MIAMI BEACH — At Consensus Miami 2026, the EasyA hackathon felt less like a weekend coding sprint and more like a startup launchpad. Tucked inside the conference, EasyA’s floor drew nearly 1,000 builders — a mix of veterans from Base and Solana, engineers from Microsoft and Google, and newcomers testing the frontier where blockchain meets autonomous AI. The recurring theme across demos and pitches: AI agents.
EasyA has evolved quickly. What started as a small Austin hackathon during Consensus 2023 has become one of crypto’s most watched builder gatherings. Brothers Dom and Philip Kwok, who run EasyA, say that the goal is simple and ambitious. “We want billion-dollar companies coming out of EasyA,” Dom told CoinDesk on the hackathon floor. EasyA points to past alumni as proof: a Harvard team that demoed at an earlier EasyA event later founded Cognition AI, now purportedly valued at about $10 billion, while other alumni have graduated to Y Combinator, top venture funding, and major transaction volumes.
Organizers and participants say 2026 has brought a clear shift: developers are moving from infrastructure toward AI-powered consumer apps and autonomous agents — what EasyA dubbed the “Year of the Application Layer” at the EasyA x Consensus Hong Kong event earlier this year. Sponsors at Miami leaned into that trend. Coinbase backed challenges around x402, an emerging framework for agent-to-agent payments and API interactions; Solana and Solana Mobile pushed mobile-first, consumer-facing experiences; and AWS supported tracks focused on secure, agentic commerce.
The projects on display highlighted how builders are stretching the definition of “AI agents.” Examples included Praxis, a blockchain-connected drone control platform pitched as “Palantir on the blockchain,” and a team demonstrating software that converts text prompts into physical 3D objects — “build me a microscope” as a literal command. The demos underscored a broader push: turning conversational AI into autonomous, real-world workflows that can coordinate hardware, handle payments, and execute commerce.
Winners and notable projects
Judges favored entries that moved AI agents beyond chat interfaces into real-world coordination, automation and commerce. Prize structures varied by track and distribution details are still being finalized.
Kickstart Track ($50,000)
- First: FlyPraxis — A real-time drone intelligence and coordination platform designed for military operators; described by the team as “Palantir, but in real time,” using AI to manage autonomous drone systems.
- Second: HIIEHIIE — A platform that turns text prompts into fully buildable hardware products by automating physics checks, component sourcing, 3D CAD generation and assembly docs to compress prototyping timelines.
- Third: Clan World — Part of the wave of AI-native coordination and community-driven applications.
Solana Mobile Track ($30,000 + $75,000 in Solana phones)
- First: Parabola — A decentralized prediction and estimation market on Solana that uses a distribution-based AMM model optimized for mobile-native trading.
- Second: Snakr — An AI food-intelligence app that scans products for health risks, recalls and ingredient flags; users can add missing information and earn Solana rewards.
- Third: Rhythym — A mobile routine-support app to help users with executive dysfunction complete daily tasks, integrating Solana Mobile hardware and x402 infrastructure.
Coinbase / AWS Track ($45,000)
- First: Dairy Price API x402 — A pay-per-call commodity pricing and forecasting service that enables AI agents to access dairy market data without traditional API keys; payments settle in USDC via x402 on Base.
- Second: AgentPay — A one-tap approval and payment coordination system for AI agents that layers in AWS-powered risk validation to prevent irresponsible spending.
- Third: Giggy — A marketplace where users hire AI agents to perform research tasks; payments are escrowed on Base while agents can pay for premium APIs via x402.
- Runner-up: Chainlens — Built an x402-compatible verification layer that connects AI agents to authenticated APIs and conditions payment releases on verified responses.
What this means for crypto builders
EasyA’s Miami edition made one thing clear: developers aren’t just building crypto plumbing anymore. They’re building autonomous, user-facing products that combine AI decision-making with blockchain-native payments and verification. Sponsors and judges rewarded projects that demonstrated coordination, commerce and tangible real-world use cases — from battlefield drone management to grocery-shelf ingredient scans.
As venture capital pours into agent-focused infrastructure and startups race to define payment rails like x402, hackathons such as EasyA are increasingly less about trophies and more about seeding the next generation of crypto-native AI companies. The Kwoks’ aspiration — to launch companies that scale to the venture level — is now a real pitch to every team that walks through EasyA’s doors.
Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news
