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The HackerNoon Newsletter: When Wallets Lie - Measuring Real Users in a Bot-Driven Web3 (12/31/2025)

2026-01-01 00:02:35

How are you, hacker?


🪐 What’s happening in tech today, December 31, 2025?


The HackerNoon Newsletter brings the HackerNoon homepage straight to your inbox. On this day, General Motors made $1 billion by selling 5 million vehicles in 1955, Edison's light bulb is first demonstrated in 1879, Tupolev Tu-144 Took First Flight in 1968, and we present you with these top quality stories. From Symfony 7.4’s Request Cleanup Closes a Classic Parameter Pollution Trap to How Heart Rate Data in Sim Racing Reveales the Ultimate Immersion, let’s dive right in.

Proof of Usefulness Hackathon by HackerNoon: Become an Official Ecosystem Partner


By @proofofusefulness [ 5 Min read ] Calling universities, research labs, dev communities, VC firms, and influencers! Partner with us to support developer talent and the startup ecosystem. Read More.

The 1980s Code Powering Modern Reliability—and the Mistakes It Still Makes


By @akiradoko [ 26 Min read ] We audit Erlang/OTP’s decades-old C and NIF code with PVS-Studio, surfacing logic bugs, buffer risks, undefined behavior, and leaks in battle-tested systems. Read More.

Symfony 7.4’s Request Cleanup Closes a Classic Parameter Pollution Trap


By @mattleads [ 10 Min read ] Symfony 7.4 deprecates Request::get() to remove ambiguous input precedence and reduce HTTP parameter pollution risks ahead of Symfony 8. Read More.

How Heart Rate Data in Sim Racing Reveales the Ultimate Immersion


By @wicked-racing [ 6 Min read ] Adding Subtle layers of immersion to your sim racing rig can enhance your racing experience. Read More.

When Wallets Lie - Measuring Real Users in a Bot-Driven Web3


By @diadkov [ 5 Min read ] The silent crisis of on-chain bots - why most Web3 ‘users’ aren’t real. That’s a bigger problem than you think Read More.


🧑‍💻 What happened in your world this week?

It's been said that writing can help consolidate technical knowledge, establish credibility, and contribute to emerging community standards. Feeling stuck? We got you covered ⬇️⬇️⬇️


ANSWER THESE GREATEST INTERVIEW QUESTIONS OF ALL TIME


We hope you enjoy this worth of free reading material. Feel free to forward this email to a nerdy friend who'll love you for it.See you on Planet Internet! With love, The HackerNoon Team ✌️


SAP S/4HANA Revenue Accounting and the Future of Compliant Enterprise Finance

2025-12-31 20:12:39

How ASC 606 and IFRS 15 Are Reshaping Event-Based Revenue Accounting

Abstract

The introduction of ASC 606 and IFRS 15 has fundamentally transformed enterprise revenue recognition by replacing invoice-based accounting with contract- and performance-obligation–driven models. This article examines how SAP S/4HANA Revenue Accounting and Reporting (RAR) enables organizations to operationalize these standards through event-based accounting, automated transaction price allocation, and centralized financial governance. By analyzing the architectural framework, implementation methodology, and industry implications of SAP RAR, this paper demonstrates how compliant revenue accounting has evolved from a regulatory requirement into a strategic enabler of modern digital business models.

Introduction

Revenue recognition is one of the most regulated and scrutinized areas of financial reporting. With the global adoption of ASC 606 (US GAAP) and IFRS 15, enterprises are now required to recognize revenue based on contractual obligations and economic substance rather than billing milestones.

These standards affect nearly every industry, particularly technology, SaaS, telecommunications, manufacturing, and engineering services, where contracts often include bundled products, variable consideration, or long-term delivery commitments.

SAP S/4HANA Revenue Accounting and Reporting (RAR) was designed to address this paradigm shift by embedding compliant revenue logic directly into the enterprise's digital core finance. This article explores how RAR operationalizes regulatory requirements, mitigates financial risk, and enables scalable, future-ready revenue models.

Literature Review

Academic and professional literature consistently highlight ASC 606/IFRS 15 as the most significant accounting change in decades.

  • IASB & FASB joint guidance emphasizes the need for consistent, principle-based revenue recognition across industries.
  • Big Four accounting firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) have published extensive analyses noting increased system dependency, audit complexity, and data governance requirements.
  • ERP-focused research identifies event-based accounting as a key enabler for compliance, transparency, and automation.

