Skip to Content
Our StoryBuilt from Truth

Built from Truth

From ground truth to regenerative solutions

Four weeks. Eleven teams. One mission: Build trust infrastructure for Africa’s invisible economy.

What started with broken assumptions and uncomfortable field research culminated in working prototypes and MVPs that reimagine how economic systems can serve the millions left behind by formal institutions.

This is the harvest. Not just lines of code, but regenerative solutions built from the lived experiences of markets, campuses, farms, and streets across Lagos and beyond.

The Portfolio: 11 Regenerative Solutions

Every solution you see below emerged from the action learning journey: Ground Truth discovery → Pattern Recognition → Systems Thinking → Prototype Building. Each team applied the CATS Regenerative Framework to real community needs.

Financial Inclusion Systems

Catalyst

The Problem: 40 million micro merchants contribute 58% of Nigeria’s GDP yet remain invisible to financial institutions due to lack of verifiable transaction records. A ₦32.2 billion financing gap starves SMEs of growth capital.

The Solution: Trust based credit profiling system that captures daily transaction data from informal merchants, creating verifiable economic identities that investors can trust. Turns invisible traders into creditworthy borrowers for banks, NGOs, institutions, and individual investors with capital for local business investment.

What Makes It Regenerative: Transforms informal economic activity from a liability into an asset, enabling wealth building rather than extraction.

“We’re not lending money. We’re making the invisible visible so investors, banks, NGOs, institutions, individuals, can finally see who’s actually running the economy.” , Catalyst Team

CivicChain

The Problem: Informal workers (traders, artisans, transport operators) pay daily levies to revenue collectors with no receipts, no proof, and no path to financial inclusion. Cash based systems breed opacity and corruption.

The Solution: Verifiable digital identity + payment rails for informal workers. Every levy payment becomes a building block for economic inclusion, creating transaction histories, creditworthiness, and accountability.

What Makes It Regenerative: Converts extractive cash collection into a foundation for economic participation and transparent governance.

  • GitHub: [Repository Link Placeholder]
  • Live Demo: [Demo Link Placeholder]
  • YouTube Demo: [Video Link Placeholder]

“They’ve been paying into the system for years. Now they’ll finally have proof, and a future.” , CivicChain Team

Ratify

The Problem: Crowdfunding and community fundraising suffer from “black box” opacity. Donors hesitate because they can’t track where money goes. Legitimate creators struggle against “audio projects” (scams).

The Solution: Transparent smart contract escrows where every naira’s journey is visible. Donors trace contributions in real time. Creators prove legitimacy through verifiable milestones.

What Makes It Regenerative: Restores trust in community generosity by replacing blind faith with transparent accountability.

  • GitHub: [Repository Link Placeholder]
  • Live Demo: [Demo Link Placeholder]
  • YouTube Demo: [Video Link Placeholder]

“Generosity isn’t dead. It’s just been paralyzed by broken trust. We’re fixing that.” , Ratify Team

Environmental & Circular Economy

Inclusive

The Problem: Lagos generates 14,000 metric tons of waste daily. Over 70% of recyclables end up in landfills or waterways. Informal waste collectors (Mallams) power the city’s recycling but face delayed payments, financial exclusion, and zero recognition.

The Solution: Verified work ledger for waste collectors. Every collection becomes a recorded proof of work, creating transparent payment histories and turning Mallams into creditworthy economic actors.

What Makes It Regenerative: Formalizes environmental work, rewards circular economy participation, and builds financial inclusion through ecological service.

  • GitHub: [Repository Link Placeholder]
  • Live Demo: [Demo Link Placeholder]
  • YouTube Demo: [Video Link Placeholder]

“They clean our city every day. Now they’ll finally be seen, and paid fairly.” , Inclusive Team

Agriculture & Food Security

OSWEB (AgriDatum)

The Problem: Smallholder farmers produce food but can’t access loans, insurance, or fair trade because they lack verifiable records of planting and harvest data. Data poverty blocks financial access.

The Solution: Verifiable agricultural records system. Farmers document planting, irrigation, and harvest data in simple, trusted formats that financial institutions can use for loan underwriting and insurance.

