Zircuit was proud to participate in the ETHGlobal New York City 2025 Hackathon. The event ran from August 15th to 17th in the heart of Manhattan. For this event, Zircuit decided to give out five prizes in two categories: best project on Zircuit (two winners) and best killer app idea (three winners). The first category is the classic catch-all for projects that impressed us, and the second was to submit no-code ideas. We tried it in Cannes over the summer and were impressed with the potential dApp applications so much that we decided to try it again. New York didn’t disappoint. We received nearly 30 prize submissions and had to make some very difficult decisions about who won. Below, we highlight our winners and look forward to making even more difficult decisions about winners in Buenos Aires in November!
These projects required functional prototypes that implemented some use cases completely.
Zutchi brought lovable, adorable, and maybe even profitable, pets on-chain. The gamified idea behind Zutchi was to adopt an on-chain cat that used the most adorable on-brand assets for Zircuit and keep them happy and healthy. Users were required to feed their cats, ensure they had enough rest, and even put them to “work”. That last part was interesting: the work was potentially depositing funds onto DeFi projects on Zircuit. A cute synergy described was the ability to deposit funds into the pet – satisfying the feeding action – and putting those funds to work to generate yield. The idea of an on-chain pet is fun, but the ability to build in real yield (while benefiting from Zircuit’s Sequencer Level Security) seems like a nice way to onboard inexperienced users. Check out the project to see the idea in action!
Real-World Access showcased a simple yet effective use of blockchain technology: smart contracts that unlock doors and locks in the real world. They were able to generate QR codes that could be scanned at the physical lock to unlock it, provided that smart contracts had received the appropriate funds and the owner validated the appropriate requirements. Some additional work, like an integration with a reputation system with the anonymization of assets or identities could enable fully automated cheap rentals without payment issues. And it wouldn't hurt to rename it to avoid confusion with Real World Assets. Nonetheless, the execution was solid and we look forward to the team’s next steps!
There were three winners in this category. Winners didn’t require a functional prototype, just a well thought out idea. Nonetheless, many teams produced functional code and impressed the judges!
OathLock aims to bring the massive success of Shopify on-chain. There’s nothing revolutionary about that, but it’s the kind of infrastructure that, if done well, can bring behind-the-scenes blockchain adoption to the masses. Moreover, they integrated other web3 solutions like Ethereum Attestation Service to track data and reputation on-chain to track negative reviews for both the buyer and seller. This integration allows for this system to be expanded for community arbitration and risk scoring, to add some novelty and modernize the idea. They built out an e-shopping portal prototype and thought about integrating an open framework for reputation management.
VibeFlow aims to match people with similar interests for platonic friendships. Integrating with ticketing applications (like Eventbrite and Luma), the team was able to build a list of interests and match participants of relevant events together based on these categories. The blockchain was used to connect friends via “friendship bracelet NFTs”. They provided a great breakdown of the problem and the reasons why they thought this would be valuable. By creating a framework where individuals can track their connections on-chain, they are able to create a more connected world.
RelAI aimed to build out a decentralized reputation registry for AI agents. They used a myriad of technologies to accomplish this, including Zircuit’s Sequencer Level Security to prevent malicious transactions from being executed. As agents are becoming more popular across web3 verticals, thinking about this problem is becoming more important. Their solution aimed to be tamper-proof, integrable into the agents themselves, multi-chain, cross-chain, and governed by a DAO. Though these goals are ambitious, they are desirable – and we hope they succeed in building out such a project.
From cats on-chain to decentralized AI, the NYC builders delivered. We’re grateful to everyone who chose Zircuit to bring their ideas to life, and we can’t wait to see what gets built in Buenos Aires next!
See you again soon,
The Zircuit Team 💚
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