The Solana 2024 Renaissance Hackathon MCM concluded recently, and the list of winners has been announced. The first prize was awarded to RateX, a synthetic interest rate trading market based on margin; the second prize went to CUDIS, a wearable device providing health data ownership and AI support, and JogoJogo, an on-chain social entertainment platform. The third prize winners were CharacterX, whose core product is the AI social economy tool XFriends, Hajime AI, a decentralized AI Hub designed for families, Starpower, a decentralized energy internet, and IntentAGI, an autonomous intelligent agent operation layer.
Taking this opportunity, we invited the main members of the winning teams to share how they explore new trends in the Solana ecosystem.
Host: Yao, MCM Growth Lead of Solana Foundation
Guests: Sean, Founder of RateX; DY, Co-Founder of HajimeAI; Dr. Darcy, Co-Founder of Starpower; Edison, Co-Founder of CUDIS; Tony, Founder of JogoJogo; Rene, Founder of CharacterX; Shannon, Co-Founder of IntentAGI; Kevin, Co-Founder of HackQuest.
Host Yao: Please introduce yourselves.
Sean: Hello everyone, I am the founder of RateX. Before founding RateX, I spent ten years in traditional capital markets, working as the head of fixed income investment and portfolio manager, managing portfolios over a billion dollars. I've been involved in Crypto for three to four years. Last year, I went all in on Crypto and founded RateX.
Tony: Hi, I am Tony, founder of JogoJogo. Before founding JogoJogo, I worked in game publishing and global payments. Our games generated $1.5 billion in revenue in Brazil, with an annual global payment volume of about $2 billion. I also participated in the early investment of FTT and have a natural affinity for Solana. I enjoy the process of building from 0 to 1, hoping to bring small improvements to the world.
Edison: Hello, I am Edison. Before founding CUDIS, I have always been an entrepreneur. I entered the Crypto field in 2016, investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum early on, and participating in the investment and incubation of many early projects. I also spent over two years in traditional VC. We focus on creating projects or brands in the physical world within the crypto space, aiming to provide better products to solve real-life problems.
Rene: Hi, I am the founder of CharacterX. Before joining the tech industry, my dream was to be a literature professor, focusing on human loneliness and social issues in postmodern society. At Stanford, I was inspired by the entrepreneurial atmosphere and joined the tech industry. While working at Tencent in the social sector, I worked in the Southeast Asian market. I entered the Crypto industry during a bear market and tried various business directions. After the emergence of ChatGPT, AI+ social gave me new ideas about human connection in postmodern society, leading me to found CharacterX with a team.
Shannon: Hello, I am Shannon, Co-Founder of IntentAGI, an AI researcher with over six years of research experience in mainland China and Silicon Valley. We are developing a decentralized model for new multimodal operational devices.
Dr. Darcy: Hi, I am Dr. Darcy, Co-Founder of Starpower. Since earning my PhD in 2016, I have been working in the renewable energy industry. My doctorate is in photovoltaics and renewable energy. Last year, a co-founder approached me about creating an energy-focused Depin. Starpower aims to connect decentralized energy devices, creating a decentralized energy internet.
DY: Hello, my name is DY, graduated from the University of Auckland. In 2017, I was involved in Bitcoin and Ethereum mining, and in 2019, I managed market capitalization at Binance and OKX. At HajimeAI, I focus on hardware and economic model design and miner hosting. HajimeAI is a foundational network for peer-to-peer edge computing, offering plug-and-play AI models and personalized AI assistants. Through containerized Docker, we recommend these models to edge devices, enabling real-time upgrades. Our application scenarios primarily target home companionship, personalized AI services, and voice processing.
Kevin: Hello, I am Kevin, founder of HackQuest. We are developing an educational platform for developers and organizing hackathons. Since 2021, we have partnered with major internet companies and Web3 public chains to organize hackathons.
Addressing Industry Pain PointsHost: Please introduce your project, the practical problems it solves, and the team background.