What Makes It Regenerative: Turns agricultural productivity into financial credibility, enabling farmers to invest in sustainable practices and scale production.

“The farm is productive. The bank just couldn’t see it. Now they can.” , OSWEB Team

Skills & Labor Markets

TechKR

The Problem: Lagos has skilled workers everywhere, tailors, plumbers, hairdressers, welders, yet they remain unemployed or underemployed because they’re invisible. Existing platforms ignore the informal sector where most talent lives.

The Solution: Skills verification and discovery system where informal workers become visible. Clients can discover, verify, and hire local talent. Workers build portable skill profiles across platforms.

What Makes It Regenerative: Surfaces hidden human capital, enabling local economic circulation rather than dependence on formal employment.

“The talent is here. We’re just making it discoverable.” , TechKR Team

Education & Accessibility

Cryptex (OgaTicha)

The Problem: Special needs students (visually impaired, hearing impaired, learning disabilities) are hidden at home due to stigma and lack of accessible learning infrastructure. Mainstream schools are analogue and unequipped.

The Solution: AI powered, data light, accessible tutoring system designed for special needs learners. Works on low bandwidth, adapts to individual learning needs, removes barriers to inclusive education.

What Makes It Regenerative: Makes education accessible to those systematically excluded, unlocking human potential rather than discarding it.

  • GitHub: [Repository Link Placeholder]
  • Live Demo: [Demo Link Placeholder]
  • YouTube Demo: [Video Link Placeholder]

“Every child deserves to learn. We’re making sure no one is left behind.” , Cryptex Team

Alpha (LearnBuddy)

The Problem: Data poverty locks out millions from online learning. Streaming a single educational video costs more than a daily food budget. EdTech platforms demand high speed data and expensive smartphones.

The Solution: WhatsApp native, low data learning platform. Delivers vocational training (solar installation, digital marketing, trades) through text, images, and lightweight interactions that meet learners where they are.

What Makes It Regenerative: Designs for actual reality rather than aspirational infrastructure, democratizing skills development.

  • GitHub: [Repository Link Placeholder]
  • Live Demo: [Demo Link Placeholder]
  • YouTube Demo: [Video Link Placeholder]

“We stopped asking them to come to us. We went to where they already are.” , Alpha Team

Governance & Accountability

Blockprint

The Problem: University students pay tuition fees yet live with broken infrastructure, collapsed ceilings, flooded hostels, unsafe electrical systems. Complaints are fragmented, ignored, or lost in bureaucratic opacity.

The Solution: Transparent, immutable accountability system where student complaints become auditable records. Institutions can’t ignore or erase documented issues. Progress tracking becomes public.

What Makes It Regenerative: Creates feedback loops between communities and institutions, forcing accountability and resource stewardship.

“We pay fees. Now we’ll get what we paid for, or everyone will know why we didn’t.” , Blockprint Team

Financial Security & Trust

Colossus (Zero)

The Problem: Nigerian banks and fintechs face silent insider fraud. Centralized, editable systems allow employees to leak data or divert funds. Customer confidence erodes but fraud is hard to detect or prove.

The Solution: Immutable audit trails within banking systems. Every transaction, access, and modification is recorded transparently. Prevents insider fraud before it happens rather than detecting it after.

What Makes It Regenerative: Rebuilds institutional trust by making internal operations transparent and accountable.

  • GitHub: [Repository Link Placeholder]
  • Live Demo: [Demo Link Placeholder]
  • YouTube Demo: [Video Link Placeholder]

“Trust isn’t optional. It’s the foundation. We’re making it unbreakable.” , Colossus Team

K33P

The Problem: Crypto adoption in Nigeria is undermined by seed phrase loss. Users lose recovery phrases and lose all assets forever, breaking crypto’s promise of secure self sovereignty.

The Solution: Social recovery systems for crypto wallets. Preserves self sovereignty while eliminating catastrophic loss through trusted recovery networks.

What Makes It Regenerative: Makes decentralized finance accessible without punishing mistakes, lowering barriers to financial autonomy.

