Welcome to HackerNoon’s Projects of the Week, where we spotlight standout projects from the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon, HackerNoon’s competition designed to measure what actually matters: real utility over hype. \n \n Each week, we’ll highlight projects that demonstrate clear usefulness, technical execution, and real-world impact - backed by data, not buzzwords.This week, we’re excited to share three projects that have proven their utility by solving concrete problems for real users: Yaeum, XColdPro, and EquipmentStack.\:::tipWant to see your own project spotlighted here?Join the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon to get on our radar.:::Meet the Projects of The WeekMeet Yaeumhttps://hackernoon.com/yaeum-earns-a-74-proof-of-usefulness-score-by-building-an-ai-powered-sentence-mining-and-grammar-analysis-tool-for-k-pop-and-k-drama-fans?embedable=trueYaeum is an innovative language learning app that allows fans of K-pop and K-drama to learn Korean directly from their favorite content using generative AI and machine learning.Search for a Korean song, drama, or movie, and Yaeum will provide an in-depth analysis of the text, sentence by sentence, and set up a personalized vocabulary list to make memorizing new words easy. To achieve this, Yaeum taps into several open sources third party apis and uses generative AI and machine learning to analyze the texts and provide grammatical explanations as well as vocabulary.Proof of Usefulness score: +74 / 1000\ \:::tipSee Yaeum’s full Proof of Usefulness reportRead their story on HackerNoon:::Meet XColdProhttps://hackernoon.com/xcoldpro-cold-wallet-storage-earns-a-52-proof-of-usefulness-score-by-building-hardware-agnostic-cold?embedable=trueXColdPro is a patent-pending, hardware-agnostic cold storage software designed to protect both cryptocurrency keys and the host machine holding them, solving critical issues around digital asset inheritance and OS-level threat defense.XColdPro leverages Python and Electron to deliver a cross-platform experience, secured by robust AES-256-GCM encryption and PBKDF2 with 500K iterations. The tech stack is uniquely built to operate in a fully air-gapped, no-cloud environment, while utilizing scheduled task watchdog architecture and OS-level behavioral monitoring to seamlessly integrate threat intelligence.Proof of Usefulness score: +52 / 1000\ \:::tipSee XColdPro’s full Proof of Usefulness reportRead their story on HackerNoon:::Meet EquipmentStackEquipmentStack is a newly launched, niche content platform focused on detailed athlete equipment specifications. The platform helps enthusiasts find exactly what the pros use, diving into the labor-intensive data gathering that earned them their recent Proof of Usefulness score.To build and manage its extensive content repository, EquipmentStack utilized WordPress as its foundational technology. Choosing WordPress allowed it to rapidly deploy a custom, SEO-friendly site that is perfectly suited for managing a highly structured database of gear and athletes without unnecessary technical overhead.While the project is in its infancy with no verifiable user traction yet, the live site demonstrates high-quality, labor-intensive data gathering that offers genuine utility to enthusiasts.Proof of Usefulness score: +35 / 1000\:::tipSee EquipmentStack’s full Proof of Usefulness reportRead their story on HackerNoon:::Want to submit your project to the Proof of Usefulness hackathon?What is Proof of Usefulness?It's our answer to a web drowning in vaporware and empty promises. We evaluate projects based on: \n ▪️ Real user adoption \n ▪️ Sustainable revenue \n ▪️ Technical stability \n ▪️ Genuine utilityTest your project’s usefulness and submit your report on Hackernoon before August 10, 2026, to compete for over $150,000 in cash prizes and software credits.Projects score from -100 to +1000. Top scorers compete for $20K in cash and $130K+ in software credits.You’ll be in good company. The hackathon is backed by teams who ship production software for a living - Bright Data, Neo4j, Storyblok, Algolia, and HackerNoon.\ \What happens when you submit:1. Get your free Proof of Usefulness score instantly \n 2. Your submission becomes a HackerNoon article (published within days) \n 3. Compete for monthly prizes \n 4. All participants get rewardsComplete guide on how to submit here.:::tip👉 Submit Your Project Now!:::\That’s all for now.Until next time, Hackers!