Sean: RateX is a synthetic interest rate trading market based on margin, similar to Pendle V3. Our core functions offer one-click strategy generation and synthetic custom interest-bearing assets. We have built the first leveraged interest rate trading DeFi protocol on Solana, providing more options for Solana ecosystem users. Investors often ask how we differ from Pendle. We offer a more efficient investment and trading choice, allowing users to trade with just 10%-20% of the funds compared to Pendle. Our margin trading protocol supports long and short trading, offers lower slippage for low absolute yield assets, and sources yield from open market data, including native Solana yield assets and real-world assets like US Treasury and CPI.
Our team consists of nearly 20 members, with over half in development. We have three co-founders, including myself. Our COO is a top derivatives trader, and our CTO has 20 years of experience developing trading systems and has led development at renowned derivatives exchanges.
Tony: JogoJogo aims to become a viewpoint trading protocol, addressing three core issues: monetizing and trading viewpoints, solving trust issues between prize pools and players through on-chain construction, and introducing real positive EV APY to drive LST and DeFi into the next phase. Our team has extensive experience in game publishing and DeFi construction, with global implementation and organizational capabilities.
Edison: CUDIS consists of three parts: Smart Ring, application, and website. Our Smart Ring focuses on fashion, recording heart rate, blood oxygen, steps, calories burned, and sleep, providing multidimensional data. The application offers a data dashboard and AI coach based on daily data, with advice from top coaches in the US and Asia. Users can manage family health and initiate community competitions through the app. We emphasize wellness across eight dimensions, including occupational, physical, and psychological health.
We aim to solve two core issues: encrypting user data and placing it on-chain for easy access and integration with other applications, and creating a better product ecosystem for builders to earn significant revenue. Our team members mostly come from UCLA and UCB, with strong backgrounds in Crypto and traditional consumer industries, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Nike. We aim to provide users with more interesting products to improve life quality.
Rene: Initially, CharacterX positioned itself as an AI social platform, allowing users to create and interact with AI characters. Early on, we embedded multimodal interactive experiences, including sending private photos for personalized AI responses. Due to our unique design and market gap, we quickly attracted a large user base, reaching 4 million registrations. Observing user behavior, we found two major demands: long-term memory retention and the ability to take AI characters to different platforms, and democratized AI content creation.
We entered the next phase by developing a decentralized social identity system for AI, enabling independent identity and memory management, and integrating economic connections based on user data. Our team now includes experienced Solana developers and AI experts.
Dr. Darcy: Starpower connects home and commercial energy devices like air conditioners, water heaters, and electric vehicles, forming a schedulable energy device network. This network enhances energy efficiency, responding to various application needs, like virtual power plant demand response, improving energy side efficiency and data management. The energy industry faces challenges like the instability of renewable energy sources. We need to connect decentralized energy devices to respond to fluctuations in energy production, like solar power reductions. Our team mostly comes from traditional energy industries, with experience in IoT, Web3, and energy hardware supply chains.
DY: HajimeAI is a peer-to-peer edge computing network, allowing users to use AI services and contribute idle computing power. Our system includes HajimeAI, HajimeBot, and HajimeGarden. HajimeBot features a series of pre-configured AI models, requiring high video memory for edge inference and computing. HajimeGarden functions as a crowdfunding platform for AI computing power. Our team includes experts from Yale, Goldman Sachs, Baidu, Huawei, and JD's smart home division.
Shannon: AI content generation like poetry and conversation doesn't help us complete real tasks. We are training AI assistants to understand computer status and predict next actions. Currently, GPT4 multimodal components have an accuracy rate of only 10.59%, which we improved to 50%, the best among researchers. We invite users to participate in model feedback learning, incentivized by tokens. We solved model benchmarking issues, providing a composable ecosystem foundation. We will release our first product this month, allowing users to interact with our model via a browser plugin.
Future PlansHost: Why did you participate in the Solana hackathon, and what are the product and project plans and funding strategies?
Sean: We plan to release a testnet version next month for community testing and feedback. In the second half of the year, we will launch synthetic yield stablecoins and bonds based on RateX's core functions. We completed our pre-seed funding last month and will start the second round after the product launch.