However, many studies also point out that legacy ERP systems struggle to enforce these principles without extensive customization, manual adjustments, and spreadsheet-driven controls, creating compliance risks and operational inefficiencies

Technical Analysis

1. Event-Based Revenue Architecture

SAP Revenue Accounting and Reporting (RAR) introduces Revenue Accounting Items (RAIs) as the foundational data objects that capture economic events rather than accounting outcomes. These events include contract inception, fulfillment of performance obligations, billing, cancellations, and contract modifications.

By decoupling revenue accounting from transactional billing systems, RAIs enable revenue to be recognized based on performance satisfaction, rather than the timing of invoices. This event-driven architecture ensures compliance with ASC 606 / IFRS 15 while enabling scalability across complex, multi-element arrangements

Key Technical Outcomes

  • Separation of operational events from accounting logic
  • Support for contract modifications without restatement complexity
  • High-volume processing using standardized event objects

2. Automation of the Five-Step Model

SAP RAR enforces the ASC 606 / IFRS 15 five-step framework:

  • Identify the Contract – derived from sales or service agreements
  • Identify Performance Obligations – decomposed from contract structure
  • Determine Transaction Price – including variable consideration
  • Allocate Transaction Price – using Standalone Selling Price (SSP) rules
  • Recognize Revenue – based on satisfaction of obligations

This automation eliminates inconsistent local interpretations and ensures repeatable, auditable outcomes.

Statistical & Operational Impact

  • Reduction in revenue recognition errors
  • Elimination of manual SSP allocation variance
  • Consistent application of accounting policies across entities

3. Financial Posting and Audit Traceability

All revenue postings, including recognized revenue, contract assets, and contract liabilities, are automatically posted to the S/4HANA Universal Journal (ACDOCA). This creates a single source of truth across Financial Accounting (FI), Controlling (CO), and external financial reporting.

Quantifiable Benefits Observed

  • Elimination of manual journal entries, reducing operational risk
  • Built-in audit trails linking RAIs → accounting postings → financial statements
  • Real-time reconciliation across FI and CO
  • Accelerated month-end close cycles, driven by automation and data integrity

4. Summary of Technical Impact (Visualization-Ready)

Figure. Technical and Financial Impact of SAP RAR Implementation

Consolidated visualization highlighting automation, compliance, audit readiness, and close-cycle acceleration enabled by SAP RAR.

Source: Author’s synthesis based on SAP architecture documentation and enterprise finance transformation studies.

Future Trends in Revenue Accounting

Enterprise revenue accounting is undergoing a fundamental transformation driven by digital business models, regulatory complexity, and the need for real-time financial intelligence. Traditional batch-based revenue recognition approaches are increasingly inadequate for modern, event-driven enterprises. The following trends are shaping the future state of revenue accounting systems.

a) AI-Assisted Revenue Forecasting and Predictive Analytics

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are increasingly embedded within revenue accounting platforms to forecast revenue outcomes based on historical performance obligation fulfillment patterns.

Future revenue systems will:

  • Analyze historical RAIs, fulfillment milestones, and billing behavior
  • Predict revenue realization timing with higher accuracy
  • Identify anomalies and revenue leakage risks before period close

By learning from prior contract modifications, renewals, and customer behavior, AI-driven models will enable proactive financial planning, rather than reactive reporting.

Strategic Impact

  • Improved forecast accuracy and reduced revenue volatility
  • Early detection of contract risk and fulfillment delays
  • Enhanced investor and management confidence in forward guidance

Regulatory expectations are shifting toward continuous compliance rather than periodic, retrospective audits. Modern revenue accounting systems are evolving to embed real-time controls and policy validation directly into transaction processing.

Key advancements include:

  • Automated enforcement of ASC 606 / IFRS 15 rules at the event level
  • Continuous validation of transaction price allocation and SSP logic
  • Real-time alerts for non-compliant contract structures or modifications

Event-based engines, such as SAP RAR, ensure that every revenue-impacting event is validated at the point of occurrence, dramatically reducing audit findings and compliance exposure.

Regulatory and Audit Benefits

  • Reduction in post-close audit adjustments
  • Stronger SOX compliance and control effectiveness
  • Near-elimination of revenue restatements

c)  Cloud-Native, In-Memory Revenue Analytics

The migration to cloud-native ERP platforms and in-memory computing is redefining how revenue data is processed, analyzed, and reported.

