I don't think it has anything to do with "politics". Blockchain / crypto is an area mostly focused on hype and marketing. So it's not surprising that their "hackathons" have little to no substance.

I would say to give yourself the opportunity to have some fun with it. Maybe that could take the form of trying to apply what you know into some fun little project. Think about whatever you just studied and try to imagine what you could do with that knowledge. Don't worry about constantly making progress. You will learn a lot just from picking a little project and trying to solve all the little problems you run into.