In an effort to foster further development of blockchain technology, WanXiang Blockchain Labs, a Chinese research institution, and Deloitte, one of the largest accounting and audit firms in the world, have teamed up to launch the first ever Shanghai blockchain hackathon beginning on January 8th.
“Our focus on how technology and going digital are changing the ways we live is globally orchestrated. Deloitte people from the different countries around the world [have] formed a specialized team ‘Deloitte digital’ to understand the impact how digitizations [sic] is changing every industry and ecosystems for each industry, so that we as a firm can help ourselves and our clients to adapt to this environment,” Yi Qing of Deloitte said in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine.
The hackathon, sponsored by FBS Capital with technical support provided by the Ethereum team, is open to anyone that is interested in blockchain technology. According to event’s website, the organizers hope to attract a diverse crowd, “whether you are blockchain experts, technology geeks, designers, or non-technical curious people.”
“The focus is on blockchain as a whole,” said Bo Shen, co-founder of Blockchain Labs, in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “Ethereum is one of the supports, but any tech is encouraged.”
The first day of the event will be focused on breaking up the participants into small teams and brainstorming ideas for the teams to build during the competition. All day Saturday will be spent hacking and on Sunday, teams will present their prototypes to the event organizers and a room of investors.
Shen explained that he is a co-founder of an investment fund with partners Vitalik Buterin and Feng Xiao. The fund is dedicated to investing in startups and applications using blockchain technology.
Along with the opportunity to pitch to investors, the organizers are also giving away $100,000 in prizes to the winners. The first place team gets $30,000, second place gets $20,000, and the third place team gets $10,000. In addition, there are three special prizes of $10,000 and a FBS Capital Special Prize of $10,000.
“The Chinese market is not to be missed. And we wish to set a global level playing field here,” said Qing. She explained that Deloitte’s goals are to “educate the market from concept to practical applications; setting up a platform for Blockchain developers cross borders to share coding experiences and ideas; engage engineers and corporate participants to explore Blockchain applications for various industries in real business world.”
To learn more about the event or register, visit blockchain-hackathon.eventdove.com.
Jacob Donnelly is a full-time product manager and freelance journalist covering stocks, business and bitcoin. He runs a weekly digital currency and blockchain newsletter called Crypto Brief.