The Largest Blockchain Hackathon in the World (5-8 April 2018)

From 5-8 April 2018 the largest blockchain hackathon in the world (Blockchaingers) was organized in Groningen, The Netherlands. About 700 entrepreneurs, professionals and students from 22 countries and 5 continents developed a proof of concept for their idea that used blockchain as a core element in their solution for a global scale problem. The event was organized by Rutger van Zuidam and hosted various important guests such as the Royal Prince Constantijn of The Netherlands, the Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs Raymond Knops and Vinay Gupta (Ethereum).
 
On the first day several masterclasses were organized by IBM, The Linux Foundation, Loyens & Loeff, the Blockchain Knowledge Foundation and various other important stakeholders in the blockchain ecosystem.
 
The Linux Foundation presented the different frameworks and tools of Hyperledger, including Hyperledger Indy, a distributed ledger for decentralized identity, and Hyperledger Sawtooth, a modular platform for building, deploying, and running distributed ledgers
 
Legal aspects of the blockchain were discussed by Loyens & Loeff with participants who gained further insight in the potential legal issues, such as liability, privacy, data security, governance and cooperation with third parties and the legal enforceability of smart contracts.
 
Another interesting masterclass was presented by the Blockchain Knowledge Foundation that launched their natural blockchain language, called OLE (Objects, Logic, and English). The OLE compiler can transform a contract set up by non-programmers (using objects, logic and plain English) into a smart contract programmed in Solidity that can be used on the Ethereum blockchain.
 
Participating teams could work out ideas that were related to digital nation infrastructure, energy transition, global digital identity, health, machine economy, public safety & security or the future of pensions. Some of the winning teams were the following:

• Unchain proposed a complete redesign of the current logistics surrounding medicine distribution, from medicine creation towards curing the patient, with blockchain and Internet of Things as the underlying disrupting technologies.

 

• Tapguard invented a solution to monitor phone calls whilst keeping privacy intact. By using blockchain the police could monitor phone calls of people in an area where a criminal activity had just taken place without getting access to all data monitored. All data is encrypted, but only selected data is revealed in case there is a suspect.

 

• Bencom created a client-friendly solution for people who move houses or need an energy connection in their new house. Using an app and the blockchain Bencom informs all parties involved about changes in the process of registering a new or updating data related to an existing connection in order to increase efficiency and transparency.

 
The Blockchaingers Hackathon has proven to be an inspiring platform to bring together pioneers in the blockchain ecosystem to create novel ideas that could solve important problems to create a better world.