🗓️ Subscribe to the Apex's Program Calendar https://go.hellofuturehackathon.dev/calendar

Apex Hackathon Period: 17 February – 23 March

Opening Ceremony

• 17 February, 10 AM ET | Watch the recording here!

Workshops

• Workshop 1: Building DePIN, IoT and Edge Networks on Hedera, using Neuron

🗓️ 11 February, 10am ET | Watch the recording here!

• Workshop 2: Hedera 101: From Zero to Hackathon Hero

🗓️ 12 February, 10am ET | Watch the recording here!

• Workshop 3 with AWS/Hedera: Enterprise Key Management for Hedera: Signing with AWS KMS

🗓️ 19 February, 10am ET | Watch the recording here!

• Workshop 4: Register & build a useful AI Agent in the HOL Registry Broker

🗓️ 26 February, 10am ET | Watch the session live here!

• Workshop 5: Bonzo

🗓️ 2 March, 10am ET | Watch the session live here!

• Workshop 6: Hedera Sustainability Track

🗓️ 4 March, 11am ET | Watch the session live here!

• Workshop 7: Deploying Smart Contracts with Native On-Chain Automation

🗓️ 6 March, 10am ET | Watch the session live here!

AMA Sessions and Mentor's Office Hours

• AMA 1 (Asia time) | 24 February, 6pm SGT | Watch the recording here!
• AMA 2 (US time) | 25 February, 10am ET | Watch the recording [here]
• AMA 3 (Asia time) | 3 March, 6pm SGT | Watch the recording [here]
• MOH (US time) | 9 March, 10am ET | Zoom | Join [here]
• MOH (US time) | 12 March, 10am ET | Zoom | Join [here]

Submission, Review Closing & Winners Announcement

• Apex Submission Deadline: 23 March, 11:59PM ET
• Judging Period – 24 March to 10 April
• Closing and Winners Announcement - 27 April

1. Project’s GitHub Repo Link

• Team leader to create the project's GitHub Repo and share the access with the rest of the team to collaborate on.

• The team will save all submission items onto this Github Repo where the judges may access the items during the judging period.

• GitHub repo should host the application’s code, a README file, any other deployment files and testing instructions.

2. Project Details

• Project Description (max 100 words)

• Selected hackathon track

• A list of tech stack (solutions, technology infrastructure, technology services, etc.) used by the team to build your project

3. Pitch Deck (in pdf)

Here’s a potential structure you can adapt for your pitch deck:

a. Team and Project Introduction

b. Project Summary: Provide a comprehensive overview of your solution, keeping in mind that the 7 judging criteria will form the basis of judges’ assessment.

c. Future Roadmap: Any key learnings and room from improvements? Outline the next steps for your project if you were to continue developing it.

d. Demo: Showcase the technical strengths, usability and performance of your solution here! You must pre-record your demo, upload it to Youtube, and insert the link in your deck.

4.Project Demo Video

This is the URL to the project demo video of the solution the team has developed. A submission without a demo video link will not be scored.

5. Project Demo Link

This is the URL to the live working environment of the solution the team has developed.

Submission Rules:

✅ Teams may submit to one main track only.

✅ Teams may submit to one bounty only.

✅ Teams may submit to 1 main track + 1 bounty.

Notes:

• Individual team members can submit separate bounty entries if they are registered participants. All submissions will be judged on quality and authenticity.
• Upon submission, there will be compulsory additional feedback questions, so please set aside enough time and plan to submit at least one hour before the deadline. The submission takes about 20–30 minutes if you have everything ready. Please avoid last-minute submission attempts to prevent delays, as we will strictly follow the deadline.

Judging Criteria for All Tracks (Except Legacy Builders)

Innovation - 10%

Guiding Points:

• Does the team’s project align to the hackathon track?
• How innovative is the solution? Does this exist cross-chain?
• Has something like this been seen before in the Hedera ecosystem?
• Does this extend, or establish new, capabilities for the Hedera ecosystem?

