AI agents dominate Consensus Miami hackathon

The Consensus Miami EasyA Hackathon saw nearly 1,000 developers, including engineers from Microsoft and Google, focus on building AI-native startups. The event highlighted a shift from crypto infrastructure to AI-powered consumer applications and autonomous agents, with a strong emphasis on AI agents. Organizers aim for the hackathon to serve as a launchpad for billion-dollar companies, citing past successes like Permission AI, now valued at $10 billion. Projects explored areas such as autonomous payments, consumer apps, and hardware generation, with winners recognized for pushing AI agents beyond chatbots into real-world applications.