ETHTokyo 2025 hackathon

ETHTokyo'25 Hackathon

ETHTokyo is an engaging conference and hackathon for the global Ethereum community where people with all sorts of backgrounds, ideas, and skills come together to share their love for Ethereum and its world. Whether you're a seasoned expert or just curious, you'll find friends and inspiration here. Our goal is simple: to connect diverse minds and foster the creation of amazing new innovations for the future. Join our three-day hackathon and collaborate with talented individuals, build innovative solutions, and compete for exciting prizes!

[IMPORTANT] This is an on-site hackathon taking place in Tokyo, Japan. You must purchase our event ticket to register as an official participant of ETHTokyo'25. Participants of the hackathon will receive 50% refund of ticket price upon successful project submission.

Goals

2025 hacking theme: Emancipatory Tech for Future of Humanity

Emancipation begins in the mind; let us radically reimagine how we can harness technology to empower people, preserve culture, and build a sustainable future in ways not possible today.

The goal is to innovate not for its own sake, but to envision new ways and better approaches to do things through reshaping and redefining the constraints of our own constructed reality.

Hackathon Tracks

🥷 Cypherpunks Anonymous (Privacy & Security)

In a world where surveillance and data exploitation have become the norm, privacy is not just a right — it’s a necessity. The Cypherpunk movement emerged to challenge this status quo, using cryptography as a tool to empower individuals to reclaim control over their digital lives. Today, Ethereum provides the perfect platform to extend this vision through programmable cryptography — enabling privacy-preserving applications, secure computations, and anonymous transactions. Cypherpunks Anonymous is a track for builders who share this vision and are ready to push the boundaries of privacy, security, and censorship resistance with cutting-edge technologies like ZKPs, MPC, and FHE. Join us and help shape the future where cryptography safeguards freedom for all.

✊ Counterculture Capital (Financial Innovation)

Five years after DeFi Summer, we've witnessed the evolution from simple token swaps to sophisticated financial instruments rivaling traditional markets in complexity and capability. From lending protocols to prediction markets that democratize forecasting and information discovery, DeFi continues to drive the ongoing financial revolution. Yet, this revolution is far from complete. As traditional finance continues its slow integration with blockchain technology, DeFi builders are crafting the financial infrastructure that will ultimately bridge these worlds—creating systems that are not only more efficient and accessible than their traditional counterparts but fundamentally more equitable.

At ETHTokyo, we recognize that DeFi innovation represents the most profound challenge to established power structures in the global economy. DeFi remains the beating heart of Ethereum's revolutionary potential; behind the composable legos and liquidity pools lies a radical vision: financial services that operate without gatekeepers, accessible to anyone with an internet connection, transparent in their mechanics, and governed by their communities rather than centralized authorities.

This track welcomes builders who share this vision of democratizing access to sophisticated financial tools, who work to reimagine capital efficiency, create robust risk management systems, thoughtfully bridge institutional capital with DeFi principles, bring real-world assets on-chain, extend financial services to the unbanked, or develop governance models that truly embody decentralized ideals—united by a shared vision of transforming finance for greater accessibility and equity.

💚 Actually Intelligent (AI & Society)

The well-praised technological breakthrough that is Artificial Intelligence faces a dilemma. Behind the convenience it offers, the technology is increasingly being appropriated into manipulative ad engines and corporate-enterprise surveillance. At ETHTokyo, we’re here to flip that. This track embraces AI as a power tool to empower individuals to 10x and 100x, but insists on liberation over manipulation, consent over capture, commons over enclosure. Building systems that make people harder to coerce and easier to coordinate. Private by default. Local-first. Proof-carrying. Forkable. 

Actually Intelligent is a track that leverages the programmability of Ethereum’s decentralized system and the flexibility of AI systems to explore actually intelligent solutions; grounded in the real world, human experience, social dynamics, and lifestyle. Here, we challenge existing paradigms and aim to return to the core values that users truly need.

Audience

Builders, industry professionals, creatives students; anyone is welcome to participate.

Deliverables

- A deployed demo of your project.
- A valid submission must provide a URL to its open-source code.
- A short presentation file to describe your project. It must be submitted in PDF format.

Important Dates

9/13 Hack start
9/15 Project submit