The BSV Hackathon, a blockchain development competition with the objective of providing an avenue for developers to learn, connect with professionals in various fields and experience firsthand the benefits of building on the BSV blockchain launched by global industry organization Bitcoin Association, is going to be giving away a total of $100,000. The first place winner will get $50,000, the second place $30,000 and the third place $20,000, payable in BSV.
“Developer education is a key component of the work we do at Bitcoin Association and one of the most exciting ways to incentivize developers to learn how to build applications on BSV is through competition such as our BSV Hackathons. With $100,000 up for grabs, the stakes are high, the standard of entry continues to get higher with each Hackathon, and the innovation displayed by competitors never fails to impress. The unbounded scaling, huge transaction throughput and extensive data capabilities of BSV make it the ultimate blockchain for developers to work with—resulting in a diverse assortment of projects each Hackathon,” Jimmy Nguyen, the founding president of Bitcoin Association, said.
This is already the fourth BSV Hackathon; and learning from the third one, which had the most number of entrants after having implemented a longer coding period, it will run for six weeks from June 14 to July 26, 2021. Registration will be open for the entire coding period until July 26, 12 PM (GMT). Interested parties may enter the competition as individuals or as part of a team.
“One of the reasons we went for a longer time frame was to replicate an incubation-like atmosphere to foster the development of more complete projects. We still don’t expect a market-ready project, but we’re looking for it to be closer to a full product than a concept. The competition rules lay out our expectations in terms of the code we expect to see for each project, its originality and the features of BSV we expect people to showcase,” Raylene Wilson, technical program manager at Bitcoin Association and one of the masterminds behind the BSV Hackathon, explained.
Participants are tasked to create peer-to-peer applications by leveraging the SPV Channels service and using the Merchant API (mAPI) to interact with the BSV network. Applications’ utility is not limited or restricted to payments, as long as they are peer-to-peer, meaning there is a direct interaction between users on the BSV network. Participants are also given the option to consult with professionals from nChain, the leading firm creating enterprise-grade blockchain solutions.
“This month’s release of SPV Channels CE v1.1.0 introduced a crucial new service to the BSV network and an integral component to the massive scaling vision that underpins the BSV blockchain. With this edition of the Hackathon, we’re putting that new ability front and centre, tasking our entrants with finding unique and innovative ways to utilize that service and deliver on the true peer-to-peer vision for Bitcoin,” nChain CTO Steve Shadders said.
After the coding period is over, three finalists will be chosen among all submitted final projects. A representative from each of the three finalists will be flown in to the next CoinGeek Conference to present their peer-to-peer applications to a panel of judges composed of experts in various industries and to a live audience. For participants who do not make the final cut, all entries will be featured on the BSV Hackathon website to expose them to collaborators and investors.
“BSV Hackathons showcase to developers that irrespective of where you stand politically or whether you care about Bitcoin as the future of money or a massively scaling enterprise platform, this is a cool place to play. This is fun and exciting, and it is definitely a new frontier,” Wilson pointed out.