DeFi, Privacy, and Insurance Breakthroughs Crowned at Arbitrum’s India Hacker House

The Arbitrum Foundation has announced the winners of its Open House India IRL Hacker House in Bengaluru, a four-day build sprint that brought together India’s developer talent with Arbitrum’s production-proven technology stack. The event, held in September 2025, awarded $70,000 in prizes to the top three projects, which spanned DeFi, privacy, onchain insurance, and developer tools. Winners will present their projects at Demo Day on October 6, with select teams eligible for an accelerator track focused on go-to-market execution and ecosystem integration .

Orbital AMM Protocol introduced a novel automated market maker (AMM) capable of supporting thousands of stablecoins within a single pool by extending concentrated liquidity into higher dimensions. The project was praised for combining rigorous mathematical modeling with clear market thinking, achieving rapid execution. Ben Greenberg, who leads Developer Relations at the Arbitrum Foundation, highlighted Orbital’s potential as a “meaningful new product for the ecosystem,” noting its technical innovation and readiness for adoption.

Shinobi.Cash developed cross-chain privacy pools that enable deposits on any EVM chain and private withdrawals on another, all from a single Arbitrum deployment. The solution leveraged a ZK circuit and the Open Intent Framework to reduce withdrawal costs and streamline cross-chain interactions. Judges commended its focus on privacy and scalability, with a credible path to addressing real-world use cases in DeFi and cross-border transactions.

GuardChain.ai proposed a community-owned, blockchain-native insurance model tailored for gig workers and self-help groups. The project integrated AI-assisted claims processing with onchain transparency and governance, aiming to provide affordable, decentralized insurance solutions. Lorenzo Sicilia, Head of Technology at the Arbitrum Foundation, emphasized its potential to scale predictably as usage grows, leveraging Arbitrum’s Orbit chain for dedicated block space.

The winning projects were evaluated by a panel of judges from the Arbitrum Foundation and ecosystem partners, with criteria including technical rigor, user value, readiness to ship, and a credible adoption strategy. The judging process prioritized working software, with teams assessed on architecture quality, execution speed, and clarity of go-to-market plans.

The Open House India program was structured as a three-stage journey: “Learn” (practical workshops to reduce time-to-first-commit), “Build” (a three-week online buildathon with mentorship and feedback), and “Hack” (an in-person hacker house in Bengaluru). Participants collaborated with mentors from the Ethereum Foundation, OpenZeppelin, Couchbase, and Appwrite, applying production-grade tooling to develop features on Arbitrum’s unified stack. Teams could deploy to Arbitrum One for shared liquidity or use Orbit chains for custom, cost-predictable solutions.

Aditi Chopra, who leads regional growth for India at the Arbitrum Foundation, noted the high quality of projects, emphasizing their clear user value and technical execution. “India’s builders move quickly, solve real problems, and set a high bar for product quality,” she said. The event showcased how Arbitrum’s Stylus and Orbit tools enabled teams to build, test, and iterate rapidly, with Orbital AMM, Shinobi.Cash, and GuardChain.ai demonstrating the ecosystem’s potential for innovation.

The Arbitrum Foundation aims to strengthen the ecosystem through grants, partnerships, and developer programs, aligning with its mission to accelerate the growth of open, onchain solutions. With the Open House India winners advancing to Demo Day, the foundation will continue supporting teams in scaling their projects, fostering a resilient and collaborative blockchain ecosystem.

Source: [1] Arbitrum Foundation announces winners of Bengaluru IRL Hacker House (https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/arbitrum-foundation-announces-winners-of-bengaluru-irl-hacker-house-302565059.html)