Future revenue accounting platforms will:

  • Leverage in-memory processing (e.g., SAP HANA) for real-time analytics
  • Provide near-instant drill-down from financial statements to RAIs
  • Enable high-volume revenue simulations without performance degradation

This architectural shift allows finance teams to move from static reporting to interactive, scenario-driven revenue analysis.

Operational Advantages

  • Faster close cycles and real-time profitability insights
  • Scalable processing for high-transaction environments
  • Reduced IT overhead through cloud elasticity

d) Expansion of Subscription, Usage-Based, and Outcome-Driven Revenue Models

The rapid growth of SaaS, IoT, and digital services is accelerating the adoption of subscription-based, usage-based, and outcome-driven pricing models. These models introduce significant complexity in revenue recognition, including variable consideration, contract modifications, and frequent remeasurement.

Future revenue accounting systems must:

  • Handle high-frequency event ingestion from usage platforms
  • Dynamically reallocate transaction prices as usage evolves
  • Support hybrid contracts combining licenses, services, and consumption

Event-based accounting engines, such as SAP RAR, are uniquely positioned to support these models by treating usage, fulfillment, and modification events as first-class accounting drivers.

Business Enablement

  • Faster launch of innovative pricing models
  • Reduced revenue recognition risk for digital offerings
  • Greater alignment between operational metrics and financial results

e)  Convergence of Finance, Operations, and Data Platforms

A defining future trend is the convergence of finance, operational systems, and enterprise data platforms. Revenue accounting is no longer a back-office function, but a strategic intelligence layer that connects customer behavior, service delivery, and financial outcomes.

Emerging capabilities include:

  • Integration of CRM, billing, fulfillment, and finance data
  • Unified analytics across customer lifecycle and revenue streams
  • Finance-driven insights influencing pricing, contract design, and go-to-market strategies

Event-based revenue engines enable this convergence by providing a common semantic layer for economic events across systems.

g) Long-Term Implications for Enterprises and Regulators

As revenue accounting becomes more intelligent, automated, and real-time:

  • Finance organizations will shift from transactional processing to strategic advisory roles
  • Regulators and auditors will rely increasingly on system-enforced controls
  • Enterprises will gain greater agility in adopting new business models

Event-based revenue architectures are therefore not just compliance solutions but foundational enablers of digital finance transformation.

The future of revenue accounting is characterized by being predictive, real-time, cloud-native, and event-driven. Innovations such as AI-assisted forecasting, continuous compliance monitoring, and support for subscription and usage-based models depend on robust event-based architectures. Platforms like SAP RAR form the technological backbone that allows enterprises to scale revenue recognition with confidence while adapting to rapidly evolving business models.

Conclusion

SAP S/4HANA Revenue Accounting and Reporting represents a fundamental shift in how enterprises achieve financial integrity. By embedding compliant revenue logic into the digital core, organizations move from reactive compliance to system-enforced financial governance.

Beyond regulatory adherence, SAP RAR enables faster closes, higher audit confidence, reduced operational risk, and the ability to adopt modern revenue models at scale. In an environment where transparency and trust define enterprise value, compliant revenue accounting has become a strategic differentiator rather than a back-office function.

References

  1. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). ASC 606: Revenue from Contracts with Customers.
  2. International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). IFRS 15: Revenue from Contracts with Customers.
  3. Deloitte. Revenue Recognition: Challenges and Opportunities under ASC 606.
  4. PwC. In Depth: A Look at Current Financial Reporting Issues.
  5. SAP SE. SAP Revenue Accounting and Reporting – Functional and Technical Overview.

Author Bio

Chidambaram Subbapillai is a senior leader in SAP Finance and Enterprise Transformation, with over 19 years of experience delivering large-scale SAP initiatives for Fortune 100 organizations and global financial institutions. His work spans SAP S/4HANA Finance, Revenue Accounting (ASC 606 / IFRS 15), Financial Products Subledger (FPSL), and real-time ERP integrations.

He specializes in designing regulatory-compliant financial systems, multi-GAAP accounting architectures, and API-driven procurement and finance integrations that modernize the enterprise digital core. His expertise includes risk–finance integration and enterprise data governance, which enables intelligent finance, real-time visibility, and data-driven decision-making across complex global organizations.

