Hashed: OBA Pushes Open APIs for AI Agents

Hashed founded the Open Builders Alliance to equip Korea and Asia with open APIs and builder infrastructure as AI agents begin routing transactions outside closed super apps such as WeChat and Kakao. The move follows the May 30–31 OBA Weekendthon at Kakao AI Campus where 48 founders and 30 teams used assets from Nexon, LG U+, MyRealTrip and OpenAI to ship agent-ready products. Ryan Kim noted that Asia’s lack of legacy rails produced convenient but closed ecosystems, while the agent economy now rewards platforms that expose functions directly to external AI callers rather than human clicks inside walled gardens.