At MARA's first hackathon, a full bitcoin was awarded to the team that built the best solution to an emerging challenge in digital infrastructure.
June 21, 2025 – San Francisco, CA
On a sunny day in San Francisco, MARA opened the doors to its very first Hackathon, filling a room with expert engineers to build solutions for the convergence of energy, AI, and Bitcoin mining. With 100 top-tier developers in attendance, MARA’s hackathon drew talent from leading universities like Princeton, Stanford, and Yale, alongside professionals from tech titans including Google, Meta, and Amazon.
Sponsored by Etched AI, Auradine, LG Nova, and Gemini, and judged by a panel featuring experts from Apple, NVIDIA, DoorDash, and others, this event was no ordinary hackathon. It was a stage to share bold ideas that could shape the future of computing.
The Prompt: Design an AI-driven trading system that arbitrages energy and inference marketplace prices to optimize compute allocation, leveraging Bitcoin miners, HPC servers, and battery systems.
The stakes? A grand prize of 1 bitcoin to the first-place team and the chance to present a live prototype in front of some of the most forward-thinking minds in Silicon Valley.
First Place: Panoptic
Winners: Ali Can Acar, Jonathan Laplante, Rolan Marat, Laurie Sartain
Panoptic set a high bar with their platform for optimizing data center and digital asset management. Their application creates visibility into MARA’s global data center portfolio and Bitcoin treasury, allowing both to be managed, hedged, and optimized in a single dashboard. With real-time market data and automated energy strategy, the system enables MARA’s network of data centers to allocate and sell compute dynamically, scout ideal expansion sites using satellite data, and optimize battery storage through an “energy treasury”managed by AI.
The team’s tool for hedging bitcoin and energy risks demonstrated a forward-thinking approach to asset management at industrial scale. Panoptic's creative vision, collaboration, and expert execution earned them first place.
“Taking home the 1 Bitcoin grand prize was a dream come true. More than that, the experience itself was a win we’ll carry forward. We can’t wait for the next MARA hackathon. Count us in!” - Ali Can Acar
Best Design: Wattson
Winners: William Wang, Cole Dermott, Arsh Jain
The Wattson platform impressed the panel with its seamless user experience and intelligent interface. Designed as a command center for datacenter operations, the assistant interprets live energy, hash, and inference token prices to deliver timely, AI-informed recommendations. It empowers operators with automated, intelligence-driven energy allocation between inference, Bitcoin mining, and battery storage to maximize profit per watt. What sets Wattson apart is its balance of utility and usability: an AI dashboard that’s insightful and intuitive.
Most Creative: Greenhash
Winners: Dillon Timmer, Viplav Dodeja, Miles Keeler
GreenHash brings ESG to the heart of mining operations with a system that reimagines sustainability as a core growth driver. Their architecture uses six specialized AI agents to optimize across three axes: profitability, carbon footprint, and hardware performance. The result is a flexible and adaptive platform capable of reducing emissions while boosting returns.
Their contribution is especially valuable in showing how Bitcoin mining can evolve responsibly, blending environmental goals with market incentives, and equipping operators to make data-driven decisions that meet both.
Best Solo Hacker: MARA Marketplace
Winner: Nelson Lai
Nelson Lai delivered a fully functional compute marketplace, and he did it alone. MARA Marketplace combines real-time compute rentals for AI inference and bitcoin mining with power trading in one unified interface. The platform features dynamic pricing, sustainability tracking, and AI-powered machine recommendations.
What distinguished this project was its breadth. By spanning the full spectrum of compute monetization and resource optimization, MARA Marketplace provided a creative model for how to transform infrastructure into active profit centers.
Foundations for What Comes Next
MARA’s inaugural hackathon demonstrated what’s possible when world-class talent converges in one room. Every winning project reflects a deep understanding of how Bitcoin, AI, and energy can work together to reshape datacenter economics and sustainability.
But beyond the code, the spirit of the event left a mark. It wasn’t just about competition. It was about building community, encouraging outside-of-the-box thinking in emerging technologies, and laying foundations that create real impact. We’re already counting down to the next challenge.
“The event was brilliantly organized, and the environment was electric. Huge thanks to MARA and their amazing partners: LG Nova, Gemini, Etched AI, and Auradine. They served as sponsors, mentors, and judges. Their support and insight were essential in shaping our solutions. Every mentor we connected with added value and helped us sharpen our thinking.” - Ali Can Acar