Feasibility - 10%

Guiding Points:

• Can the proposed idea be created using Hedera network services or ecosystem platforms?
• Does this need to be a Web3 solution? Or could it be done already on Web2?
• Does the team understand the problem space / domain that they’re solving?
• Does the team understand what’s required to execute the solution, and have the capability to do so?
• Did the team create, and understand, a Lean / Business Model Canvas to illustrate the business model intended to be used as part of the solution being created?

Execution - 20%

Guiding Points:

• Were the team able to create a MVP for their solution?
• Did the team deliver a Proof of Concept (PoC) with a limited, but important, set of features?
• Did the team create a fully functioning solution?
• Did the team function well together and work to each other’s strengths? Was there effective leadership within the team?
• Did the team establish a strategy and long-term plan for the development of the solution beyond the hackathon?
• Did the team identify a Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy for the solution?
• Did the team identify where they could use market feedback cycles to improve the solution / idea?
• Did the team identify important design decisions they made?
• Did the team have a good emphasis on user experience/accessibility?

Integration - 15%

Guiding Points:

• To what degree does the project use the Hedera network?
• How integrated is it? What services are used?
• Are any of our ecosystem platforms being used, or leveraged?
• Is a Hedera service being integrated in a way it hasn’t been seen before? (creativity)

Success - 20%

Guiding Points:

• Does the solution positively impact the Hedera network or ecosystem?
• Does the solution lead to more Hedera accounts being created?
• Does the solution give rise to a high number of monthly active Hedera accounts?
• Does the solution lead to greater TPS on the Hedera network?
• Does the solution give the Hedera network exposure to a greater audience?

Validation - 15%

Guiding Points:

• Did the team identify where to gain market feedback? e.g. ask users / customers, partners, practitioners, subject matter experts (SMEs) etc.
• Did the team establish one or more market feedback cycles? e.g. Following up with users that tried the product to ask for feedback, or a review?
• What traction with the market have the team achieved?
• Onboarded early adopters | Free / Paid trials? | Taken any revenue? | What is the market sentiment? | What is the growth / churn rate?

Pitch - 10%

Guiding Points:

• Are the problem and solution presented clearly?
• Is the problem big enough for sustained growth?
• Is the style and narrative of the pitch well thought out & executed?
• Were the team able to convey a significant & exciting opportunity?
• Did the number / metrics of the solution make sense?
• How was Hedera represented in the pitch?
• Were suitable responses to questions given?
• Do they clearly state their MVP’s features & why they chose those / them?

Judging Criteria for Legacy Builders

Baseline Quality - 30%

Guiding Points:

• Was the starting point real and coherent?
• Baseline Hedera fit (10%)
• Baseline feasibility (10%)
• Baseline product clarity (10%)

Delta Score - 70%

Guiding Points:

• How much progress has the project made since the baseline?
• Delta in product scope & UX (25%)
• Delta in technical robustness (15%)
• Delta in traction/validation (15)%
• Delta in Hedera integration depth (15%)

$250,000 Total Apex Prize Pool

🏆 Prize Pool for the Main Tracks ($200,000)

Apex Main Tracks: AI & Agents, DeFi & Tokenization, Sustainability, Open Track, Legacy Builders ($40,000 Each Track)

Prize Breakdown:

• 1st Place: $18,500
• 2nd Place: $13,500
• 3rd Place: $8,000

🏆 Prize Pool for Bounty ($48,000)

Apex Partner Bounties: Neuron, AWS, Bonzo, Hashgraph Online, OpenClaw, and Hiero ($8,000 each Bounty)

Prize Breakdown:

• 1st Place: $4,000
• 2nd Place: $3,000
• 3rd Place: $1,000

🏆 Prize Pool for Side Quests ($2,000)

Side Quest: Ask-mentor-Anything

First 50 registered participants to achieve the 3 required steps below will receive USD $40

Prize Eligibility Rule:

• Submit between Feb 17 – Mar 23, 11:59PM ET
• Must be a registered Apex hackathon participant
• Open to individual participants only
• Use your StackUp username on ZEP. Type it correctly on the form.

How to participate?

Step 1. Join the AMA using your StackUp username.