Engineering at Scale: From Search Systems to AI-Native Platforms and Data Products

2025-12-31 20:01:18

Every system changes once it reaches a particular scale. Traffic grows unevenly, assumptions stop holding, and design decisions that once felt minor begin to shape everything that follows.

This article traces the engineering career of Sai Sreenivas Kodur, from building large-scale search and recommendation systems in e-commerce to leading enterprise AI platforms and domain-specific data products.

Along the way, it looks at how working at scale shifts an engineer’s focus from individual components to platform foundations, data workflows, and team structures, especially as AI changes how software is built.

Early Foundations in Systems and Machine Learning

Sai Sreenivas Kodur completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

During his undergraduate and graduate studies, he focused on compilers and machine learning. His research explored how machine learning techniques could be applied to improve software performance across heterogeneous hardware environments.

This work required thinking across layers. Performance was treated as a system-level outcome shaped by algorithms, execution models, and hardware constraints working together. Small implementation choices often produced large downstream effects.

The academic environment emphasized rigorous reasoning and first-principles thinking. By the end of graduate school, the most durable outcome of this training was not familiarity with specific tools, but the ability to learn new systems deeply and adapt to changing technical contexts.

Search and Recommendation Systems at Scale

Sai’s early industry roles involved building and leading search and recommendation systems at large Indian e-commerce platforms, including Myntra and Zomato.

These systems supported indexing, retrieval, and ranking across catalogs of more than one million frequently changing items. They handled approximately 300,000 requests per minute.

At this scale, system behavior reflected multiple competing constraints. Index freshness had to be balanced against latency requirements. Ranking quality depended on data pipelines, infrastructure reliability, and model behavior operating together.

Many issues surfaced only after deployment. Design decisions that appeared correct in isolation behaved differently once exposed to real traffic patterns, delayed signals, and uneven load distribution.

This work reinforced the importance of aligning technical design with product usage patterns. Improvements in relevance or performance required coordination across distributed systems, data ingestion, and application behavior rather than isolated changes to individual components.

Startup Environments and Broader Engineering Exposure

Early in his career, Sai chose to work primarily in startup environments.

These roles offered exposure to a wide range of engineering responsibilities, including system design, production operations, and close collaboration with product and business teams. Technical decisions were closely tied to customer requirements and operational constraints.

In these settings, the effects of architectural choices surfaced quickly. Systems with weak foundations required frequent rework as usage increased. Systems built with precise abstractions and reliable pipelines were easier to extend over time.

This experience broadened his perspective on engineering. Systems were defined not only by code and infrastructure, but also by how teams worked, how decisions were made, and how platforms were maintained as they grew.

Building Food Intelligence Systems at Spoonshot

Sai later co-founded Spoonshot and served as its Chief Technology Officer.

Spoonshot focused on building a data intelligence platform for the food and beverage industry. The core system, Foodbrain, combined more than 100 terabytes of alternative data from over 30,000 sources with AI models and domain-specific food knowledge.

This foundation powered Genesis, a product used by global food brands such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Heinz to support innovation and product development decisions.

Building Foodbrain involved working with noisy data sources, evolving domain requirements, and enterprise reliability expectations. The system needed to accommodate changing inputs without frequent architectural changes.

Under Sai’s technical leadership, Spoonshot raised over $4 million in venture funding and scaled to a team of more than 50 across the US and India.

During this period, he introduced data-centric AI practices by creating a dedicated data operations function alongside the data science team. This reduced the turnaround time for new model development by 60% while maintaining accuracy above 90%.

Enterprise AI Platforms and Reliability

Sai later served as Director of Engineering at ObserveAI, where he led platform engineering, analytics, and enterprise product teams.

The platform supported enterprise customers such as DoorDash, Uber, Swiggy, and Asurion. These customers had strict expectations around reliability, performance, and operational visibility.

Scaling the platform to support a tenfold increase in usage required changes across infrastructure, data ingestion pipelines, and observability practices. These efforts contributed to more than $15 million in additional annual recurring revenue.

Alongside technical scaling, Sai focused on building engineering leadership capacity. He helped define hiring frameworks, conducted over 130 interviews, and hired senior engineering leaders to support long-term platform development.

This phase highlighted how organizational structure influences system outcomes. As platforms grow more complex, coordination, ownership, and decision-making processes become part of the technical system.

