this is proof that the crypto industry was never a serious one
just bunch of greedy founders, investors and extractors
everything about mercor looks like a project that should be running on blockchain rails
but we failed as an industry
Mercor has raised a $750 million Series D at a $20 billion valuation to scale our mission of organizing human intelligence for the entire economy.
Every company now needs what we built for the frontier AI labs. Over the next five years, more money will be spent applying AI to real work than building new models, and every company will need evals and post-training built on how its own people work.
Thank you to our 5+ million experts and the customers who have built Mercor with us, and to our investors, including @benchmark, @felicis, @fundomo, funds managed by affiliates of Apollo, G Squared, @generalcatalyst, @GladeBrookCap, @nvidia, @salesforce, @SapphireVC, @StepStoneVC, XTX Ventures, and @Zoom.
Thank you to our team of time travelers who turn our ambitions into reality. And to those who want to build with us, we’re hiring.
I built Merchants of NEAR for the NEAR HACKATHON 2026 🏰
What if a trading game had an economy that actually lived and breathed?
Meet Nearhaven, a simulated trading civilization where 10 AI merchants compete, businesses rise and fall, and every trade affects the market.
This isn’t another game with hard coded prices and lifeless NPCs.
Here’s what you can do:
💰 Trade goods across cities using real supply and demand.
🤖 Compete with autonomous merchants that make their own economic decisions.
🚚 Run caravans and exploit price differences between markets.
📜 Complete contracts and build your reputation.
🏗️ Build businesses and turn them into on-chain deeds.
🏰 Join guilds and compete for seasonal dominance.
The NEAR integration is where ownership gets interesting:
• NEAR Wallet authentication using NEP-413.
• Business deeds backed by on-chain certificates.
• Atomic on-chain marketplace transactions.
• Businesses transfer to their new owners after purchase.
• Soulbound achievement badges.
The simulation runs off-chain for a smooth gaming experience, while ownership and important transactions are settled on NEAR.
Your businesses aren’t just entries in a game database. They’re assets you can own and trade.
Built for the Games With Real Economies track.
🎮 Play: https://t.co/FAj4NrIbmo
💻 Code: https://t.co/3t8FXDhLl9
X - @marchantsnear@NearBuilders | @NEARLegion | @NEARProtocol | @NEAR_Blockchain | @near_ai
what AI really gives you as someone with beautiful ideas or certain level of creativity is the ability to execute as fast as possible
I don't think AI will ever beat the raw creative abilities of humans
but then, humans doubt themselves, they get fatigue, they burnout, they even forget stuffs
but AI doesn't, AI can keep going as far as your credits plan will allow it
It can send 1,000 emails, build 100 websites, vibecode 50 tools, generate content calendar for a whole year
when you understand this distinction between the role of the human and AI,
you will understand how to better integrate AI into your workflows and maximize it
resolution is the hardest part of a prediction market
a great ui and sharp trading can still break if the outcome cannot be verified, or challenged
i built verdict for the near hackathon: a plug-in ai resolution layer. 🧵
@nearprotocol#nearhackathon