“Crypto shouldn’t punish you for being human. We’re making it safer without sacrificing control.” , K33P Team

[IMAGE PLACEHOLDER] Collage of product screenshots - interfaces, dashboards, user flows from all 11 solutions

Final Hack Day & Demo Day: December 19, 2025

The in person finale at Next Trend Hub brought together over 100 attendees, all 11 teams (with a minimum of 5 members each), developers, researchers, and community supporters, for the moment of truth: Show what you built. Prove it works. Explain why it matters.

The Demo Format

Each team had 10 minutes to:

  1. Demonstrate the action learning journey , How Ground Truth shaped their solution
  2. Live product demo , Show the working prototype/MVP in action
  3. Explain the regenerative angle , How their solution builds rather than extracts

The Energy in the Room

The demos weren’t just technical showcases. They were testimonies.

  • Catalyst showed live transaction data flowing into credit profiles
  • Inclusive demonstrated waste collectors checking their verified work ledgers on basic phones
  • CivicChain walked through a trader receiving a digital receipt for the first time
  • OSWEB displayed farmers accessing loan preapprovals based on harvest records
  • Ratify traced a donation’s journey from donor wallet to project milestone in real time

Every demo answered the same question: “How does this solution make the invisible visible, replace blind trust with verification, and build for African realities?”

By the end of the day, the room wasn’t just celebrating code. It was witnessing systems change.

The Evaluation Saga: Navigating Fairness & Transparency

What happened next tested the community’s commitment to its own principles.

The Initial Plan & The Pivot

The original plan was clear: Wada (global organizer) and Prisma would evaluate all teams and select the top 3 local winners for the CATS Hackathon.

But as the program progressed, the scope changed. The new plan: The Hub lead would present 3 teams for global top 5 selection.

Then came the problem no one anticipated: The Hub lead was also a participating member of one of the teams.

Conflict of interest. Fairness on the line. Community trust at stake.

First Virtual Meeting: The Disagreement

[YouTube Video] Recording of first evaluation meeting - discussion of selection process, no consensus reached

The community gathered on Google Meet to discuss how to proceed. All 11 teams were present. The question on the table: How do we select the top teams fairly when the person leading the selection is also competing?

Proposals flew:

  • Hub lead recuses himself entirely
  • External judges only
  • Community vote
  • Peer evaluation

But no consensus emerged. Some worried about bias. Others about fairness. Everyone cared deeply about transparency because the entire program had been built on Ground Truth, unfiltered reality, no assumptions.

The meeting ended without agreement. The tension was real. The stakes were high.

Lesson learned: Community organizing isn’t just about building solutions. It’s about building processes that honor the community’s values.

The Community Solution: LLMs as Neutral Evaluators

The Hub lead took the challenge back to Wada for guidance on top 3 selection. But the community wasn’t waiting. They kept talking. Refining. Searching for a path that everyone could trust.

Then someone said it: “What if we use AI? LLMs have no emotions. No favorites. Just data.”

The idea caught fire.

Second Virtual Meeting: The Breakthrough

Date & Time: December 29, 2025, 1:00 PM WAT on Google Meet

[YouTube Video] Recording of second evaluation meeting - community agreement on LLM process, critical decisions, transparent scoring

The community reconvened. This time, the proposal was concrete, but first, critical decisions had to be made to ensure fairness and transparency.

PreEvaluation Decisions: Building Trust Through Process

Before any evaluation could begin, the community made several binding decisions through simple majority votes:

Decision 1: Participation Requirement

All 11 teams received 72 hour advance notice for the evaluation meeting. The community agreed:

  • Meeting starts at 1:00 PM WAT
  • 40 minute grace period until 1:40 PM WAT for teams to join
  • Only teams present at 1:40 PM WAT would be included in the evaluation

By 1:40 PM WAT, only 6 teams were on the call.

Simple majority vote result: The 5 teams who did not join would be excluded from the evaluation process. The community agreed this honored the commitment and respect needed for a fair process.

The 6 Teams Present for Evaluation:

  • Catalyst
  • OSWEB (AgriDatum)
  • K33P
  • TechKR
  • Blockprint
  • Colossus (Zero)

Decision 2: Data Source - Eliminating Bias

The community collectively agreed on a single, trusted data source: Team formation content from the Globe website.

