What I Built
Merchant payment infrastructure for AI agents on the Arc blockchain. Agents can accept payments, process transactions, and manage merchant accounts autonomously. Built for the Arc Agent Hackathon where we placed 2nd.
Full-stack implementation: payment processing API, merchant dashboard, wallet integration, and transaction monitoring. Deployed on Railway with Postgres backend.
What I Learned
- •Arc blockchain architecture: how it differs from standard EVM chains and what that means for payment flows.
- •Merchant payment patterns: the difference between consumer wallets and merchant infrastructure (batching, settlement timing, accounting).
- •Hackathon velocity: shipping a working product in 48 hours requires ruthless scope management and knowing what to skip.
- •Competitive positioning: 2nd place means the idea was strong, execution was solid, but something was missing. Understanding what separates good from winning is its own lesson.
What This Proves
Hackathons are rapid prototyping under real constraints. Being able to assess what is viable in limited time, ship it cleanly, and present it effectively translates directly to evaluating early-stage opportunities: what can be built quickly, what creates real value, and what is just clever infrastructure with no market.