{"id":1640,"date":"2017-11-29T06:53:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T06:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2018-12-19T04:29:14","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T04:29:14","slug":"sydney-blockchain-hackathon-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talkcrypto.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/29\/sydney-blockchain-hackathon-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Blockchain Hackathon Round Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had never been to a hackathon before so when I found out one was being held in Sydney I was super excited. It was called\u00a0Blockathon: The Biggest Blockchain Hackathon in Australia<\/a>\u00a0and it was held this past weekend from the 24 -26 November 2017.<\/p>\n

The great Bokky ran several workshops leading up to the hackathon exploring lots of potential projects. I found it very useful. It was like a pre-hackathon hackathon. Most of us didn’t know each other, had never participated in a hackathon before and were all looking to understand how it worked and if our ideas were even worthy of entering.<\/p>\n

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In the workshop we discussed ideas, some people pitched theirs and some “fluid” teams were formed. We also chilled out and ate pizza too. It really was a pre-hackathon hackathon.<\/p>\n

Then came the big day. Getting to the Michael Crouch Innovation Centre at the University of New South Wales was a little tricky but not impossible. It is a fabulous space though. Its concept is centred around a presentation space, a manufacturing space and a working space. Very clever!<\/p>\n

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A pull up banner would have been nicer than a whiteboard but I can understand why the whiteboard was used.<\/p>\n

Friday evening started with the traditional welcome, housekeeping and the all important prize pool from Daniel Bar, the lead organiser from\u00a0http:\/\/www.bitfwd.xyz\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The mentors\u00a0introduced themselves on stage. From left to right they were:<\/p>\n

Adrian Ethereum expert, String Nyugen StringStory Media,\u00a0Emma Weston CEO Agridigital, Luke Anderson\u00a0Cybersecurity expert, Nick Addison CTO Agridigital,\u00a0Bokky PooBah Ethereum expert and\u00a0Weiwu Zhang Cryptography expert.<\/p>\n

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Those who didn’t have a team came together and formed one before dinner was served.<\/p>\n

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When a car comes with a boot load of pizzas, you know you’re at a hackathon! Everyone then went up stairs to get settled in and claim their workspace.<\/p>\n

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Over the following day and a half all the teams were brainstorming, hacking and networking away during the meal breaks.<\/p>\n

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Then crunch time. On Sunday at 4pm the crowd started to gather. The pitch decks were submitted and judges at the ready.<\/p>\n

The judges jumped on stage and introduced themselves. They (from left to right) were:
\nDorjee Sun COO Santiment,\u00a0Jason Williams CEO BitPOS,\u00a0Emma Weston CEO Agridigital and\u00a0Emma Poposka CEO BRONTECH.<\/p>\n

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There were 13 teams. They were:<\/p>\n

1. Flathead
\n2. OpenSymbol
\n3. The 26
\n4. Team Blockify
\n5. Credo
\n6. Team TimeBlock
\n7. Octio
\n8. ExpertChat
\n9. JOE
\n10. MoonGrade.com<\/a>
\n11. Cryptips
\n12. Freebiz
\n13. StrataBlocks<\/p>\n

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Each pitch was 4 minutes with a hard stop. I’m talking mid sentence hard stop. The hardest stop I’ve ever seen. Good on you Neto!<\/p>\n

The pitches were great. The judges questions were challenging and it was really about the process or the journey, not the result.<\/p>\n

The judges then went away and deliberated and came back to announce the winners. As Jason mentioned, it was super close and really could have gone either way on another day. However, the results were……<\/p>\n

First place went to\u00a0The 26 CryptoCats which was about digital assets on the blockchain. Second place was JOE, – Javascript On Everything where a light bulb was turned on using an arduino and an Ethereum smart contract. Third place was StrataBlock, placing strata data, (apartment maintenance info) on the blockchain.<\/p>\n

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The 26 (CryptoCats)<\/p>\n

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JOE<\/p>\n

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StrataBlocks<\/p>\n

What could be improved?<\/p>\n