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- [00:00]
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
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Dom Kwok
Of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com Foreign.
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Phil Kwok
Desk Conversation is all about Consensus Toronto Easy A co founders Phil and Dom Kwok join us to give us all the Alpha on the Easy A consensus hackathon which is gearing up to be North America's biggest blockchain hackathon. Welcome to you both.
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Jen
Thank you very much for having us on.
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Dom Kwok
Jen.
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Phil Kwok
We're getting us, of course, we're getting really excited over here about Consensus Toronto. It's happening May 14th to 16th. This is not the first time that I've talked with the both of you about the hackathons that happen at the consensus conference in collaboration with Easy A, but this is the biggest blockchain hackathon in North America. So Dom, I'm going to kick it off to you first. Practically, what does that mean? What kind of numbers are we talking about here and how do we know it's the biggest?
- [01:24]
Dom Kwok
Yeah, so we've already seen in the last couple weeks since we first announced the hackathon, tons and tons of excitement from developers, sponsors, partners, you name it, coming to the hackathon. So we are expecting to see over a thousand developers actually come in person to the Easy A consensus hackathon in Toronto, which will make it the biggest North American blockchain hackathon in history. And we are going to see hundreds of projects launch on different chains who are participating. Some of the chains we've already announced and yeah, we're looking forward to seeing all of those projects come to life. Our past Hong Kong and Austin Easy A consensus hackathons have already produced projects that have been backed by some of the world's best VCs and accelerators like a 16Z Y Combinator, Draper University, et cetera. So yeah, we're really excited to see everyone come in person and launch their startups on the world stage.
- [02:24]
Phil Kwok
Phil, if you had to think about the Easy A consensus hackathons, all of the ones we've done so far, what project stands out to you and that can be stands out in any way it could be in funding, it could be in partnerships like Dom just mentioned, it could be innovating in a certain ecosystem in a way that hasn't been done before. But what's kind of like that state standout project that you think about?
- [02:49]
Jen
That's a great question. Putting them on a spot, having to choose one. There've been so many. Cool. Can I, can I go for a couple? Maybe give a couple of different ones? One Dom alluded to just now. They just got into YC blindpay. Absolutely amazing team. They went to the Easy A consensus hackathon in Austin last year. Absolutely been crushing it. They've been doing. I think they hit about a million dollars in transaction volume recently and they've just been absolutely crushing it. So playing in the Stable coin space, we have also people who are going more on the retail and like user oriented side. So ramp me daddy and I shout them out. I remember the first time I was reading out that name actually going up on stage, I was like, is this like some sort of prank? I think the name is now like more like rmd. But absolutely amazing team, super fun loving, very much like in conjunction with that Degen spirit. And last but not least, actually the Easy a Hong Kong consensus hackathon. We had some incredible teams who were building modern portfolio management on the blockchain. And so I'll shout out Antonio and his team. Antonio actually used to work in TradFi and now he's bringing all of that experience into what he's building here in Web3. So I think across the board we've just seen absolutely amazing projects and they've gone on to achieve success faster than I could ever have imagined.
- [04:18]
Phil Kwok
Phil, in this space, I often wonder if I'm being pranked. So you are not alone there. There's a lot of things that happen that you just sit back and think like, wow, did that just happen or is this happening?
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Jen
Yeah, it turned out to be the.
- [04:32]
Phil Kwok
Real project name you mentioned, stablecoins there. And stablecoins are ramping up to be one of the driving narratives for 2025. Phil, I want to just get your perspective here. Are we expecting to see a lot of projects innovating in the stablecoin space? Or what are kind of the main areas that developers are looking to innovate in right now? And if you were to give advice like what are the areas that developers should be looking at if they want to win something like this?
- [05:04]
Jen
That's a great question. When I first got into the space in 2013 through Bitcoin mining. It was a very different world and I've seen so many different cycles, seen so many different bulls and bears. I think we've seen a lot of froth in the most recent bull market. A lot of people building some, you know, quite frankly some very, very whack ideas that don't necessarily need to be on the blockchain. So you bring up stablecoins. Stablecoins are one of the areas in blockchain that truly have product market fit. So people who are building stablecoin based payments systems or even building their own stable coins, that's going to do well. It is growing absolutely massively and growing at such a fast rate. And the second thing as well is things that just have to do with finance. So was talking with a couple of other founders recently about how we want to see more on the tokenization side. Tokenization just across the board, real world assets, securities, those sorts of things and also trading and I think that across stablecoins so payments and then also trading and defi decentralized finance, that will be some of the biggest projects or biggest set of projects that will be coming out of the hackathons and that we want to see. This is just the easiest way for developers to get success as quickly as possible after the hackathon.