Tony: We will launch a Euro Cup-themed product on the Snoic testnet in June, allowing users to create their own prize pools and share viewpoints with friends. After completing product testing in June, we aim to gather community feedback and suggestions. We plan to start internal testing of a viewpoint trading DePIN device in July.
Edison: We will conduct the second phase of sales next week and meet users at a September event in Singapore. Our users are globally dispersed, and we hold monthly events worldwide. We want more users to experience the smart ring and constantly iterate on new features. We completed seed funding and plan to promote in the APAC community in the third quarter.
Rene: We are conducting an SDID Mint event for human users, followed by an AI SDID Mint in July. We completed seed funding early this year and plan to start the next round next month.
DY: We will start pre-selling verification nodes in June, testing a customized model on the edge. We will launch a prototype testnet for HajimeGarden in August. We also signed a partnership with last year's hackathon champion project. We aim to raise funds in the European and American markets this month.
Shannon: We will release the first version of our product this month, allowing users to participate in Train AI to Earn by submitting model-related learning data. Our focus will be on developing our action layer. We plan to expand our team in North America and seek funding.
Dr. Darcy: We pre-sold the first batch of smart plugs in April, exceeding 20,000 units, making it a significant Depin project. We are conducting the next market promotion, giving away 300 engineering machines. Our team is working hard for global sales, completing certifications in Korea, the EU, and the US. After certification, the first batch of users will receive our devices.
Hackathon Experience SharingHost: Did you receive any support during the hackathon? Many winning teams came from HackQuest and Solana MCM's founders bootcamp. What did you gain from this bootcamp?
Adam: Solana's ecosystem is relatively unfamiliar to Chinese-speaking developers. We welcome anyone with questions about the Solana ecosystem or development to contact us. We offer support before and during the hackathon, including participating in HackQuest activities and meetups to connect with ecosystem partners. Solana's community is resilient, supporting each other and promoting growth. We're delighted to see so many excellent projects emerging from the Chinese-speaking community, emphasizing collaboration within the ecosystem.
Kevin: This year, we invited founders from leading Solana projects like Helius, Helium, and BackPack to share their experiences. It's rewarding to see so many award-winning teams emerging from the Bootcamp and community. As a developer education platform, we can help recruit developers and look forward to more online and offline activities with Solana Foundation and other projects.
New Trends in the Solana EcosystemHost: Can you give some advice to future participants?
Sean: Innovate genuinely and do something cool that benefits the Solana ecosystem. Believe in the uniqueness of the Solana ecosystem.
Edison: Participating in the Solana hackathon was a memorable experience. Engage closely with users, show them your product, and communicate with them. Successful projects in the Solana ecosystem often involve extensive user interaction and product refinement. The ecosystem is supportive, and asking questions and interacting with others is crucial.
Tony: Maintain a correct original intention, believing that Web3 can solve problems like peer-to-peer payments and trust. Be passionate and communicate actively, continuously refining your business model.
Rene: Keep an open mind, especially for entrepreneurs transitioning from Web2. Solana's team helped us achieve transformation and upgrade, providing technical and strategic support. The Solana ecosystem is open, and the experience goes beyond just winning rewards.
DY: Choose a project aligned with future trends. We believe edge computing combined with large models is a future direction. Integrate blockchain to provide computing power for edge devices, ensuring effective returns and computing power.
Dr. Darcy: Understand market demand and solve real problems. For example, the new energy storage sector is growing, and using tokens to drive adoption can help distribute hardware quickly. Team collaboration is crucial, as is actively participating in the community and maintaining innovation.
Shannon: Solve real problems. AI should assist with real tasks, and continuous iteration based on user feedback is essential. Think through the use of tokens and the necessity of Web3. Actively participate in the Solana ecosystem and seek collaborations.
Adam: Solana's ecosystem offers significant potential for growth, as demonstrated by the recent Memecoin craze. The network is evolving towards stability and scale.
Kevin: I believe Solana has the potential to produce killer applications due to its active user base, VC investments, and talented developers.
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