From Systems Engineering to AI-Native Teams

Across roles, Sai maintained hands-on involvement while gradually expanding into broader technical leadership responsibilities.

His focus increasingly shifted toward platform foundations and workflows that allow teams to work effectively with complex data and AI systems. Mentorship of senior engineers and investment in precise abstractions became essential parts of this work.

His research publications reflect this practical focus. Papers such as "Genesis: Food Innovation Intelligence" and "Debugmate: an AI agent for efficient on-call debugging in complex production systems" examined how AI can support product and engineering workflows.

Debugmate demonstrated a 77% reduction in on-call load by assisting engineers with incident triage using observability data and system context.

Long-Term Engineering Foundations

Looking across Sai Sreenivas Kodur’s career, a consistent theme is an emphasis on building systems that remain reliable as complexity increases.

As AI accelerates software development, this focus becomes more critical, especially when teams begin building truly AI-native software teams rather than layering AI onto existing architectures. AI agents introduce new workloads and different patterns of system usage. Data and infrastructure platforms originally designed for human users must adapt to support these changes.

Rather than focusing on individual productivity gains, this work centers on platform foundations, data workflows, and team structures that can scale over time.

The career reflects an engineering approach grounded in clarity, durability, and long-term impact.

\ Sai Sreenivas Kodur - Image | LinkedIn

\

Managing AI Risk in Regulatory Compliance for Modern Technology Enterprises

2025-12-31 19:44:09

AI systems increasingly make more decisions within enterprises than humans do. They continuously learn from data and operate across departments, influencing outcomes in finance, security, operations, and customer experience. As a result, artificial intelligence has become central to enterprise operations, enabling decisions that human-led processes can't match in speed or scale.

Organizations use AI to improve efficiency, enhance accuracy, and accelerate decision-making by analyzing data, identifying patterns, and detecting anomalies. But growing reliance on AI has exposed gaps in compliance frameworks built for human-led, sequential workflows.

As decision-making shifts from humans to machines, a widening gap has emerged between how decisions are made and how they are governed. Bridging that gap requires stronger oversight of AI risk, more precise documentation, improved model explainability, and governance structures that ensure auditability and regulatory responsiveness across the organization.

Why AI Requires a New Compliance Approach

AI systems fundamentally differ from traditional software. They can learn, adapt, and behave unpredictably in response to new data. Their decision-making often lacks transparency, and their impact can scale rapidly.

These traits make it harder to audit AI systems and understand how decisions are made. As AI evolves in real time, many existing compliance frameworks struggle to keep up. They weren’t built to manage systems that evolve independently or make decisions with limited transparency. That’s why AI must be treated as a unique risk category, not just another layer of automation.

The AI Risks Enterprise Leaders Must Actively Manage

Managing AI risk requires structured oversight and control mechanisms - Freepik

Enterprises deploying AI at scale encounter several common risks that require active management:

  • Model Bias: AI models trained on flawed or incomplete data can produce biased outcomes that can be unfair or discriminatory, leading to reputational damage, legal risk, and increased regulatory scrutiny.
  • Overreliance on AI Outputs: Without human oversight, AI-generated results may be accepted at face value, even when inaccurate or misleading. This becomes especially risky in high-stakes areas like finance, HR, legal, and cybersecurity.
  • Gaps in Transparency and Documentation: Because AI systems often operate in nonlinear ways, tracing decision logic or clearly explaining model behavior becomes more difficult. Weak documentation and a lack of transparency can hinder audits and erode regulatory defensibility.
  • Privacy and Data Protection Risks: AI systems depend on large volumes of data. Without robust safeguards, organizations risk violating privacy regulations or misusing sensitive information.
  • Data Quality and Reliability Issues: Poor training data or flawed model design can undermine the accuracy and consistency of AI outputs, affecting decisions across critical business functions.

The Enterprise Tension Between Innovation Speed and Regulatory Expectations

AI risk management increasingly sits at the intersection of competing enterprise priorities. Decisions around AI deployment timelines have direct implications for governance, oversight, and regulatory risk.

Rapid and Continuous AI Innovation

AI is now deeply embedded in product development, internal operations, and decision-making processes. Manual activities are increasingly replaced with automated analysis, enabling teams to focus on higher-value work. This pace of adoption is expected to continue accelerating as AI becomes further integrated into core enterprise operations.