- [06:20]
Phil Kwok
Dom, you mentioned that more than a thousand builders are going to be dawning on consensus Toronto with their ideas and their innovation. I was just having a conversation with Consensys chairman Michael Lau and we were talking about all of the Canadians that work in this space, all of the people who have innovated in the space that are from Canada. You have, you know, CZ Vitalik. There are so many people in the space who people don't even realize they're Canadian or that development originated in Toronto like Ethereum. So talk to me about the significance of having this in a place like Toronto, Canada.
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Dom Kwok
Yeah, so just like you said, you know, there are so many Incredible Blockchain and Web3 entrepreneurs who have come out of Canada that we, you know, don't realize are from Canada. And you know, I think even in the last couple years our hackathons have attracted a lot of cool talent from Canada. So the University of Waterloo, obviously that's where Vitalik went himself and other amazing web3 founders have gone and you know, the blockchain clubs there and other similar universities have really sort of been inspired by those entrepreneurs and now they're building some amazing startups themselves. There are also a ton of cool Web three companies in Vancouver. Some of the great Ones, really hot ones right now, all headquartered there. And so, you know, we're expecting a ton of good talent from Canada, from the east coast and the west coast, and then of course the rest of North America as well. But obviously, you know, the thousand plus developers are going to come from all over the world and we are really going to be accepting the best of the best developers from Canada, the rest of the us, Europe as well, and Asia. We've seen a lot of people applying from all over the world. They're going to be flying in, ready to hack and it's going to be a really, really exciting competition.
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Phil Kwok
Now, dom, are applications still open?
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Dom Kwok
Applications are still open. We are closing applications on the 4th of April. That's the first early bird deadline. We will have separate round of admissions as well for the next wave of applicants. Normally we see a lot of people apply towards the end, but if you are thinking of coming, definitely apply sooner than later. That will increase your chances of getting accepted. And we will be looking at everyone's GitHub and LinkedIn to make sure that they're a good fit so that they can have a great time at the hackathon as well.
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Phil Kwok
Okay, Besides having a GitHub and a LinkedIn, Dom, what is a winning criteria? If someone's watching this video and they want to get into the hackathon, they're making that application, the deadline is coming soon, what do they got to have to make sure they have the chance?
- [08:58]
Dom Kwok
Yeah, so we obviously look at those, you know, couple of links. But the most important thing as well is that you have a demonstrated interest in Web3 and blockchain. We're looking to accept people who have an experience as well, who have founded startups in the past because, you know, we're looking for founders who are going to launch their projects and then obviously continue to take their projects to the next level. So it's not a sort of, you know, three day competition. You win and then you're, you know, back to doing whatever you were doing. It's three days, you launch your projects, you get that initial funding and then you actually continue and go on to get grants and raise and build your idea and really change the world. So that's what we're really looking for.
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Phil Kwok
And Phil, from a technical perspective, what do builders got to have to make the cut?
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Jen
That's a great question. So you don't necessarily need to already have all the knowledge that a Vitalik or a CZ might have. You know, if we're talking about people from Canada, really, we are opening this across the board to developers, to people who have a cool business idea. We just want to see people build cool stuff. And at the end of the day, this is an opportunity for people to come and experiment with new ideas. So whether you already know what you want to build and have been in Web three, you're a veteran or you're just starting out for the first time, we want to see you there. So really, in terms of technical expertise, you could be a top developer, you could be a developer who's just starting off, or you could have no technical expertise whatsoever. And you'll be able to meet amazing people at the team building that we'll do on day one. So, really, everybody's welcome.
- [10:34]
Phil Kwok
All right, I'm looking forward to seeing you both in Toronto from May 14th to 16th. Dom, I'm going to let you end us off here. How can people apply to be a part of the Easy A Consensus Hackathon this year?
- [10:47]
Dom Kwok
Yeah. So there are two ways. One, you can head over to the consensus website, coindesk.com, go to consensus and click Hackathon. There you can sign up, fill out the form and apply. And we've also got it inside the Easy A app. So you can head over in there, click on register and sign up right through your Easy app. So two really simple ways to sign up. And we'll be admitting people on a rolling basis, so make sure you sign up asap. While sports lasts.