CreatorPay has won first place in the API3 track at the TUM Blockchain & AI Hackathon in Munich, earning the €1,000 top prize. The event ran on October 30 and 31, 2026 at the House of Communication.
Built by team Vibeathon, the project tackles a familiar problem in paid collaborations: how to release money when an agreed result is reached, without relying on screenshots or a manual decision.
A payout tied to a measurable target
CreatorPay holds funds in a Cardano smart contract and links payment to a rule agreed by the parties. A creator deal could, for example, require a post to reach 300,000 likes. That figure is an example condition, not a reported campaign result.
The contract checks a signed API3 Airnode response against the rule before permitting payment. If the condition is not met and the funds remain locked, the buyer can reclaim them after the deadline through a refund transaction requiring the funder’s signature.
Checking the signature on Cardano
The team says it built the AirnodeHub signature verifier itself. Its documentation describes an Aiken validator running on Plutus V3 that checks the signer, the request being answered, the response’s age and the agreed numerical condition.
That puts verification of the API3 response inside the Cardano contract, rather than leaving the payout decision to a person inspecting the data.
What the proof establishes
A valid signature establishes what the data source reported. It does not establish that every like came from a genuine person or that the underlying API is always accurate. Those distinctions matter when a payment depends on social engagement.
CreatorPay remains a testnet prototype, not an externally audited payment service. Its documentation identifies Cardano preprod and Base Sepolia as its test networks. The hackathon result recognises the project’s implementation; it does not turn the prototype into a production-ready system.