Escalating Regulatory Expectations

As AI adoption expands, regulatory scrutiny intensifies. Reduced transparency into automated decision-making increases cybersecurity risks and complicates audit readiness. Regulatory frameworks now emphasize documentation, accountability, and oversight, especially for high-impact use cases. Traditional logging and control mechanisms often struggle to keep pace with adaptive systems.

AI Governance as the New Compliance Imperative Effective AI governance supports trust and accountability - Freepik

Effective AI governance functions as a control system rather than an administrative layer. Governance structures must scale with model complexity while staying aligned with regulatory standards and enterprise risk thresholds.

Adaptive frameworks enable organizations to respond to evolving risk profiles as AI systems learn and adapt over time. Continuous monitoring and model drift detection ensure changes are tracked, documented, and supported with evidence. Compliance programs must evolve with AI to avoid control failures. Losing alignment increases exposure to regulatory findings, audit issues, and cyber incidents.

Risk assessments also require recalibration for AI-driven activity. Traditional scoring approaches often overlook the autonomy, customization, and variability of AI models and user input. Aligning governance programs with an AI risk management framework standardizes how risks are identified, measured, and managed across the model lifecycle.

AI risk should be embedded within SOX, Internal Audit, and Enterprise Risk Management structures to ensure consistent oversight, auditability, and regulatory readiness.

Why AI Governance Is a Board-Level Priority

Most AI-related incidents trace back to failures in data accuracy, reliability, or privacy. These issues directly affect trust in AI-driven decisions. Boards and executives must ensure organizations can explain and justify AI outcomes with credible evidence while safeguarding confidential data. Without strong oversight, AI risk can escalate into a severe enterprise liability.

Governance as Strategic Readiness

AI governance and compliance now represent a core element of enterprise resilience. Organizations that implement AI-specific controls preserve trust, maintain regulatory readiness, and strengthen operational stability.

Strong governance supports responsible decision-making and helps ensure AI is used appropriately in regulated settings. Enterprises that prioritize governance can scale AI confidently while reducing regulatory and operational risks.

\

Proof of Usefulness Hackathon by HackerNoon: Become an Official Ecosystem Partner

2025-12-31 16:34:01

Calling universities, research labs, VC firms, dev communities, and influencers! You can be part of the hottest Hackathon of 2026, highlighting real-world projects with $100,000+ in prizes.

If you support developers, educate tech talent, run a tech community, or create content for builders, you know this: the internet doesn't need more demo-day darlings. It needs tools that survive real users.

That's why we are running the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon, a six-month global hackathon that rewards real-world utility over pitch-deck promises. With over $100,000 in prizes for individual developers and startups, this is one of the biggest Hackathons, inviting global talent to join us.

This hackathon is supported by companies that care about production software, not just demos. Meet Bright Data, Neo4j, Storyblok, Algolia, and yours truly, HackerNoon.

And we’d love to have you join as an official ecosystem partner, helping developers worldwide build software that matters while earning recognition, influence, and exclusive perks.

:::tip Apply here to join the Hackathon Partner Program.

:::

What’s Proof of Usefulness Hackathon?

Proof of Usefulness is HackerNoon's validation system that measures what actually matters: real utility instead of polished demos, technical theatrics, or pitch deck projections. It's a competition where projects are scored from -1000 to +1000 based on empirical evidence of user adoption, revenue sustainability, technical stability, and genuine utility. This 6-month contest will go live in the first week of January.

What kind of submissions qualify? Anyone building software can participate. Developers and startup teams building projects that solve real problems for real people are encouraged to participate. Projects can be existing products or new builds created specifically for the hackathon.

:::tip To unlock bigger prizes, we encourage you to submit AI and Machine learning projects. Explore the sponsored themes and tags to earn bigger rewards and freebies!

:::

TL;DR:

👩‍💻 Who is Eligible: Developers worldwide

🌍 Where: Global

Duration: 6 months

🏆 Prizes:

$100,000+ cash for winning projects

~$1,000 in software tools for every participant!

Become Proof of Usefulness Hackathon Ecosystem Partner

Join a global initiative inviting developers to build impactful, real-world projects.

Here's how we partner: You bring the developers and budding startups, we bring the platform, prizes, and global reach. Together, we validate real innovation, expand your influence, and put your name in front of a global audience of builders, innovators, and tech decision-makers for six months straight.

Win-win-win, isn’t it? But, there’s more:

Why Partner With Us?

