WCHL 2025 national round highlights on-chain development on the Internet Computer Protocol

The national round of WCHL 2025 gathered global talent to build on-chain solutions on the Internet Computer Protocol. The ICP HUBS Network powered the competition, which attracted over 11,000 participants and around 1,500 projects, reflecting a growing demand for decentralized applications with measurable impact.

Scale and ecosystem dynamics

The event demonstrated broad ecosystem engagement and scale, with teams from diverse regions working on solutions that leverage ICP capabilities; the competition moved a wide set of actors across development, infrastructure and community layers, confirming momentum in on-chain innovation.

Jury priorities: utility and scalability

Practical utility was the main criterion for the jury, with emphasis on projects that presented a clear value proposition and a demonstrable growth plan; teams were evaluated on how their product solves a specific problem, which adoption metrics they would pursue and how they would scale while preserving decentralization.

User experience and robustness

User experience and robustness were decisive factors, as accessible interfaces reduce friction and favor adoption; judges required prototypes with testing, error handling and complete value flows, and prioritized validation with real users and short feedback cycles to turn demos into viable products.

Technological trends and panel recommendations

Judges valued trends such as decentralized social networks, AI with traceability and on-chain infrastructure that exploits ICP scalability, highlighting proposals focused on privacy and user control, tools that ensure provenance and reduce risks like deepfakes, and dApps that avoid centralized dependencies; the panel repeatedly recommended prioritizing security and strong cryptographic practices, clearly documenting architecture and product decisions, defining actionable adoption metrics, building MVPs that demonstrate full value flows and preparing adoption routes that do not depend on centralized intermediaries.

Impact on sovereignty and governance showed up across evaluations, as top projects incorporated open governance principles, privacy by design and resilience against centralized controls, signaling demand for solutions that strengthen digital sovereignty and reduce intermediary dependence.

The jury emphasized that relevant innovation is measured by impact, usability and the ability to scale, so teams should iterate quickly, validate with users, prioritize security and build with decentralization in mind to favor mass adoption without sacrificing sovereignty.