Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon Proof of Usefulness Hackathon $150k+ Submit your project to get started Submit your project to get started In this interview, we catch up with Liyas Thomas, the creator behind Hoppscotch. Hoppscotch is an open-source API development platform designed to help developers and teams test, document, and share APIs without the bloat of legacy tools. Hoppscotch What does Hoppscotch do? And why is now the time for it to exist? Hoppscotch is an open-source, lightweight API development platform that helps developers test, document, and share APIs quickly and efficiently. It provides a clean, modern interface for working with various API types (REST, GraphQL, etc.), making it a powerful tool for developers and engineering teams looking to streamline their API workflows and collaboration. Now’s a good time for Hoppscotch to exist because developers are increasingly seeking privacy-focused, lightweight alternatives to bloated legacy tools, and the demand for open-source, self-hosted solutions for the entire API lifecycle is at an all-time high in 2026. What is your traction to date? How many people does Hoppscotch reach? Over 2M+ all-time users. More than 100,000 monthly active users. Over 77,500 GitHub stars, indicating a strong and active open-source community following. Who does your Hoppscotch serve? What’s exciting about your users and customers? Individual Developers, Testers and QA Professionals and Engineering Teams. The platform is built for collaboration, with features like workspaces, access level rules, and shared collections, making it easy for teams to build and manage APIs together. It provides a single shared API space, which can be a cost-effective alternative to other tools for scaling teams. Few notable customers are employees from GitHub, Microsoft, Decathlon, intel, ByteDance, NASA, etc. What technologies were used in the making of Hoppscotch? And why did you choose ones most essential to your techstack? The platform focuses heavily on API-centric technologies to ensure it remains lightweight and versatile. By prioritizing a tech stack that supports various protocols like REST, GraphQL, and WebSockets directly in the browser or via native apps, Hoppscotch ensures speed and accessibility without the resource heaviness found in competitors. What is traction to date for Hoppscotch? Around the web, who’s been noticing? Hoppscotch has secured its place as a top-tier open-source project, recognized for revolutionizing API testing and development by industry observers like DailyBot and MiracleSoft. With coverage highlighting its ecosystem and integration capabilities, the project has proven itself as a serious contender in the developer tools space. Hoppscotch scored a 133 proof of usefulness score (proofofusefulness.com/hoppscotch-report) Hoppscotch scored a 133 proof of usefulness score (proofofusefulness.com/hoppscotch-report) proofofusefulness.com/hoppscotch-report What excites you about this Hoppscotch's potential usefulness? Hoppscotch is a lightweight, open-source powerhouse that lets you test almost any protocol like REST, GraphQL, or WebSockets right from your browser or a fast native app. It eliminates the bloat of traditional tools while keeping your data private and self-hosted, making it perfect for teams who want speed without sacrificing security. Its growth into a full-scale collaborative ecosystem makes it a genuine, developer-first alternative for the entire API lifecycle in 2026. Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors 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. 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. Bright Data: 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. 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. Neo4j: more Storyblok: 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. Storyblok: 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. Storyblok: Start for free Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Learn more
