The Blockchaingers open innovation program will turn the city of Groningen into a global epicenter for developing blockchain prototypes for four days and nights. 700 pioneers from 5 continents will gather in Groningen from April 5-8 for the second edition of the world's largest annual physical blockchain hackathon with €100,000 in prize money. For four days and nights, Groningen - the city with several Nobel Prize winners and a vibrant ecosystem of start-ups and scale-ups - will transform into a global epicenter for developing blockchain prototypes.
63 selected teams co-create blockchain prototypes with their future clients as solutions to global challenges. Software developers are collaborating with top officials, designers are innovating with business, and entrepreneurs are joining forces with investors. The Blockchaingers bring together an entire ecosystem, with official support from the Dutch government and regulators, that serves as a launch pad for exponential blockchain solutions.
Launching platform for ambitious blockchain pioneers
"During our hackathon, we turn the best the Netherlands has to offer into the perfect launch pad for blockchain pioneers with the ambition to have intercontinental impact," said Rutger van Zuidam, founder and CEO of DutchChain, the company organizing the Blockchaingers innovation program. "For example, where in the world do you have the opportunity to build on top of one of the most advanced pension systems and export the social and economic benefits to the rest of the world? Where can you count on the full support of national regulators to explore the still uncharted territory of blockchain technology? Where can you partner with a national government and all the resources at its disposal to explore the future applications of blockchain? By leveraging the business and public infrastructure of the Netherlands - and making it available to international companies, blockchain ventures and startup teams - the Blockchaingers are creating an internationally scalable blockchain venture studio."
Joep Beukers, Director Innovation of APG, Ecosystem Lead Partner of the Blockchaingers: "This year we are participating in the hackathon with 20 colleagues, who are all experts in the pension industry, to co-create with the pre-selected teams. Last year's results and prototypes allowed us to get to the next level, because nothing beats the experience of producing a real, working solution. We even aqui-hired one of last year's teams. Of course, those solutions and teams need further development after the hackathon. This is exactly what we are doing, together with the teams, in our incubator at the Brightlands Smart Services Campus."
Dutch and European parties from the private and public sectors are sponsoring the Blockchaingers Hackathon in seven different tracks. They are potential launching customers and, in cooperation with key stakeholders and cooperation partners in the field of blockchain, challenge the teams to come up with relevant solutions to global challenges. In doing so, they collaborate with the teams during the hackathon and provide them with essential industry knowledge. The close
collaboration between teams and their future customers ensures that blockchain applications meet real needs within the industry. This also forms the basis for further collaboration after the hackathon, where these parties will be the startups' first customers and provide an opening to the international market. The solutions emerging from the hackathon are not one-size-fits-all answers to one-dimensional problems, but serve as software ecosystems for complete collaboration networks.
The Blockchaingers Hackathon consists of seven thematic tracks:
- Future of Pensions - Pension administration organization APG (largest in Europe)
- Digital Nation's Infrastructure - Chamber of Commerce and the Land Registry
- Energy Transition - NUON Vattenfall, Gasunie and New Energy Coalition
- Global Digital Identity - Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Sweetbridge, Identity Insurance Consortium, DUO
- Health - University Medical Center Groningen and Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
- Machine Economy - E-charge (Enexis)
- Public Safety and Security - National Police
On the fourth and final day of the hackathon, April 8, the 63 teams will be judged by accelerators and super-accelerators such as State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops, Mattereum founder and CEO Vinay Gupta and Special Envoy for Startup Delta HRH Prince Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, A total of €105,000 will be distributed to accelerate blockchain solutions.
A year of ecosystem preparation
In September 2017, the Blockchaingers kicked off their new season at the Ridderzaal in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Dutch Blockchain Coalition. Then, to further prepare the ecosystem for the hackathon momentum, ten deep dive events were organized in which more than 3,000 pioneers participated. "The first hackathon in February 2017 was a pilot edition that exceeded everyone's expectations" continued van Zuidam. "The 2018 hackathon in Groningen will be an accumulation of all the potential we created in a year of preparation. The ecosystem is ready for its next step. The teams have been carefully selected based on their plans, motivation and potential and linked to concrete challenges. By preparing the ecosystem and selecting the best teams, we expect it to be a hackathon with an exponential impact, even greater than last year's."
Want to know more?
- Website: https://blockchaingers.org/
- Trailer for Blockchaingers innovation program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzF9hkAlslc
- Twitter: http: //twitter.com/blockchaingers - #bc1718