Hashed and ShardLab successfully wrap up 'Protocol Camp' final Demo Day

Global Web3 venture capital firm Hashed and its subsidiary ShardLab said on the 14th that their Web3 mentoring program, 'Protocol Camp,' successfully concluded with its final Demo Day on the 10th.

Protocol Camp is an elite mentoring program that selects and runs with around 20 participants from around the world. Based on advanced training and mentoring across Web3 protocols and infrastructure, participants developed team-based projects and unveiled their final outputs at the final Demo Day.

At this Demo Day, first-, second- and third-place teams were selected. In addition, main partners such as SMBC Nikko and BitKub, along with numerous Web3 project contributors, took part to support the participating teams' technology and businesses.

Specifically, for the final Demo Day, participants applied by choosing either the general Web3 track or the SMBC Nikko track (DeFi·AI), and a winning team was selected for each track.

GenRank was named the winner of the general Web3 track. GenRank earned high marks for proposing an open scoreboard that measures and visualizes, with data, how brands and companies are perceived and surfaced in generative AI search-and-response environments.

In the SMBC Nikko track, Daiko took the top prize. Daiko drew attention by presenting a solution built around the concept of a 'vibe trading app' that uses AI agents to provide trading signals tailored to investors' risk preferences.

Judges evaluated criteria including ▲deep insight into the problem, ▲differentiated solutions and product completeness, ▲marketability and scalability, ▲early traction and validation signals, ▲the team's execution capability, and ▲pitch completeness from an investor perspective.

Kim Seo-joon, CEO of Hashed, said, "Protocol Camp is not a program for building technical skills within a limited time; it is designed as a process that helps builders grow by defining problems themselves and seeing them through to the end," adding, "Through this camp, we confirmed that good protocols are not completed by code alone—they only work in the real world when there are peers, a community and people who think things through together."

Kim Ho-jin, CEO of ShardLab, said, "The participating teams' external award results show that the capabilities accumulated during the program can be competitive on outside stages," adding, "Protocol Camp plans to create tangible market value by further strengthening education and startup incubation specialized in AI and vibe coding."

The Korea Economic Daily newsroom open@hankyung.com