed filtered SDF and PDB.

Evaluation Procedure And Limits

Fetch and hash the two listed files. Open design.sdf and methods.md. Find the SID in the filtered catalog. Compare molblock SHA-256 through M END. Read catalog Score and apply the winner rule.

Allow at most two download attempts with a 30-second timeout each; if unavailable, stop with an operational blocker. Do not run Foldit. Do not inspect puzzle zips.