Why this mattered:

  • Content was publicly accessible to anyone
  • Content was submitted before the evaluation process changes were announced
  • Using preexisting data eliminated any possibility of teams tailoring submissions to evaluators

The K33P Exception:

K33P’s content was not found on the Globe website. Investigation revealed: When filling the original form, teams had an optional choice to publish their content (Yes/No). K33P, being the first team to respond, selected “No” for publishing.

Simple majority vote result: K33P could provide their exact content used during team formation to be considered for evaluation. The community agreed this was fair since the content predated the evaluation process.

Decision 3: LLM Evaluation Methodology

The community collectively agreed to the LLM based evaluation approach and the specific prompt to be used.

The Process:

  1. Five LLMs would independently evaluate all 6 teams: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity
  2. Each LLM would score projects on a 1 to 10 scale using the agreed prompt
  3. Average scores calculated across all 5 LLMs for each team
  4. Top 5 teams selected based on average scores
  5. Those 5 teams presented to Wada for final top 3 selection

The Evaluation Prompt (Unaltered):

Use the below to rank the projects above
 
Role: You are a Lead Evaluator for the Cardano Africa Tech Summit (CATS). 
Your expertise is in Regenerative system, African market dynamics, and 
Cardano blockchain architecture.
 
Task: Rank the above list of projects from 1st to last place based on 
the CATS "Regenerative Principle" theme.
 
Evaluation Framework: 
Community First Validation (Highest Priority): Rank projects higher if 
they demonstrate deep local problem understanding. Penalize projects that 
look like "solutions looking for a problem."
 
Regenerative Impact: The project must create a sustainable economic or 
social loop. It should not just be "for profit"; it must restore value 
to its users.
 
Considering all evaluation framework, score each project from 1 - 10

This prompt reflected the global evaluation expectations from Wada and the Prisma Team as presented during mentorship sessions.

The Evaluation Results

Each of the 5 LLMs independently evaluated all 6 projects. Scores were averaged across all models.

First Attempt - The Tie:

The initial evaluation revealed a tie between Blockprint and Colossus for the 5th spot.

Resolution: The community agreed to rerun the evaluation for the tied teams with an improved prompt that explicitly acknowledged the tie and requested a clear differentiation.

Final Results (Average Scores Across 5 LLMs):

  1. Catalyst - 9.50
  2. OSWEB (AgriDatum) - 8.76
  3. K33P - 8.64
  4. TechKR - 8.1
  5. Blockprint - 7.50

(Colossus scored just below Blockprint and did not advance to top 5)

Why This Worked:

  • Fairness: LLMs have no personal relationships or biases
  • Transparency: Every decision documented and voted on by community
  • Community consent: All participating teams agreed to every step before proceeding
  • Neutrality: Five different LLMs prevented single model bias
  • Objectivity: Preexisting data sources eliminated submission manipulation

The vote was unanimous. The community had solved its own problem, together.

“This is what regenerative organizing looks like. When the process gets murky, you don’t force a decision. You build a better process together.” , Participant reflection

The Top 5 Teams Selected for Global Evaluation

After the rigorous LLM evaluation process, these 5 teams were selected through AI consensus to be presented to Wada for final top 3 determination:

  1. Catalyst - Trust based credit profiling for invisible merchants (Score: 9.50)
  2. OSWEB (AgriDatum) - Verifiable agricultural records for farmer financing (Score: 8.76)
  3. K33P - Social recovery systems for crypto wallets (Score: 8.64)
  4. TechKR - Skills verification for informal workers (Score: 8.1)
  5. Blockprint - Transparent accountability for campus infrastructure (Score: 7.50)

These teams represented the strongest alignment with the CATS Regenerative Framework: Ground Truth driven, systems focused, designed for African realities, and committed to building trust infrastructure rather than extractive features.

