The MicroPay group was one among 5 finalists and gained the Constructed award on the hackathon. Picture supply: @PolkadotAPAC on X
(Sulich, Switzerland – October 6, 2025) – The convergence of AI and blockchain reached a brand new milestone throughout the 36-hour hackathon at TOKEN2049, Asia’s main crypto convention. Among the many occasion’s standout initiatives, MicroPay, a system that allows cross-chain micropayments for AI brokers utilizing Hyperbridge, a Polkadot-based rollup, was named the class winner for its revolutionary use of Hyperbridge, a Polkadot-based rollup. Hyperbridge makes use of new know-how to deal with the safety and interoperability challenges of conventional bridges, which have collectively misplaced greater than $2.8 billion to hacks.
This victory highlights the important function cross-chain bridges will play in the direction of a really autonomous web of brokers, the place machines can transact and collaborate with out human oversight.
Because of foundational work with protocols like Coinbase’s x402, we’re already seeing the rise of an agent economic system the place AI brokers autonomously pay for APIs, knowledge, or companies. Nonetheless, a serious hurdle stays: cross-chain compatibility. Think about that an AI agent (consumer) with funds on Base must pay an API supplier (server) that solely accepts Ethereum. The present system requires a handbook bridging course of, which is time-consuming, pricey, and displays the complexity of worldwide financial institution transfers. With out a seamless answer, agent funds will stay impractical, hampering the expansion of AI and blockchain integration.
MicroPay solves this drawback by integrating the x402 repair with Hyperbridge, the Polkadot interoperability coprocessor. Hyperbridge permits safe on-chain verification of cross-chain messages utilizing superior consensus proofs reminiscent of BEEFY and zk-light shoppers. This distinctive structure permits builders to question and ship messages throughout damaged chains as in the event that they have been native, whereas avoiding the vulnerabilities of conventional bridges. By distributing validation throughout Polkadot’s core parachain safety, Hyperbridge delivers as much as $3 billion in full node safety with out sacrificing velocity or value.
In a dwell demonstration, the MicroPay system validated Hyperbridge’s effectivity. The MicroPay course of begins with an AI agent making the primary micropayment on the native chain (e.g. Base Sepolia) utilizing the X-402 customary. To offset excessive middleman charges and delays, MicroPay mechanically consolidates a number of micropayments into bigger funds. The hyperbridge then converts the EVM tokens from the consumer’s chain to the server’s most popular chain (e.g. Ethereum Sepolia). This important step contains safe on-chain validation of state transitions. Funds are bridged to a server tackle, giving brokers immediate and low-cost knowledge entry.
Hyperbridges have been a really perfect alternative for this know-how as a result of they permit functions to question different chains as in the event that they have been subsequent to one another, but with excessive financial safety. We presently help over 12 EVM chains together with Base, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon. Its structure permits environment friendly knowledge sharing, asset tokenization, and cross-chain funds with out the necessity for centralized intermediaries. For AI brokers, this results in quicker and decrease value responses. It is a key component for real-time interactions in autonomous economies.
MicroPay’s win highlights Hyperbridge’s important function in enabling a verifiable multi-chain future. The protocol is the brainchild of Polytope Labs co-founders Seun Lanlege and David Salami, former engineers within the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems. They designed Hyperbridge as an interoperability coprocessor that offloads complicated computations off-chain and returns solely cryptographically safe proofs on-chain for verification.
This revolutionary design is powered by Interoperable State Machine Protocol (ISMP), which acts as an HTTPS-like API for safe cross-chain requests. This enables Hyperbridge to inherit Polkadot’s pooled financial safety and supply the perfect safety ensures accessible. The platform has additionally obtained important valuations, securing $5.6 million in seed funding led by Polkadot Ecosystem Fund and help from buyers together with Web3 Basis and Scytale Digital.
Latest milestones have quickly strengthened its place within the business. The platform is already linked to over 14 chains together with Polygon, Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, and BNB Chain. Moreover, Hyperbridge, presently Polkadot’s native bridge, is taking part in a key function within the Polkadot DeFi Singularity initiative, which is deepening the footprint of Polkadot’s native token, DOT.
Because the blockchain ecosystem matures, options like MicroPay reveal how strong interoperability protocols can drive adoption. Hyperbridge’s continued enlargement positions it as a important infrastructure for verifiable cross-chain exercise. The know-how is poised to energy numerous functions in DeFi, gaming, and knowledge markets the place brokers have to pay for APIs, compute, or oracles with out human oversight.
###
About hyperbridge
Hyperbridge is the most secure bridge on the planet. This replaces multisig and MPC options which were on the coronary heart of large-scale bridge hacks with safe cryptographic (consensus and storage) proofs. It’s already linked to over 14 chains together with Ethereum, Base, BNB chains, and extra, enabling mission-critical cross-chain person experiences that can’t afford centralized safety fashions reminiscent of stablecoins and different RWA issuers, DAOs, and cross-chain governance.
About Polkadot
Polkadot is the highly effective and safe core of Web3, offering a shared basis that integrates the world’s most revolutionary apps and blockchains. Polkadot presents a extremely modular structure that enables builders to simply design and construct their very own specialised blockchain initiatives, pooled safety that ensures the identical excessive requirements for safe block technology throughout all linked chains and their linked apps, and strong governance that ensures a clear system the place everybody has a say in shaping the blockchain ecosystem for development and sustainability. At Polkadot, customers aren’t simply individuals, however co-creators with the ability to form the longer term.