Step 2. Submit at least one question through this form (form cut off 6 hrs before the session).

Step 3. Talk to at least one mentor during the AMA session which you submitted the question for.

i.e. You must attend and consult a mentor during AMA 1 if you submitted a question to be answered during AMA 1.

Note: Consultations will be verified by the Organising Team.

Neuron (💰$8000)

Problem Statement:

Build a Multilateration (MLAT) system to localize aircraft using distributed Mode-S data from the Neuron network.

Requirements:

• Participants are challenged to design and implement an MLAT algorithm that determines aircraft positions without relying on broadcast location data, using only Mode-S messages collected from geographically distributed receivers.
• The system must consume live aviation data from peers on the Neuron network via 4DSky and its SDK, discoverable through Hedera-based peer discovery, and fuse time-correlated observations from multiple sensors to estimate aircraft location.
• Modern airspace surveillance increasingly depends on cooperative systems like ADS-B, yet many aircraft either do not broadcast position data or do so unreliably. In this challenge, participants will work with real, decentralized aviation data sourced from independent Mode-S receivers deployed across the Neuron network.
• Using the 4DSky platform and SDK, teams will discover data-producing peers via Hedera, subscribe to live Mode-S message streams, and apply multilateration techniques to infer aircraft positions from signal timing and geometry alone.
• The goal is not only to implement MLAT, but to explore how decentralized, peer-to-peer sensor networks can enable resilient, trust-minimized airspace awareness without centralized data collection.

Examples/Ideas/Resources:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iQNUTmnOh4i-9pJt6jA7RY_YNSWusbQW/view?usp=drive_link

📌 [Submit here]

AWS (💰$8000)

Problem Statement:

Secure Key Management for Onchain Applications (Intermediate)

Requirements:

• Design and implement a secure key management solution using AWS KMS that enables developers to safely manage cryptographic keys while maintaining compliance and auditability.
• Utilize AWS KMS for secure key generation, storage, and rotation
• Submit a transaction on Hedera
• Implement proper access controls and audit logging
• Demonstrate secure transaction signing without exposing private keys
• Working prototype with documentation showing key management architecture, security controls, and integration with Hedera.

📌 [Submit here]

Bonzo (💰$8000)

Problem Statement:

Create an Intelligent Keeper Agent with the Hedera Agent Kit. DeFi vaults today are efficient but "reactive." They rely on static parameters or simple keepers to harvest rewards and rebalance liquidity ranges. They cannot anticipate market volatility, digest news, or adapt strategies based on off-chain context.

Requirements:

We want you to build an Intelligent Keeper Agent using the Hedera Agent Kit. This agent should not just execute transactions but make decisions. By integrating external data (prices, volatility, sentiment) via RAG or Oracle tools, your agent should autonomously interact with Bonzo Vault contracts to maximize returns while minimizing risk for depositors.

Examples/Ideas/Resources:

1. The "Volatility-Aware" Rebalancer (The Quantitative Approach)

Concept: Concentrated liquidity (CLMM) vaults suffer impermanent loss when prices move violently.

The Build: An agent that monitors volatility indices (or calculates realized volatility of HBAR/USDC).

Logic: Low Volatility: Agent calls the vault to tighten liquidity ranges (higher fees).High Volatility Detected: Agent preemptively widens ranges or withdraws to single-sided staking before the price moves out of range.

Tech: Hedera Agent Kit + Bonzo Vault Contracts + SupraOracles feeds.

2. The "Sentiment-Based" Harvester (The RAG Approach)

Concept: Market sentiment often precedes price action. A simple "harvest every 4 hours" schedule is inefficient if the reward token is about to crash.

The Build: An agent that uses RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) to ingest crypto news or social sentiment about the reward token.

Logic: Negative Sentiment Spike: "The market is bearish on Token X today." -> Agent triggers an immediate harvest and swaps rewards to stablecoins now, rather than waiting for the scheduled harvest.Bullish Sentiment: Agent delays harvesting to let rewards accumulate price appreciation.

