Congratulations to our FTS representatives for their incredible showing at ETH Rome 2025! From October 17-19, our members took away 4 prizes and demonstrated immense focus and creativity, reflecting the society’s deep talent and offering a glimpse into the future of blockchain.
Let’s hear from the team about their experience.
ETH Rome 2025
Billed as the “leading ETHalian Hackathon crafted by builders, for builders,” ETH Rome 2025 invited developers to the vibrant Talent Garden Roma. The event focused on Web3’s most pressing challenges, with key tracks in AI, DeFi, and Privacy, and featured a prize pool exceeding $60,000 USD.
The Process
In the midst of a beautiful Roman autumn, five representatives from NUS FinTech Society hacked tirelessly, all as solo developers. The hackathon officially kickstarted on the evening of October 17th, but our efforts began long before the flight to Rome. Once the tracks were announced, we started brainstorming ideas and reaching out to mentors and sponsors, including teams from Civic, iExec, ENS, and Base, to explore the problem statements and technical details.
The hacking environment at Talent Garden Roma was amazing. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet with fellow hackers and friends in the Web3 ecosystem. We even managed to reunite with hackers we met in previous hackathons like ETHOxford! The venue was beaming with life day and night, and it seemed people did not sleep at all. The organizing team also kept us fueled with amazing Roman food, from pizza and lasagna to pasta and, of course, gelato!
The final night before the deadline was a true test of endurance. We barely slept, pushing to get our products fully functional. Sustained by caffeine and pure adrenaline, we battled broken codes and last-minute bugs. After more than 24 hours straight without sleep, we finally shipped our projects right at the 10 a.m. deadline.
After the intense hacking, we celebrated by walking into the mesmerizing, dreamy sunset toward the Colosseum and ended the night with the best carbonara ever. Hearsay Jeff finished his first plate in 2 minutes and ordered another one straightaway.
The Outcome
These are the 5 projects built by our solo hackers.
Smart Nexus
Civic 1st Place
An AI-powered Web3 chatbot that identifies smart money token movements through Nansen AI MCP integration and executes instant token swaps via 1inch API, all secured through Civic Auth Web3’s embedded wallet for seamless transaction signing.
GitHub Link: https://github.com/jefflcy/ethrome-2025
Hackathon Submission: https://taikai.network/ethrome/hackathons/2025/projects/cmgx6tmzh02e412kk0klkxcds/idea
ExecSwap
iExec 3rd Place
A secure, privacy-preserving vault that lets users swap ERC20 tokens via cryptographic commitments and withdraw safely while tracking balances off-chain.
GitHub Link: https://github.com/PohSayKeong/ExecSwap
Hackathon Submission: https://taikai.network/ethrome/hackathons/2025/projects/cmgwj3q5z01vn12kk2hwdveye/idea
Munus
Civic 2nd Place
Chat-native job marketplace where AI agents coordinate workflow and Base blockchain secures trustless payments. Post jobs in XMTP group chats, authenticate with Civic, deliver work with attestation and get paid instantly on Base L2.
GitHub Link: https://github.com/Nimastic/Munus
Hackathon Submission: https://taikai.network/ethrome/hackathons/2025/projects/cmgxalmsy01zc8697b7iyvwbi/idea
Trick or TrETH
ENS Pool Prize
On-chain trick or treating where you design your own costume or judge others who visited you! A fun and intuitive way to celebrate this Halloween on crypto.
GitHub Link: https://github.com/wr1159/ethrome-2025
Hackathon Submission: https://taikai.network/ethrome/hackathons/2025/projects/cmgxal4br01lz1nb96rqwxppk/idea
BasePay MiniApp
A mini app on the Base app that allows merchants and users to leverage existing QR code infrastructure to deal and transact in stablecoins.
GitHub Link: https://github.com/lim-4158/BasePay-MiniApp
Hackathon Submission: https://taikai.network/ethrome/hackathons/2025/projects/cmgwujcpd01ms8697evyvddxq/idea
Quotes
What stood out during this trip was how competitive the Web3 development scene is in Italy, as there was a month-long "hack village" prior to the hackathon where hackers stayed together and attended workshops held there, and then collectively worked on some projects to hone their skills. As such, we faced immense competition from locals that were already well in the zone and ready to hack over the weekend. Luckily, as there were various bounties to compete for, we shortlisted them accordingly and innovated extensively on bold ideas that could stand out and secure prizes with the new tech stacks from the bounty sponsors.
My experience at ETHRome was nothing short of amazing. Across the 3 days, i had the opportunity to network and attend workshops where i gained a better understanding of the sponsor's underlying blockchain technology. I iterated on my project after receiving feedback, and line by line, built a project that the sponsor felt has real business use case. As the popular saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Munus was built in 3.
Mamamia!
Participating in EthRome has expanded my knowledge in the field of blockchain and especially DeFi. Through experimentation and research, I built a protocol to facilitate trading on the blockchain directly. I have also learnt more about how trusted execution environments can be integrated into Dapps to create new and innovative privacy solutions.
ETHRome opened up my eyes to how competitors used AI in assisting their hackathon submission effectively. There I realised that since execution of most projects no longer becomes a problem with the help of AI, we must all learn to become more critical and creative thinkers to come up with standout ideas or build an even more technically challenging solution.