  • Official Recognition: Your logo and name featured on the main hackathon website as an official University, Community, Influencer, or Ecosystem Partner
  • Earn Judge Status: Top referring partners may be selected as Official Judges, earning voting power and global recognition
  • Empower Your Community: 100k+ in prizes & $1,000+ in software tools per participant - major startup-ready stacks from Bright Data, Neo4j, Storyblok, and Algolia
  • Co-Branded Cross-Promotion: Get featured in Hackathon newsletters and other marketing materials

Who Can Join the Partner Program

We're looking for four types of partners to amplify this movement:

Universities and Academic Partners: Turn your students' projects into portfolio-ready achievements with real validation and professional tools. We are looking to partner with:

  • Computer Science departments
  • Labs & research centers
  • Robotics, AI/ML, Web3 clubs
  • Student developer societies

Developer & Community Partners: Give your members the spotlight they deserve, complete with scoring, prizes, and recognition from industry leaders. We are looking to partner with:

  • Tech meetups
  • Online dev communities
  • Open-source groups
  • Bootcamps and training academies

Influencer Partners: Show your audience how to turn their side projects into validated, prize-winning software, while positioning yourself as the connector who made it happen. We are looking to partner with:

  • Developer YouTubers/TikTokers
  • Tech writers & bloggers
  • X/Twitter influencers
  • Hackathon mentors and educators

VC Funds & Startup Incubators: Help your portfolio companies prove real traction, gain visibility, and accelerate adoption—without dilution. We are looking to partner with:

  • Venture capital & angel funds
  • Startup incubators & accelerators
  • Corporate venture arms
  • Founder fellowship programs

If you nurture tech talent, you're a perfect match.

Partner Responsibilities

What we need from you is simple:

  • Share the hackathon with your audience
  • Encourage project submissions
  • Post announcements on your channels
  • Optionally, host info sessions or workshops

No administrative burden - just community empowerment.

Hackathon Duration

Proof of Usefulness runs for six months, from January to June 2026, with prizes announced monthly and 3 bimonthly software cycles from our $100k prize pool. Every project - and partner - benefits from 6 months of global visibility. Hello, exposure!

Benefits for Participants

  • 100k+ in prizes for winners and ~1.5k in software credits and promotional inventory for every participant
  • Global exposure through HackerNoon: Publish and promote your projects with us!
  • Validation from HackerNoon & industry judges
  • Access to Powerful tools to build real products
  • Portfolio-ready project outcomes

Who can participate?

Anyone building useful software can participate! Whether you're a solo developer, startup team, or established company, if you have a project that solves real problems for real people, you're eligible. Projects can be existing products or new builds created specifically for the hackathon.

Ready to Empower Real Innovation?

Join us in celebrating software that actually works. Become an official partner and give your community access to the validation, tools, and recognition they deserve.

:::tip Apply to the Partner Program! Questions? Contact [email protected]

:::


:::info Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is a global 6-month developer challenge designed to reward real-world utility projects and initiatives. With 100,000+ in cash prizes and software credits for winners and $1500+ worth of software and inventory for participants, this is undisputedly the biggest contest of the year. Learn more here.

Meet our sponsors:

Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com.

Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more.

Storyblock: Storyblok is a headless CMS built for developers who want clean architecture and full control. Structure your content once, connect it anywhere, and keep your front end truly independent. API-first. AI-ready. Framework-agnostic. Future-proof. Start for free.

Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more.

:::

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The TechBeat: How Supercell Powers its Massive Social Network with ScyllaDB (12/31/2025)

2025-12-31 15:10:50

How are you, hacker? 🪐Want to know what's trending right now?: The Techbeat by HackerNoon has got you covered with fresh content from our trending stories of the day! Set email preference here. ## Why Zack Shooter Believes AI Agents Will Expose a Structural Fault Line in Financial Infrastructure By @stevebeyatte [ 4 Min read ] AI is ready for autonomous finance. But today’s financial infrastructure wasn’t built for software that moves money on its own. Read More.

The Communication Habits That Help Startups Build Real Authority

By @lomitpatel [ 11 Min read ] Learn the executive communication skills that build authority, inspire trust, and help leaders speak with confidence in any room. Read More.

How Supercell Powers its Massive Social Network with ScyllaDB

By @scylladb [ 6 Min read ] Supercell powers real-time cross-game chat, presence, and notifications for millions using ScyllaDB Cloud, enabling low-latency, scalable events. Read More.

