Many participants in industry hackathons are just looking to make some quick prize money and move on to the next contest – Dominic Kwok calls them “hunters.”
But Easya, the startup for developers 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 a strategy that’s proven fruitful, with companies emerging from Easya’s app community and monthly in-person hackathons raising money at a collective valuation of more than $3 billion from top VC firms like of A16Z crypto and CMT digital. And EasyA’s mobile app, which helps developers easily start building their own Web3 projects, has more than a million users worldwide.
At the first easya consensus hackathon in Austin in May, more than 700 participants launched 100 different crypto projects, and Kwoks expects similar numbers for the upcoming Consensus Hong Kong and Consensus Toronto events (if you wish to apply for Easya Hackathon and Sa Consensus Hong Kong 2025, please go to here).
Here they discuss why their unique approach to hackathons, how they hope the Hong Kong consensus will differ from hackathons in other parts of the world and how the election of Donald Trump will affect the types of projects focused on the crypto developers.
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This interview has been edited and lightly edited for clarity.
How did Easya start?
Dominic: So we originally launched Easya about four years ago as the Go to 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 the top layers out there, like Solana, Polkadot, Stellar and Ripple’s XRP Ledger. And people will learn how to not only build, but also launch their own projects. We also host many large hackathons in person around the world, where hundreds of people come in and launch projects with our blockchain partners. And the goal is to get these people to not only launch, but then also establish and build startups that go on to be 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 dedicated to founders who want to start their own companies, as opposed to the “Bounty Hunters” hackathon. We want to make sure that our participants really stick together and build their projects because that’s where we see the future of Web3 really built. And the second thing is that most of our hackathons are single-chain, so the participants focus on one piece of tech and they actually launch one, as opposed to focusing on 50 different chains. We want to put people in front of the best ecosystems with the most support for developers.
How do you think the consensus hackathon in Hong Kong differs from the ones you hold in other parts of the world?
Dominic: The scale is going to be huge. We already have a record number of people applying for seats in the arena. Obviously we will have people from Hong Kong, but then also from other Asian countries like India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and China. And we also see a large number of people from the West who want to come. For many of those people, it was the first time they had actually been to Asia.
Do you expect there to be differences in the types of projects that developers are pursuing in Asia, compared to those in other parts of the world?
Phil: There’s a geographical element and then there’s also the thematic. A big theme we’ve seen come up over the past few weeks is AI X Web3, and a lot of developers are excited about that intersection. We’ve also seen protocols like Virtuals really kick off and be successful, so I think we’ll see a lot more. Geographically, in Asia there are obviously a lot of different currencies, and we see that developers there really understand the cross-border use cases better. If you’re a US-based developer, you don’t necessarily see friction points a ton. So I think we will see more of the cross border payment solutions start in the flesh itself.
How do you think Donald Trump’s presidency will affect the kinds of projects you see at your hackathons?
Phil: Obviously Defi has always been one of the biggest areas of the product market that fits into crypto – maybe one of the few that really fits. But right now because of, frankly, how scared a lot of developers are in the United States, a lot of people just don’t build or launch in the US and so you often go ahead with a decentralized app and it says “Oh, you’re in the state, you can’t use it.” So that’s a very visible area where we’re going to start seeing changes. Another area where you can’t participate if you’re from the US is the airdrops. So if you’re an end user, you can’t really access a lot of crypto. And if you want to target this demographic, which is of course the wealthiest in the world, you can’t. So I think Defi really blew up, especially in the states.
You both speak at Consensus Hong Kong. What are you talking about?
Dominic: Our Keynote was about why it’s so hard right now for the Web3 ecosystem to attract developers today. And we’ll give some of our tips on how they can attract developers more easily and on a larger scale. Nowadays, Web3 companies are competing with the same developers, and the growth of Web3 DEVS has been relatively stagnant. And obviously at Easya, our whole mission is really to bring more developers into the space. That starts with being easy. But we’re also making a lot of big tech upgrades that will allow developers to build more easily on-chain. And we will reveal those on stage.
