Many participants in industry hackathons are just looking to make a quick buck and move on to the next contest – Dominic Kwok calls them “bounty hunters.”
But EasyA, the startup for developers that he and his brother Phil started four years ago, is looking for a different kind of competitor, those looking to build companies that can have a significant impact on Web3. It’s an approach that has proven fruitful, with companies coming out of Easya’s app community and monthly in-person hackathons raising money at a collective valuation of over $3 billion from top venture capital firms like A16Z Crypto and CMT Digital. And EasyA’s mobile app, which helps developers easily get started building their own Web3 projects, has over a million users worldwide.
At the first EasyA consensus hackathon in Austin last May, over 700 participants launched 100 different crypto projects, and the Kwoks expect similar numbers for upcoming events at the Hong Kong consensus and Toronto consensus (if you want to apply for the Easya Hackathon In Hong Kong Consensus 2025, go here).
Here they discuss why their unique approach to hackathons, how they expect consensus in Hong Kong will differ from hackathons in other parts of the world, and how the election of Donald Trump could affect the types of projects crypto developers focus on.
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This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
How did EasyA start?
Dominic: So we originally launched EasyA about four years ago as the place for anyone to learn about the best blockchains in the world. Anyone can use the EasyA app on iOS and Android to learn about top-tier ones like Solana, Polkadot, Stellar, and Ripple’s XRP Ledger. And people can learn to not only develop, but also launch their own projects. We also host a lot of large in-person hackathons around the world, where hundreds of people come in person and launch projects on our blockchain partners. And the goal is to have these people not only be, but also found and build new companies that are funded by the ecosystem and VCs.
How do you approach hackathons differently than other companies that run them?
Dominic: Two things. The first is that EasyA is very focused on founders who want to start their own companies, compared to Hackathon “bounty hunters.” We really want to make sure that our participants actually stay and build their projects because that’s where we see the future of Web3 really being built. And the second thing is that most of our hackathons are single chain, so participants focus on one piece of technology and actually launch on that one, rather than focusing on 50 different chains. We want to put people in front of the best ecosystems that have the most support for developers.
How do you think the Hackathon consensus in Hong Kong will be different from those you have in other parts of the world?
Dominic: The scale will be super big. We have already had a record number of people requesting seats in the arena. Obviously we will have people from Hong Kong, but also from other Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and China. And we are also seeing a large number of people from the West want to come. For many of those people, it will be the first time they have actually been to Asia.
Do you expect there to be differences in the types of projects that developers pursue in Asia, as opposed to those in other parts of the world?
Phil: There’s a geographical element and then there’s also a thematic one. A huge topic we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks is AI X Web3, and a lot of developers are excited about that intersection. We’ve also seen protocols like virtual really start and be very successful, so I think we’ll see a lot of that. Geographically, in Asia there are obviously so many different currencies, and we’re seeing developers there really understand those cross-border use cases much better. If you’re a US-based developer, you don’t necessarily see those friction points a lot. So I think we’re going to see a lot more cross-border payment solutions start to develop.
How do you think Donald Trump’s presidency will affect the types of projects you see at your hackathons?
Phil: Obviously, Defi has always been one of the largest areas of the product market fit in crypto, possibly one of the few that actually has that fit. But until now because of, frankly, how scared a lot of developers in the United States were, a lot of people just weren’t building and launching in the United States, so often you’d go to a decentralized application and it’ll say “Oh, you’re in the United States.” United, you can’t use this.” So that’s a very visible area where we’re going to start to see changes. Another area where you cannot participate if you are from the US is Airdrops. So if you are an end user, you wouldn’t really be able to access a lot of crypto. And if you wanted to target this demographic, which of course is the richest in the world, you couldn’t. So I think Defi will really explode, especially in the United States.
Both are also speakers at the Hong Kong consensus. What will you be talking about?
Dominic: Our main note will be on why it is so difficult at the moment for Web3 ecosystems to attract developers now. And we’re going to give some of our advice on how you can attract developers more easily and on a larger scale. Right now, Web3 companies are competing for the same developers, and the growth of web3 developers has virtually stagnated. And obviously at EasyA, our whole mission is to get a lot more developers into the space. That starts with making it easy. But we’re also making several big technology upgrades that will allow developers to build much more easily on-chain. And we’re going to reveal them on stage.
