Near Protocol
NEARCON Innovation Sandbox 2026 San Francisco

The NEARCON Innovation Sandbox 2026 San Francisco was a hybrid builder sprint and hackathon held virtually and culminating in a project showcase in San Francisco, United States. Organized in partnership with Funding the Commons, the event challenged developers to ship production-ready applications leveraging the NEAR stack, including its AI Private Cloud, chain signatures, and intent-driven commerce modules. The competition drew massive interest, with 484 participants successfully submitting 85 projects.

The total prize pool was expanded to $22,500 to accommodate additional sponsor bounties. The competition featured three primary tracks: Private Web & Private Life, AI That Works For You, and Open Society, each awarding $3,500 to the winner and $1,000 to the runner-up. An 'Only on NEAR' bonus track awarded $2,500 to a single winner. Additionally, the event featured dedicated sponsor bounties, including $3,000 from NOVA split among three teams, $3,000 from HOT allocated to two teams, and $1,500 from PingPay distributed among three winners.

Following the submission deadline, a community voting phase was conducted where users could log in with their NEAR Wallet to vote on submissions. The hackathon concluded with a virtual awards ceremony on February 19, 2026, followed by an in-person showcase for the finalists at NEARCON. You can review the full list of 14 winning projects via the official results.