The 3rd instalment of the Bitcoin SV Hackathon is setting the stage for developers to build new applications on the Bitcoin SV blockchain.

As was the case with the prior 2 occurences in 2019, this hackathon is organized by Bitcoin Association, hosted by nChain and sponsored by CoinGeek.

If you’re one of the finalists selected, you get to present your application at the CoinGeek Conference in New York City in October 2020. You could also win part of the $100,000 USD prize pool (paid in BSV), and potentially receive investment funds.

This hackathon will be virtual – taking place online from June 23 2020 to August 18 2020. That means you can participate from anywhere in the world!

Hackathon theme: “Connecting the world to one global blockchain” 

One of the most powerful features of the Bitcoin model of being a single, globally scalable blockchain, is that it brings opportunities for interoperability that were never before available. A single record of events in a common format.  One of the great challenges of global information systems is that integration must be done repeatedly for every storage system that you want to interact with;  Bitcoin solves this problem because you only have to do it once.

We would like to see examples of the real world being connected to, and making use of, Bitcoin as a common set of record - promoting interoperability between systems where this hasn’t previously been feasible.

Build an application that leverages efficiencies and benefits from data being written to and accessible from a single global blockchain.  Examples can include applications that:

  • break down historic industry data silos
  • make it easier for companies in different industries to interact
  • make it easier to operate across geographic boundaries for businesses, organizations, and consumers
  • enable consumers to interact, in a single way, with different businesses and organizations concerning their data and transactions
  • improve interaction across governments and government agencies

 

Development tools 

We recommend that all of your development tools are installed, up-to-date, and properly configured in advance of the virtual competition dates.

Bitcoin Association recommends the following resources for use during the Bitcoin SV Hackathon:

We also advise that you read (or re-read) the original Bitcoin white paper.

 

Communication

Each team or individual entrant will be invited into a group Discord chat via email. 

Please note:  If you are part of a team, you may also communicate with your team members directly through any medium of your choice.

 

Things to remember

Whenever your code is in a working state, commit it. You never know when you may encounter a bug that you get stuck on. You can always roll back and submit an earlier working version. Sometimes, too, it can be easier to go back to a known working version and rewrite the code in a different way so as to avoid the bug.

Remember too, that your entry can address a smaller part of a bigger problem. The code component is meant to be a proof of concept. Make your entry as functional as possible, but if you need to, mock-up parts of other process flows - It is acceptable to demonstrate how your solution and its core components work.

 

Managing time

We expect participants may have full-time jobs and will spend varying amounts of time on their entries. The 8 week competition period was chosen so that you can fit in time for the Hackathon around work and home obligations. The 8-week competition period does not reflect our expectations about the readiness or degree of completeness of your final submission.

Eligibility

Who can enter the Hackathon?

Participants can enter the Bitcoin SV Hackathon as an individual, or as part of a team.

However, a participant cannot be part of more than one entry.  This means:

  • a participant cannot be a member of more than one team.  
  • a participant cannot be an individual entry and also be part of a team.  
  • a team cannot submit more than one hack submission. 

If you do not have a team but would like to join one, visit the Participants page on Devpost to see other registered users who are also seeking teammates.

 

Requirements

Upon completion of your Hackathon work, a link to the following deliverables should be submitted on Devpost: 

 
Minimum requirements
  • Code submission using a GitHub repository named after your team.
  • Supporting documentation (this may include photographs of whiteboards, diagrams, written notes, a short business case, or any other material you think relevant)
  • A 5 minute (or less) video summarizing your entry – e.g. a screencast demonstration of your product and a short introduction to your team, vision, goals, and business proposition.
 
Optional requirements
  • A working application and/or website.

Here is a video that shows how the submission process works.

Remember, our judging teams have limited time to review numerous entry submissions.  Additionally, keep in mind it can be a challenge for our judges to get your application working, especially if your own development has dependencies installed that you are not aware of. If these are undocumented in your submission materials, it may be difficult to get your application to build without background knowledge of you work or the tech stack you are using.

For this reason, if you will not be running/hosting your entered application/service(s) and require us to run your submission locally, we advise you to dockerize your application in order to make this process easier for the judges. If you only have one image, then a Dockerfile in the repo or hosted publicly on Docker Hub is acceptable (with documentation on running the container). If you have multiple images, then a docker-compose in the repo is also acceptable. 

Docker will be helpful in specific cases where we need to run your code, so if your project entails the creation of a library, for example, then Docker is not necessary.

You can learn more about Docker here:https://docs.docker.com/get-started/overview/ 

 

If you plan to submitting a mobile android app you will need to sufficiently demonstrate it in a video, if you are successful in getting through to the to finals the judges they will need to be able to run it using an APK file that can be run on an Android emulator or android device. 

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$100,000 in prizes

1ST PLACE

$50,000 USD (paid in Bitcoin SV)

2ND PLACE

$30,000 USD (paid in Bitcoin SV)

3RD PLACE

$20,000 USD (paid in Bitcoin SV)

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Association

Judging Criteria

  • TECHNOLOGY
    How technically impressive is the product? Does it use a particularly inventive technique, or does it use several different components? Does the product have a “wow” factor? How well does the project solve the prescribed problem?
  • DESIGN
    Did the team put thought into the user experience? How well designed is the interface? For a hardware project, it might be more about how good the human-computer interaction is e.g. user friendly or have an engaging interface.
  • MARKET FIT
    Does the product solve a real problem and have a market? Is there a workable business model that the project fits into? The project need not implement an entire business model.
  • COMPLETION
    Does the product work? Did the team achieve what they wanted?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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