Finalists announced to compete for USD $100,000 prize pool in 4th Bitcoin SV Hackathon

ZUG, Switzerland, Aug. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitcoin Association, the Switzerland-based global industry organisation that works to advance business with the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain and digital currency, has today announced the three finalists for the 4th Bitcoin SV Hackathon who will compete for a USD $100,000 prize pool (paid in BSV) at CoinGeek New York, October 5-7, 2021.

Bitcoin SV Hackathons are global coding competitions designed to challenge developers to learn about the technical and scaling power of Bitcoin's original protocol, as well as innovate on the fly. Within a set time period, participants – either as individuals or as part of a team – are tasked with developing an application on the BSV blockchain within the parameters of an overarching theme announced at the start of the competition.

The theme for this iteration of the competition is 'peer-to-peer' applications – not just payments, but any type of application that involves direct interaction between participants on the Bitcoin network. Entrants are tasked with leveraging the recently released SPV Channels service as part of their application to facilitate communication across the network, as well as interacting with the Bitcoin network directly via the Merchant API (mAPI). Both SPV Channels and mAPI are tools uniquely offered on the BSV network.

After announcing a shortlist of six semi-final entries last week, the judging panel has confirmed that the  three entries progressing to the final round are:

– Bitcoin Phone – an app for broadcasting voice data over the Bitcoin network that leverages the non-finality of nSequence to enable close to real-time data streaming.
[Joe Thomas – Canada]

– CATN8 – a micropayment-enabled online video platform with a full peer-to-peer SPV wallet implementation.
[Marcel Gruber – Canada; Dave Foderick – United States; Thor]

– TKS Pnt – a point tokenisation system for use by merchants and their customers.
[Meta Taro – Japan]

The three finalists are invited to each send a member of their team to present their projects at the upcoming CoinGeek New York conference, October 5 – 7 (or can present virtually). The Hackathon final round presentations will be on Day 1 (October 5) of the conference, with winners announced on Day 3 (October 7). The finalists will compete for a share of a USD $100,000 prize pool, paid in BSV – $50,000 for 1st place, $30,000 for 2nd, and $20,000 for 3rd.

Final placings will be determined by a combination of a final round judging panel and audience voting. To watch the final round presentations and have your say in who goes home with first prize and $50,000 in BSV, register to attend CoinGeek New York in-person or online at coingeekconference.com.

Commenting on today's announcement, Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen said:

"The peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin's original design is one of its most important features to efficiently enable scaling to high transaction volumes, yet is all-too-often overlooked by developers and commentators who retconned BTC into a digital store of value which is not used for daily activity. That is precisely why we chose to make peer-to-peer functionality an integral component for all entries in this year's Bitcoin SV Hackathon – and with impressive results. The final three entries each have a unique take on what unique functionalities can be achieved with a peer-to-peer distributed payment and data network, which is sure to make for a fascinating final contest at CoinGeek New York in October."

Also commenting, nChain CTO Steve Shadders said:

"Participants in our Bitcoin SV Hackathons have never failed to impress, and this year has been no exception. Working with SPV Channels – a brand new feature set and one entirely unique to the Bitcoin SV network –   and other direct peer communications mechanisms, each of our finalists have demonstrated just how broad the capabilities of this new technology are. Starting with a blank slate is no easy task, which makes the standard of entry from each of our three finalists all the more impressive, any of whom would make for a deserving winner in October at CoinGeek New York."

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Association is the Switzerland-based global industry organisation that works to advance business on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. It brings together essential components of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem – enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others – working alongside them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and uptake of the BSV digital currency. 

The Association works to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Bitcoin technology. More than a digital currency and blockchain, Bitcoin is also a network protocol; just like Internet protocol, it is the foundational rule set for an entire data network. The Association supports use of the original Bitcoin protocol to operate the world's single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.