Hello Future Trilogy: How Hedera Ran a Multi-Chapter Global Hackathon

Hedera is an enterprise-grade public blockchain network built on the Hashgraph consensus algorithm, designed for fast, low-cost, and energy-efficient decentralized applications. Together with AngelHack, Hedera hosted the Hello Future Hackathon Trilogy, a three-part global program that ran from June 2025 to March 2026 with a combined $550,000 prize pool.

Building a Developer Pipeline That Lasts

Growing an open-source network depends on a healthy developer pipeline, and that pipeline has stages. Developers discover the network, learn the stack, ship something real, and eventually return as repeat contributors who scale their earlier work. Most hackathons touch only one stage. They generate a spike of activity, then developers move on before anything advances down the funnel.

Hedera needed a program that carried builders across the full pipeline: from a newcomer’s first line of code to a production-ready project, and back again to refine and scale it. That meant sustaining progression across months, not a single time-boxed weekend, while driving real-world use cases of Hedera, from AI agents and DeFi to tokenization and sustainability.

How AngelHack Designed and Ran the Trilogy Hackathon

We built the trilogy as three connected chapters, each mapped to a stage of the developer pipeline.

Origins Hackathon: Shipping the First Prototype

Origins existed to get developers onto Hedera and build a working MVP. Running from July 21 to August 8, 2025, it opened the trilogy with a $150,000 prize pool across four tracks: AI & Agents, DeFi & Tokenization, Sustainability, and Legacy Builders, plus a Developer Experience bonus track. The Legacy Builders track let returning developers refine projects from earlier Hedera hackathons, while newcomers started from the learn-and-earn on-ramp.

Ascension Hackathon: Raising the Bar

Where Origins rewarded a working MVP, Ascension pushed builders toward more complete, technically ambitious projects, pairing deeper problem statements with expert support to match the higher bar. It also widened the categories, adding an Edge & IoT Infrastructure (DePIN) track and an Open Track to the four core ones, backed by another $150,000 prize pool over November 2025.

Apex Hackathon: Crossing the Finish Line

The finale set the highest bar: turn prototypes into production-ready projects. Running over five weeks across five main tracks, Apex was backed by Hedera and its ecosystem partners for both mentorship and prizes: a $250,000 prize pool with $50,000 in partner bounties and side quests.

One Operating System Across Three Hackathons

The three chapters ran on a shared operational spine. The StackUp platform handled registration, submissions, and tracking, and ran the learn-and-earn on-ramp that gave newcomers a guided path onto the network before building. A united platform meant builders moved between chapters without relearning the process. Mentor Office Hours, backed by the Hashgraph developer relations team, replaced one-off AMAs to give teams routine, direct access to expert help when they were stuck.

What the Hedera Trilogy Achieved

Across all three chapters, the trilogy drew more than 2,700 registrations and 662 project submissions.

• Origins opened with 780 registrations and 159 submissions
• Ascension followed with 777 registrations and 135 submissions
• Apex closed as the biggest chapter, pulling in 1,197 registrations, 149 teams, and 368 submissions

Registrations grew 53% between the first and final chapters. Interest peaked at Apex, the hardest chapter to enter, proof that the pipeline was pulling builders forward rather than losing them.

The clearest result was the builders who kept advancing. Several teams placed throughout the three chapters, returning to refine and scale earlier projects. In the end, Apex crowned first-place winners across five tracks, with strong runners-up behind:

AI & Agents Track

• Space Lord (1st): an AI assistant for trading and managing crypto through plain conversation.
• Dossier (2nd): AI agents that fact-check news and record the results on-chain.

DeFi & Tokenization Track

• Ketch (1st): a marketplace for fishermen to trade government fishing rights directly, without brokers.
• Herald (2nd): a decentralized platform for leveraged trading.

Sustainability Track

• Hedera Green Bonds (1st): a green investment product that penalises issuers for missing environmental targets.
• Eggologic (2nd): a circular-economy platform turning food waste into egg production.

Open Track

• Kalam Network (1st): a messaging and payments app where your account doubles as a secure digital ID.
• Attestify (2nd): a protocol for issuing verifiable digital credentials.

Legacy Builders

• Medq (1st): a game-style app that rewards people for completing real crypto tasks.
• Golden Needle (2nd): a platform for tracking building-safety compliance on-chain.

Post-event survey data, drawn from roughly 280 Apex responses, also gave Hedera critical insights for future programs: Mentor Office Hours outperformed traditional AMAs. Workshops drove the strongest engagement. The main friction points were debugging complexity and documentation gaps.

“Working with AngelHack, what stood out most was the availability. It would be midnight in Singapore and the team would still be online to support us, which matters when you’re working across the US, Europe, the Middle East and APAC. They’ve run many of these programs before, so they don’t just deliver, they help you structure it around what actually works.”

Jake Hall,
Developer Relations Engineer at Hedera

Build a Developer Program That Outlasts the Weekend

A program this size needs a partner Hedera can count on at every stage. AngelHack designed, ran, and closed all three chapters, keeping quality and momentum steady from Origins to Apex. Organisations planning multi-stage programs can expect the same: one team handling operations, platform, and community, so collaboration stays easy and builders get one smooth experience throughout.