Tech: Hedera Agent Kit + LangChain (RAG) + Twitter/News API.

3. The "Intent-Based" User Interface (The UX Approach)

Concept: interacting with smart contracts is hard. Users just want "safe yield."

The Build: A chat interface where users state their goal: "I want low risk yield on my HBAR."

Logic: The agent interprets the intent, scans available Bonzo Vaults for the best risk-adjusted APY, and executes the deposit transaction on the user's behalf using the Agent Kit.

Tech: Hedera Agent Kit + Vercel AI SDK + Bonzo Subgraph/API.Note - The participants can check out our docs to understand more about Bonzo Vaults, the contract addresses, etc. - https://docs.bonzo.finance/hub/bonzo-vaults-beta/bonzo-vaults-quickstart

📌 [Submit here]

Hashgraph Online (💰$8000) + 100K HOL Points

Problem Statement:

Register & build a useful AI Agent in the HOL Registry Broker

Requirements:

Utilize the HOL Standards SDK, Official Skill or Hashnet MCP Server to register your Agent. Ensure others can reach your agent via HCS-10, A2A, XMTP or MCP. Ensure users can chat with your agent using natural language and interface with your Apex Hackathon Decentralized Application.

Example/Ideas/Resources:

Resource Links

• https://hol.org/registry/docs
• https://hol.org/registry/skill.md
• https://hol.org/registry/moltbook
• https://github.com/hiero-ledger/hiero-consensus-specifications

What are examples of use cases you are looking to solve?

• Agents hiring other agents
• Agents pooling capital
• Agents competing for tasks
• Agents subscribing to other agents’ outputs
• Agent DAOs / guilds / collectives / cults

📌 [Submit here]

OpenClaw (💰$8000) 

Problem Statement:

Killer App for the Agentic Society An agent-native application designed for a society of OpenClaw agents, where commerce, coordination, or value exchange happens autonomously. Bonus points if you use UCP to standardise agent-to-agent commerce. 

Requirements:

Positions Hedera as foundational infrastructure for the Agentic Society by enabling trust, coordination, and value exchange between autonomous agents throughl HTS usage, on-chain attestations, and repeat agent-initiated transactions as agent-native applications emerge.

What is required to complete this bounty?

• App must be agent-first (OpenClaw agents are primary users)
• App must demonstrate autonomous or semi-autonomous agent behaviour
• App must create clear value in a multi-agent environment
• Agents must use other the Hedera EVM, Token Service, or Consensus Service
• Deliverables: public repo, live demo URL or runnable CLI/Docker, <3 min demo video, and
• README with setup + walkthrough.

What are the UI/UX Design Requirements?

• The UI is for humans observing agents, but the product is not meant to be human-operated.
• Should include an interface that shows the agent flow steps and states.
• Browser demo URL preferred.
• Reputation / trust indicators (maybe using ERC-8004) are nice to have.

Example/Ideas/Resources:

• An app which gets more valuable as more agents join
• Agents being able to discover, rank, and trade with each other using Hedera tokens
• Something which a human wouldn’t operate
• Hedera technology enables an actual value add to the society through increased trust

(whether it be payment settlement, proof of ownership, HCS for attestation)

📌 [Submit here]

Hiero (💰$8000) 

Problem Statement:

Build a Hiero-ready open-source library that makes it easier for developers to interact with Hiero networks—a reusable set of utilities (not an app) that improves developer experience and can realistically be adopted by the ecosystem.

Requirements:

Use https://github.com/OpenElements/hiero-enterprise-java as a reference for what “production-minded” integration looks like.

What is required to complete this bounty?

• Public repo + clear licenseClean library API + basic tests + CIREADME with install + quickstart examplesContribution hygiene suitable for upstreaming (e.g., CONTRIBUTING, GPG Signed commits, DCO-style sign-offs and/or clear process)

Example/Ideas/Resources:

• TypeScript Mirror Node client with typed queries + pagination helpers
• Scheduled transactions helper (create, sign, track status)
• React / Next.js integration kit (hooks/utilities for common Hiero flows)

📌 [Submit here]