DynamoDB: When to Move Out ![]()

By @scylladb [ 6 Min read ] ScyllaDB offers a high-performance NoSQL alternative to DynamoDB, solving throttling, latency, and size limits for scalable workloads. Read More.

Global Debt Crisis: Why Blockchain May Be the Path to a Clean Financial Reset

By @chris127 [ 10 Min read ] Global debt has surpassed $300 trillion. This article explores why devaluation fails—and how blockchain and UBI could offer a debt-free reset. Read More.

Groq’s Deterministic Architecture is Rewriting the Physics of AI Inference

By @zbruceli [ 20 Min read ] Groq’s Deterministic Architecture is Rewriting the Physics of AI Inference. How Nvidia Learned to Stop Worrying and Acquired Groq Read More.

The Most Dangerous Person on Your Team is "Dave" (And He Just Quit)

By @huizhudev [ 5 Min read ] Stop letting knowledge walk out the door. Use this system prompt to turn every commit into a well-documented masterpiece. Read More.

SQD Network Just Killed Token Emissions. Here's What $16 Billion in DeFi TVL Pays Instead

By @ishanpandey [ 4 Min read ] SQD Network launches Portal Pools, replacing token emissions with enterprise revenue. Here's what it means for blockchain data infrastructure. Read More.

So You Want to Build a Writing Career?

By @editingprotocol [ 4 Min read ] This comprehensive guide covers everything from finding your voice to mastering SEO. Learn how to turn your writing into a career asset with HackerNoon. Read More.

The Seven Pillars of a Production-Grade Agent Architecture

By @denisp [ 12 Min read ] An AI agent without memory is just a script. An agent without guardrails is a liability. The 7 critical pillars of building production-grade Agentic AI. Read More.

Google’s New Tool Wants to End the Most Annoying Part of Coding

By @ainativedev [ 3 Min read ] With Code Wiki, Google wants to transform codebase navigation. Read More.

Tether Is No Longer Just a Stablecoin Company

By @juancguerrero [ 7 Min read ]

If you believe financial inclusion matters more than institutional turf, Tether has done more in a decade than the World Bank did in 80 years. Read More.

What the Heck is GizmoSQL?

By @progrockrec [ 4 Min read ] A brief look at GizmoSQL, a small server that runs DuckDB, with the Arrow Flight SQL protocol wrapped around it so that you can run DuckDB remotely. Read More.

Re-Prompting: The Loop That Turns “Meh” LLM Output Into Production-Ready Results

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We Let an AI Run a Business. Here Are 4 of the Strangest Things That Happened

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How to Set Goals for 2026 That Actually Stick

By @lomitpatel [ 4 Min read ] A practical framework for setting 2026 goals across career, money, health, and relationships—designed for focus, leverage, and long-term progress.

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I Finally Made It to YOW!

By @nfrankel [ 4 Min read ] Beside my own talk and the masterclass, I also attended other speakers' talks. Read More.

When Non‑Coders Can Also Build Apps: A New Paradigm for AI-Native App Creation

By @jonstojanjournalist [ 3 Min read ] CodeFlying enables anyone to build full-stack apps using natural language. Discover how this AI-native platform is redefining no-code app creation. Read More.

What I Learned from Lee Kuan Yew - The Alpha Engineer Who Built a Nation

By @edwinliavaa [ 9 Min read ] While most of us engineer applications, APIs, or infrastructure, Lee Kuan Yew engineered a country. Read More.

Solo Satoshi Becomes Authorized Canaan Distributor for Avalon Home Bitcoin Miners.

By @opensourcetheworld [ 2 Min read ] Solo Satoshi is now an authorized Canaan distributor, bringing the full Avalon home Bitcoin miner lineup to 40,000+ customers. Start mining Bitcoin at home! Read More. 🧑‍💻 What happened in your world this week? It's been said that writing can help consolidate technical knowledge, establish credibility, and contribute to emerging community standards. Feeling stuck? We got you covered ⬇️⬇️⬇️ ANSWER THESE GREATEST INTERVIEW QUESTIONS OF ALL TIME We hope you enjoy this worth of free reading material. Feel free to forward this email to a nerdy friend who'll love you for it. See you on Planet Internet! With love, The HackerNoon Team ✌️