The Local Winners: Top 3 Teams

From the top 5, Wada selected the 3 local winners of the CATS Hackathon Lagos Hub:

1st Place: [Team Name Placeholder]

Why They Won: [Placeholder for winning criteria - regenerative impact, community alignment, execution quality, scalability]

Links:

  • GitHub: [Link]
  • Live Demo: [Link]
  • YouTube Demo: [Link]

“[Quote from winning team or community feedback]“

2nd Place: [Team Name Placeholder]

Why They Won: [Placeholder for criteria]

Links:

  • GitHub: [Link]
  • Live Demo: [Link]
  • YouTube Demo: [Link]

“[Quote from team or community]“

3rd Place: [Team Name Placeholder]

Why They Won: [Placeholder for criteria]

Links:

  • GitHub: [Link]
  • Live Demo: [Link]
  • YouTube Demo: [Link]

“[Quote from team or community]“

Celebrating All 11 Teams

But here’s the truth: Every team won.

Every participant who went into the field, suspended their assumptions, listened to communities, and built solutions grounded in real needs, they all contributed to something bigger than a competition. They built the foundation for Africa’s trust infrastructure.

The top 3 represent the cohort. But the cohort represents a movement.

The African Model: Built Different

What makes this different from Silicon Valley style hackathons?

We Started with Truth, Not Ideas

Most hackathons start with pitches. We started with field research. No code until you’ve witnessed the problem firsthand.

We Built Infrastructure, Not Apps

Typical hackathons reward features. We rewarded systems thinking, solutions that create foundations for other solutions to build on.

We Designed for Reality, Not Aspiration

Silicon Valley builds for fast internet and expensive phones. We built for data poverty, basic phones, and analogue habits because that’s where our communities are.

We Organized Around Values, Not Just Code

When the evaluation process broke, we didn’t force a decision. We built a better process together that honored fairness and transparency.

We Measured Regeneration, Not Disruption

We didn’t ask “How do we disrupt?” We asked “How do we regenerate?”, building systems that strengthen communities rather than extract from them.

This is what native innovation looks like. Not copied. Not imported. Built from African ground truth.

Vision Forward: What This Means

This hackathon wasn’t the end. It was the beginning of a regenerative ecosystem.

What We Proved

  • Ground Truth methodology works at scale
  • Communities can self organize around fairness and transparency
  • Trust infrastructure is possible, and necessary
  • African solutions must be designed for African realities

What’s Next

  • Pilots: Teams deploying solutions in real communities
  • Partnerships: Financial institutions, governments, NGOs engaging with projects
  • Replication: Other hubs adopting the CATS methodology
  • Network Effects: Solutions beginning to integrate and amplify each other

Catalyst’s credit profiles could feed into CivicChain’s identity system.
Inclusive’s waste collector ledgers could integrate with Ratify’s transparent escrows.
OSWEB’s agricultural data could connect with Catalyst’s lending platform.

The regenerative economy isn’t one app. It’s an ecosystem of trust infrastructure that makes the invisible visible.

Call to Action

For Investors & Partners

These aren’t moonshot ideas. They’re working prototypes solving real problems for millions. Partner with teams. Fund pilots. Scale what works.

For Developers & Builders

Join the movement. Fork the repos. Build on the infrastructure. The solutions are open. The community is welcoming.

For Communities & Organizations

Run your own CATS Hackathon. Adopt the Ground Truth methodology. Build solutions native to your context.

For Policymakers

See what’s possible when communities lead. Support trust infrastructure. Enable the informal economy to formalize on its own terms.

Closing: The Full Arc

We started in the streets (The Pulse Check), finding uncomfortable truths about invisibility and distrust.

We gathered online (The Signal in the Noise), making sense of chaos and discovering the need for trust infrastructure.

We built real solutions (Built from Truth), turning insights into working systems that serve communities.

This is regenerative innovation:

  • Listen first. Build second.
  • Design for reality, not aspiration.
  • Create infrastructure, not just apps.
  • Organize around fairness, even when it’s hard.
  • Build trust, because everything else depends on it.

“We didn’t come to disrupt. We came to regenerate. And that changes everything.”
, CATS Hackathon Participant

Explore the journey:

Connect with the movement:

  • Join the conversation
  • Explore the projects
  • Build with us

The trust infrastructure for Africa’s invisible economy is being built right now. Be part of it.

Last updated on
OverviewThe Pulse Check