developers increasingly shifted from infrastructure tools<\/a> toward AI-powered consumer applications and autonomous agents.<\/p>\nFor brothers Dom and Philip Kwok, co-founders of EasyA, that evolution is exactly the point. What began as a small hackathon series in Austin, Texas, during Consensus 2023 has quickly transformed into one of crypto\u2019s most closely watched builder gatherings, attracting young passionate developers with increasingly teams with serious technical pedigrees.<\/p>\n
Their ambition for the event is bluntly simple. \u201cWe want billion-dollar companies coming out of EasyA,\u201d Dom Kwok said during an interview with CoinDesk at the hackathon floor. \u201cWe\u2019ve already had, out of our other hackathons, a $10 billion company.\u201d<\/p>\n
That success story has become part of EasyA lore. One Harvard team that pitched at a previous EasyA event went on to found \u201cCognition AI,\u201d which the Kwoks say is now valued at roughly $10 billion. Another former participant, Axal, is building stablecoin yield products backed by bitcoin. <\/p>\n
Other alumni have reportedly gone through Y Combinator, raised from top venture firms and processed hundreds of millions in transactions. The message to developers walking through the Miami event was clear: this is no longer just a couple-days coding competition, it\u2019s increasingly being framed as a launchpad for venture-scale companies.<\/p>\n
This year, however, the center of gravity has unmistakably shifted toward agentic AI. Coinbase sponsored challenges around x402, an emerging framework developers are experimenting with for AI-agent payments and interactions, while Solana and Solana Mobile pushed teams toward mobile-first applications and consumer experiences. <\/p>\n
\u201cLots of developers [are] really excited about AI agentic workloads,\u201d Dom said, pointing to the recent wave of massive venture funding flowing into AI-agent infrastructure startups.<\/p>\n
Some of the projects already circulating around the venue reflected how far builders are stretching the category. One team called Praxis was working on blockchain-connected drones controllable through smartphones, what the brothers described as \u201cthe next Palantir on the blockchain.\u201d Another startup was building what they called \u201chyper-intelligent AI,\u201d software designed to turn text prompts into physical 3D objects. \u201cYou could put in a prompt and say, \u2018Build me a microscope,\u2019 and it will actually build it for you,\u201d Phil said. \u201cIt\u2019s like the next phase of taking ChatGPT from something informational into something embodied.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winners:<\/p>\n
The judges rewarded projects that pushed AI agents beyond chatbots and into real-world coordination, automation and commerce, whether through hardware, payments infrastructure or consumer-facing apps. Across the different sponsor tracks, the winning teams reflected the broader shift underway at this year\u2019s hackathon: developers were no longer just building crypto tools, they were building products meant for everyday use. Prizes differed per track, and are still pending on how they will be divied up in each category.<\/p>\n
Kickstart Track ($50,000):<\/p>\n
First place: FlyPraxis<\/p>\n
Taking the top spot in the Kickstart track was FlyPraxis, a real-time drone intelligence platform designed for military operators. The team pitched the project as \u201cPalantir, but in real time,\u201d using AI-powered coordination and live battlefield intelligence to manage autonomous drone systems.<\/p>\n
Second place: HIIE<\/p>\n
HIIE placed second with a platform that turns text prompts into fully buildable hardware products. Using AI agents to manage everything from physics calculations and component sourcing to 3D CAD generation and assembly documentation, the startup aimed to compress months of hardware prototyping into a single workflow.<\/p>\n
Third place: Clan World<\/p>\n
Clan World rounded out the top three in the Kickstart track, joining a broader wave of teams experimenting with AI-native coordination and community-driven applications.<\/p>\n
Solana Mobile Track ($30,000 + $75,000 worth of Solana phones)<\/p>\n
First place: Parabola<\/p>\n
In the Solana Mobile track, first place went to Parabola, a decentralized prediction and estimation market built on Solana. The platform allows users to speculate on real-world events through a distribution-based AMM model designed for mobile-native trading experiences.<\/p>\n
Second place: Snakr<\/p>\n
Snakr took second place with an AI-powered food intelligence app that lets shoppers scan products to identify potential health risks, FDA recalls and ingredient concerns. Users can also contribute missing product information and earn Solana-based rewards in return.<\/p>\n
Third place: Rhythym<\/p>\n
Third place winner Rhythym focused on productivity and accessibility, building a mobile routine-support app aimed at helping users with executive dysfunction complete daily tasks. The app integrates with Solana\u2019s Seeker phone, Nova 2 Lite and x402 infrastructure to create AI-assisted workflows.<\/p>\n
Coinbase \/ AWS Track ($45,000)<\/p>\n
First place: Dairy Price API x402<\/p>\n
The Coinbase and AWS track centered heavily on AI-agent payments and autonomous commerce. The winning project, Dairy Price API x402, built a pay-per-call commodity pricing and forecasting service that allows AI agents to access dairy market data without traditional API keys. Payments are settled directly in USDC through x402 on Base.<\/p>\n
Second place: AgentPay<\/p>\n
AgentPay placed second with a payment coordination system that gives users one-tap approval over AI-agent transactions while using AWS-powered risk validation to ensure agents spend funds responsibly.<\/p>\n
Third place: Giggy<\/p>\n
Giggy took third place for building a marketplace where users can hire AI agents to perform research tasks. Payments are locked in crypto escrow on Base, while the agents themselves can pay for premium APIs through x402-powered transactions.<\/p>\n
Runner up: Chainlens<\/p>\n
Chainlens focused on trust and verification for autonomous systems, building an x402-compatible layer that connects AI agents to verified APIs and only releases payment once responses are authenticated.<\/p>\n
Read more: AI-powered agents dominate the EasyA x Consensus Hong Kong hackathon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI BEACH, Fla. \u2014 At the EasyA Hackathon tucked inside Consensus Miami 2026, the energy felt less like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,195656,18,19,17,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-475717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-consensus-miami-2026","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116542302234307925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}