CrossMind Conversational Crypto: Chat Your Way to On-Chain Transactions

Hi, I’m Carol, Developer Program Manager at Rootstock! After each hackathon ends, one of my favorite parts of the job is talking with the winners to hear about what they built, the obstacles they overcame, and where they’re headed next. I recently spoke with Atahan from CrossMind, the sole winner of the Encode Hackathon at ETH Lisbon 2025. Their project, an AI-driven chat agent that lets users carry out on-chain and cross-chain transactions with simple messages, shows how smart design and blockchain can open crypto to everyone. Here’s how they did it and what’s next.

Meet Atahan and the YTU Blockchain Team

Atahan is the ex-president and lead developer of YTU Blockchain, the student club at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul. He’s been building infrastructure, backend systems, and smart contract applications in the ecosystem for over two years. You can follow his work on GitHub at https://github.com/atahanyild and LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/atahanyild.

He led a team of three club members, Kerem Gegek, Beyzanur Yıldırım, and Sena Eser, to build CrossMind. YTU Blockchain organizes events, workshops, and bootcamps to onboard newcomers to blockchain and has competed in over 15 hackathons worldwide, earning several prizes, including the Best dApp on Rootstock award for CrossMind at the Encode Club ETH Lisbon Hackathon.

Introducing CrossMind: Chat Your Way to Transactions

Juggling wallets, bridges, and decentralized exchange interfaces can be overwhelming. CrossMind solves that by offering an AI chat agent. Users type what they want, such as: bridge tokens to Rootstock, swap assets on a decentralized exchange, check balances, and the agent handles the rest. No wallet switching, no manual contract calls.

Many users find the ecosystem too complex. With AI tools that can perform transactions, people can just chat with the agent. Under the hood, CrossMind taps into Rootstock’s MCP server to execute Web3 operations securely, so each transaction follows the chain’s rules and reverts if anything goes wrong.

Why Rootstock Stood Out

“It was my first time working with Rootstock", said Atahan. “In the beginning, I attended the workshop that the Rootstock team organized, and they showed the MCP server that is open for other developers to integrate with their AI agents”. Three things made Rootstock the perfect choice:

1. **MCP Server Access
   **The open code from Rootstock Labs lets them plug in AI-driven transaction logic without rebuilding core components.

2. **EVM Compatibility
   **Writing in Solidity means their agent stays portable across other EVM chains while still tapping into Rootstock’s unique features.

3. **Responsive Support
   **Whenever they ran into MCP server issues, the Rootstock team guided them through it. Even remotely, Rootstock engineers jumped in to help when the team hit blockers.

What’s Next for CrossMind

Winning the hackathon is only the beginning. Atahan plans to refine the AI agent into an official Rootstock tool—imagine chatting on the Rootstock homepage to bridge funds, swap tokens, or interact with decentralized applications. He’s interested in applying for the Rootstock Collective grants to fund development and rallying club members to contribute tutorials and sample code through Rootstock Hacktivator.

“I want to build an AI tool specific to Rootstock and integrate it into the official site,” Atahan revealed.

Final Thoughts

CrossMind highlights the power of combining artificial intelligence with blockchain to simplify complex processes for everyday users. By turning transactions into a conversational experience, Atahan and the YTU Blockchain team have opened a new path for people who find wallets, bridges, and smart contracts daunting.

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for CrossMind and all the creative projects emerging from the YTU Blockchain Club. Let’s keep building a more accessible Web3 together!

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