Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 1, 2026

HackerNoon

HackerNoon is a community-driven online publishing platform based in Edwards, Colorado. Founded in 2016 by David Smooke, it operates an open library of user-submitted articles covering software development, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.

Last revised
Jun 1, 2026
Read time
≈ 3 min
Length
654 w
Citations
19
Source
Wikipedia ↗
HackerNoon
Type of site
Technology, Hacker culture
FounderDavid Smooke
URLhackernoon.com
Launched2016
Current statusActive

HackerNoon is a community-driven online publishing platform based in Edwards, Colorado.1 Founded in 2016 by David Smooke, it operates an open library of user-submitted articles covering software development, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.234

History

HackerNoon was founded in January 2016 by David Smooke as a Medium-based blog titled Hacker Daily before rebranding to its current name.567

Later, HackerNoon chose to build its own publishing infrastructure.18 In early 2019, HackerNoon raised US$1.07 million from about 1,200 backers through a Regulation Crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine.910 The funding supported development of a proprietary content management system, and HackerNoon 2.0 launched in July 2019 with support from a US$100,000 Google cloud-hosting grant. In 2020, HackerNoon received a US$1 million investment from micropayments firm Coil at a pre-money valuation of US$11.5 million. In 2023, it raised an additional US$250,000 led by Forward Research at an estimated valuation of US$50 million.11

Platform

HackerNoon operates on a community-driven model, publishing work from more than 50,000 contributing writers rather than maintaining a large full-time staff. As of 2025, the platform reported reviewing over 5,000 submissions per month. Its editorial process combines human review with automated tools, including a 2025 partnership with GPTZero to identify AI-generated content.12

HackerNoon runs on a proprietary technology stack built with Next.js and Google Firebase. it is designed to avoid pop-ups and provide analytics dashboards for contributors. It also adopted decentralized storage protocols to archive its published articles.13

HackerNoon covers a range of topics including software development, startups, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, and hacker culture.141516 It serves as a platform for industry professionals and tech enthusiasts to publish technical articles, insights, and opinion pieces.1718 The platform does not use paywalls and generates revenue primarily through sponsorships and native brand partnerships. Writers retain copyright to their work under a non-exclusive license.

Further reading

Further reading

References

References

  1. Peterson, Eric (May 18, 2021). "Startups on the rise".
  2. Marsh, Stefanie (September 21, 2018). "Extreme biohacking: the tech guru who spent $250,000 trying to live for ever" – via The Guardian.
  3. Varshney, Neer (April 5, 2018). "Cryptokitties had a glitch that allowed for unlimited automatic likes". TNW | Fintech-Ecommerce.
  4. Klein, Jessica (January 7, 2018). "The world of cryptocollectibles like CryptoKitties looks like the internet's early days". Salon.com.
  5. "HackerNoon (formerly " Hacker Daily" on Medium.com)". May 29, 2023.
  6. Roberti, Justin (April 3, 2021). Slogging, Blockchain, And Innovations In Crowdsourced Content: Interview With Founder Of HackerNoon. Benzinga. Archived from the original on January 18, 2025. Retrieved January 18, 2025 – via Yahoo News.
  7. "SXSW - 2024 Media Quotes" (PDF). www.sxsw.com.
  8. Osborne, Charlie (17 July 2019). "Hacker Noon Rips Out Medium's Software, Replaces it With Their Own". ReadWrite. Archived from the original on 2024-12-06. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  9. "Invest in Hacker Noon". StartEngine.
  10. Schneider, Nathan. "Let Users Own the Tech Companies They Help Build" – via www.wired.com.
  11. Levi, Daniel (May 15, 2023). "HackerNoon raises $250k in funding at $50M Valuation led by Forward Research - Tech Startups".
  12. "HackerNoon and GPTZero Announce Partnership to Expand AI Transparency in Tech Publishing". StreetInsider.com.
  13. Levi, Daniel (15 May 2023). "HackerNoon raises $250k in funding at $50M Valuation led by Forward Research". TechStartups. Archived from the original on 2024-12-07. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  14. "Heffernan: Crypto trading just got safer, and that's too bad". Los Angeles Times. August 6, 2021.
  15. Weichbroth, Paweł; Wereszko, Kacper; Anacka, Helena; Kowal, Jolanta (March 15, 2023). "Security of Cryptocurrencies: A View on the State-of-the-Art Research and Current Developments". Sensors (Basel, Switzerland). 23 (6): 3155. doi:10.3390/s23063155. PMC 10051655. PMID 36991866 – via PubMed.
  16. ""I'm Not Worried About the Price": A Recent Visit to Silicon Valley's Unofficial Bitcoin Headquarters". www.theringer.com. December 28, 2017.
  17. "Artmap Inc". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2024-04-07. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
  18. Maulani, Anisa Menur A. (27 September 2024). "How HackerNoon uses customer-centric approach to build meaningful new features on their platform". e27. Archived from the original on 2024-12-07. Retrieved 2024-12-06.
External links