As the curtain falls on Consensus Hong Kong 2026, attention has shifted from the corporate boardrooms to the exhibition hall. While institutional conversations dominated the main stages, nearly 1,000 developers spent the week in the trenches at the EasyA x Consensus Hackathon, marking a definitive shift in the industry: the “Year of the Application Layer.”
The competition, which has become a consensus staple of CoinDesk’s flagship events, saw more than 30 projects presented on demo day. The quality of the builds, significantly aided by generative AI, clearly demonstrated that the barrier between a “proof of concept” and a “market-ready product” has been effectively removed.
A rising bar: from infrastructure to intention
The evolution of developer talent at Consensus has been growing gradually. In previous years, hackathon presentations were often deeply technical, creating faster consensus mechanisms or niche scaling solutions that remained out of reach of the average user.
This year, however, the bar has been raised to a new level. Developers have become product creators, shifting their focus from the backend to the user.
“The biggest thing we’ve seen now is that developers are creating things that real people can use,” said Phil Kwok, co-founder of EasyA. “We have seen a huge rise in the application layer. This is the year of the horse in Asia, but it is the year of the application layer in blockchain.”
This shift toward user experience (UX) was evident in the sophisticated use of “access keys,” iOS and Android technologies that allow users to log into Web3 apps without the friction of 24-word seed phrases, Kwok said. By removing these traditional “clicks” and barriers, developers are finally creating products that look like the apps people use every day.
The winner’s circle
Judges awarded top honors to projects that prioritized automation, security and risk management, three essential pillars for the next wave of retail adoption, Kwok explained.
First place: FoundrAI ($2,500)
Taking the top spot was FoundrAI, an autonomous AI agent designed to act as a “startup in a box.” The platform not only launches tokens; manages the entire lifecycle of a project, including hiring human developers to develop the product. It represents a provocative look at the future of decentralized work.
Second place: SentinelFi ($1,750)
Addressing the industry’s persistent “rug pulling” problem, SentinelFi provides real-time security scores for cryptocurrency traders. By performing six-category on-chain analysis, the tool helps users detect fraudulent tokens before committing capital, a critical utility as token launch volumes increase.
Third place: PumpStop ($1,000)
PumpStop rounded out the top three with a non-custodial trading layer focused on risk mitigation. By utilizing instant state channel execution, it allows traders to set stop-loss orders with on-chain proofing, bringing professional-grade trading tools to a decentralized environment without sacrificing custody.
The evolution of the ‘show floor’
The growth of the hackathon reflects a broader shift in the spirit of the Consensus. The event, once a strictly corporate affair, has increasingly integrated “builder” culture into its DNA. Dom Kwok, co-founder of EasyA, noted that the hackathon has been moved from the side rooms to the center of the exhibition hall.
“Usually every hackathon we host gets bigger and bigger,” Dom said. “Every year it’s taking up more and more space in the conference room. We had someone come all the way from San Diego just to see what was being built.”
Despite the “depressing” macroeconomic environment often reflected in token prices, sentiment on the ground in Hong Kong remained stubbornly bullish. Organizers noted that while interest rates and Federal Reserve policy drive the listings, builders are focused on the 93% of the world that does not yet own cryptocurrencies. The path to the next billion users, it seems, is being paved by developers who finally realize that usability is the critical feature, Dom said.
Phil and Dom said they can’t wait for Consensus Miami 2026 to see how much higher the bar is raised and how many more developers participate with surprisingly cool new ideas.
