We're delaying the machine.fun launch. We found a stronger way to structure rewards, and we want it properly tested before anyone builds on it and starts trading. Project registrations and trading open soon. Sorry for the wait, it will be worth it.

Out of the trenches. And into production.

The 1st Garage is full. Teams are selected and getting ready to launch. The Foundry stays open. We're always looking for new hardware teams. Do you know someone who fits? There's a bounty for finding them. 👀

The first hardware teams are weeks away from launching onchain. Six weeks ago, most of them had never touched crypto. You've seen Microduck all over your TL. There are hundreds of machine ideas like it, from builders trying to turn a prototype into a real product and running out of resources before they get there. That's the gap. machine(dot)fun started as a joint project between @codecopenflow and @peaq, around a simple observation. Hardware got easy to build. It never got easy to kickstart. A robotics team can spend months on a prototype, train a model, prove the thing works, and still hit the same wall. How do you turn that into capital? Crypto already has a mechanism for this. Launch, raise, trade. It works for internet-native projects. We think it works for hardware too. One problem. Most hardware builders have never launched anything onchain. So six weeks ago we opened The Foundry. A program that takes serious hardware ideas and gets them ready to launch. The first round told us a few things: a) 1 in 3 applicants found us through ChatGPT search b) Teams came from robotics, DePIN and everyday hardware - some are weeks away from launching Foundry teams get hands-on support and go through stricter transparency and verification. Their progress isn't a pitch. It's something you can follow and check. Applications are still open: foundry.machine.fun But you don't need to be in The Foundry to launch. machine(dot)fun is open to anyone building hardware. You don't need a finished product either. A prototype, a working concept, or a simulation is enough to start. The goal is simple. Make hardware fundable before it's fully built. First teams coming soon.

We were on the ground at TAIROS 2026 (Taiwan Automation Intelligence & Robot Show) - scouting foundry applicants - meeting later-stage robotics teams - watching what builders ship Robots are eating the supply chain.

1920. A Czech play invents the word “robot.” It means forced labour. 1927. Metropolis. The first robot anyone had seen on a screen. 1942. Asimov writes the Three Laws. Engelberger reads them, finds Devol, and they build the real thing. 1961. Unimate. The first industrial robot works. Only a car company can afford it. 1966–72. Shakey reasons about its own actions. Takes hours to cross a room. 1973. Waseda builds WABOT-1. Walks, sees, speaks Japanese, grips with two hands. 1990. Wang Xingxing is born. 1992. Marc Raibert spins Boston Dynamics out of MIT. 2000. ASIMO. The robot that made humanoids famous. 2003. DARPA funds BigDog. It takes two more years to stand up. 2013. Atlas. Six foot two, hydraulic, tethered to a wall socket. 2013–15. The DARPA Robotics Challenge. Every humanoid falls over. 2016. Unitree registers in Hangzhou. A fifty-square-metre office. 2020. Boston Dynamics puts Spot on sale at $74,500. 2021. Unitree Go1: $2,500. Tesla announces Optimus. 2022. Musk puts a number on Optimus: under $20,000. 2023. Go2: $1,600. First Unitree humanoid, H1: $90,000. 2024. G1: $16,000. 2025. R1: under $6,000. Figure raises at $39B. Four humanoids kickbox on Chinese TV, all teleoperated. 2026. Unitree lists in Shanghai. IPO at $9B.

The world's biggest humanoid robot maker Unitree opened at a $66B valuation, $163 a share. It trades at $118 now. It started with a student, $30 of scrap, and a robot that barely walked. Here is the story.

Everyone thinks the hard part of a robot is the AI. It's the joints. Robots are a gearbox problem.

Machines can't settle payments with each other until someone builds the machines. @HashgraphVC, in their words:

Four things stand between a working prototype and a shipped machine: manufacturing, infrastructure, simulation, capital. The Foundry is all four in one place. @MoonrockCapital on why they're in:

The idea is rarely what kills a hardware company. Manufacturing is. @TheSpartanGroup on why they're supporting The Foundry:

T-1 until the hardest part of hardware gets a lot easier.