EasyA x Stacks Bitcoin and AI Hackathon

How would I describe the EasyA x Stacks hackathon in one word?

HISTORIC

From October 21st to October 22nd, EasyA and Stacks hosted over 300 developers in Central London, all collaborating and competing to win £25,000 in prize money. Stacks is a revolutionary new technology and one of the world’s first platforms to bring smart contracts to Bitcoin. Since launch, a whole host of innovative new dApps have been built on Stacks and if their vision plays out, they will be one of the world’s first to allow developers to unlock the huge amounts of value behind Bitcoin (which currently has a market cap of almost US$1 trillion!). With that in mind, this hackathon was all about Bitcoin.

You may be wondering… why did Stacks pick Bitcoin and why do so many developers choose to build on it?

Well, imagine finally being able to tap into the most famous and widely-held cryptocurrency in the world, with almost a trillion dollars worth of value. That’s the huge opportunity that Stacks unlocks.

So… by now you probably know the magnitude of opportunity that building on Bitcoin presents. But to truly grasp how big this opportunity really is, you need to understand what makes Bitcoin itself one of the most miraculous inventions to date. Let’s dive in!

You've definitely heard of it, but what exactly is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralised cryptocurrency designed for peer-to-peer electronic cash transactions. Its key features include unparalleled security, making settled transactions almost impossible to reverse, and its complementary relationship with projects like Stacks, which offer novel applications such as bitcoin-backed loans, DeFi, and NFT trading, expanding Bitcoin's utility beyond a passive store of value.

My personal favourite part about Bitcoin? Bitcoin is an EXTREMELY versatile cryptocurrency. And now with Stacks, developers can leverage this by building on top of Bitcoin (yes, Stacks brings smart contracts to Bitcoin for one of the first times ever)! Check out some of the amazing projects that our gigabrain hackathon winners built!

Meet the winners of our EasyA x Stacks Hackathon

We wanted to make this hackathon accessible and competitive for everyone. So, whether you were technical or non-technical, there was an opportunity for you to win. Our three different competitions were: The Shark Tank Pitch competition, the sBTC Track and the AI pitch competition!

Who won the Shark Tank Pitch competition?

This was the competition for the entrepreneurs in attendance. Technical or non-technical, these prizes were simply for those with the best pitch. We were blown away by the genius and delivery of these winners:

EasyStacks (£1,000) - Serial entrepreneur Jakub Klima and ex-Deloitte consultant Ionana Marin built EasyStacks, a tool to help onboard users to Stacks’ brand new sBTC technology.

Remedy (£750) - Built by Akzhan, final year student at King's College London, is a platform that allows investors to fund clinical trials using Stacks' sBTC.

Minted (£250) - Built by a team who’s designed metaverses for the largest consumer brands such as, Minted is a Web3 fashion marketplace that’s cutting greenhouse emissions caused by fast fashion, using Stacks for payments.

Who won the sBTC Track?

sBTC is a new Bitcoin synthetic derivative that has a decentralised, two-way peg mechanism with Bitcoin. sBTC is unique in that it does not rely on a federation to facilitate the movement of BTC in and out of Bitcoin layers. Instead, it uses Stacks smart contracts that are capable of writing back to the Bitcoin mainchain in a trustless manner. So now you know a bit about sBTC, we present you with the winners of this track:

SeedSwipe (£6,000) - Tinder for investors! Built by Imperial College andengineering grads, their iOS app allows investors to invest in companies using crowdfunding features enabled by sBTC.

Stack Pot (£3,500) - Built by engineers from Stackpot uses Stacks smart contracts to decentralise casinos so that they’re fairer and more transparent for players. Say goodbye to the house always winning!

Bitroll (£1,500) - Bitroll uses Stacks and Hiro to automate payroll for companies, making HR teams more efficient and saving them time and money.

Who won the AI Pitch track?

Bitcoin and AI are two of the most transformative inventions to date. We combined the two in order to find out how AI can elevate projects using Bitcoin. Here were your winners:

‍Team Clarify AI (£4,000) - An AI that reads Stacks smart contracts for users to keep them safe and prevent scams.

If ‘Web1’ was the internet and ‘Web2’ was the internet’s coming of age with the creation of companies like Spotify, YouTube and Zoom, then Web3 is the means to unlock the internet's full potential.

Auto-BTC (£2,250) - Built by Binance Security Engineer is a multi-agent AI that creates full dApps based on a single prompt!

LiveTree (£750) - Built by a decentralisedgiving content creators greater control over their earnings online. They’re already live, check ‘em out at livetree.com!

What made this hackathon so special?

Personally, this was my first ever Hackathon. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Prior to attending, I had no conception of why anyone apart from computer scientists went to hackathons. However, what entailed across those 2 days in London completely blew my mind. There were people of all ages, from different parts of the world, studying different subjects… both collaborating and learning in harmony.

And while it can be hard to launch a startup or build that idea you’ve always had alone, I saw the power of hackathons first-hand, and how important it is to launch your idea into the world alongside other talented and motivated individuals. It was the closest insight I had to what working in the real world would be like. Incredible brains teaming up to tackle the world’s biggest problems. You could tell that everyone in attendance felt immersed, enthused and happy to be there.

So whether you are a non-technical person like me or a veteran coder looking to win big… come along to the next EasyA hackathon. There is absolutely nothing to lose and so much to gain.

Check out our full recap on Twitter, and relive the day in full detail here!

If you've got this far, you're probably wondering how you can prepare for our next hackathon. Luckily, we built the EasyA app as the perfect place for you to get ahead and get ready for our next hackathon. Download the EasyA app now!