What if you could prove you qualify for government help without handing over a stack of personal documents? That is one of the ideas that won at the Midnight Korea Hackathon, according to the Midnight Foundation's State of the Network report for October 2026, published on October 27.
The event closed with 38 teams submitting working decentralized applications (apps that run on a blockchain instead of one company's servers). After a one month remote building phase, teams presented their work at a live showcase in Seoul, co-hosted with security auditor CertiK and the Seoul Fintech Lab.
Built with Compact and zero-knowledge proofs
Every project was built with Compact, Midnight's smart contract language (the code that tells the blockchain which rules to follow). The winners leaned on zero-knowledge proofs, a kind of cryptographic math that lets you prove something is true without revealing the details behind it. Think of convincing a bouncer you are old enough to enter without showing your name or home address.
The winning projects
JustEnough built a system for checking whether someone is eligible for public subsidies without exposing their personal documents.
Safejeonse created a way for renters to check that their lease deposits are safe without exposing other tenants' financial data.
Veilance designed a supply chain tracker that proves how much recycled material a product contains, to meet EU regulations, without leaking suppliers' trade secrets.
A focus on real world rules
According to the Foundation, the hackathon produced apps centered on compliance, selective disclosure (sharing only the specific facts someone needs, and nothing more) and regulated finance. These are areas where businesses and governments must check information but also have a duty to protect it.
Why it matters: hackathons offer a glimpse of what builders believe a technology is good for. In Seoul, the answer was practical, everyday problems like housing, public aid and recycling, each solved by proving just enough and keeping the rest private.