Australians Win Top Awards at EOS Hackathon Sydney as Over 200 Contestants from More Than 50 Teams Compete

• Australian project SmartPress wins top prize with an application that allows users to build and deploy smart contracts without writing code
• EOS VC unveils US$1 million “Hack. Pitch. Launch.” seed funding initiative
• Blockchain payment project Havven announces it will port to EOSIO and airdrop tokens

Sydney, August 5, 2018 — Block.one, publisher of the ground-breaking EOSIO blockchain protocol, closed the first-ever EOS Global Hackathon in Australia at ICC Sydney today, with Australian teams sweeping the three top prize categories, and taking home over US$120,000 in prizes awarded by EOS VC.

A panel of international judges, including global technology and blockchain leaders, selected the winners from a pool of over 200 international participants from more than 50 teams following 26 consecutive hours of programming.

The theme of the Sydney event was Hack the Outback and developers were challenged to: Create a DAPP on the EOSIO platform that empowers the public to play a role in sustaining natural environments for the future.

The First Prize team, an Australian duo called SmartPress, won US$100,000 for developing a web application built on EOSIO that aims to democratise blockchain technology by enabling Australians, including those with limited coding and technical experience, to design and deploy smart contracts for use with existing or new applications. The team demonstrated a use case of its idea through an environmental boundary mapping tool.

According Lachlan Greenbank, one of the founders of SmartPress: “What we loved about the EOSIO hackathon is that it provided access to a team of extremely talented mentors that helped us and other contestants to build solutions. This type of engagement is a great resource for the Australian and global blockchain communities.”

Taking Second Prize was GreenKeep, a blockchain application built by Australians that aims to prevent local and global food wastage through supply chain management.

Australian team TokenTree was named the Third Prize winner for its gamified app designed to empower millennials to be more engaged in the fight against deforestation in Australia by nurturing and tracking tree lifecycles.

The Best Social Impact Prize was also awarded to an Australian team for their work on an application that aims to help protect endangered animals.

“Because of its status as a tech hub in the region, and as a country with some of the world’s most stunning landscapes and environments, Australia is the perfect location to hold a hackathon with a focus on sustainability,” said Block.one Group President Rob Jesudason. “Blockchain technology has shown its potential to be a game-changing technology in the corporate world, however, its potential extends far beyond business. The results of today’s event show its capability to be beneficial to our environment and society as a whole.”

EOS VC unveils US$1 million seed funding program

Block.one’s EOS VC unit also unveiled its new US$1 million “Hack. Pitch. Launch.” seed funding initiative at the Sydney hackathon. The program will allow teams from the EOS Global Hackathon events to pitch their DAPPs to EOS VC for the opportunity to receive an investment of US$50,000 to launch their idea. Five teams from each of the four hackathon events will receive seed funding.

“Building the EOSIO ecosystem and driving blockchain adoption is part of the mission of both Block.one and EOS VC,” said Brian Mehler of EOS VC. “Kicking off the Hack. Pitch. Launch. program in Australia will leave behind a footprint of investment that will increase the number of innovative DAPPs on the EOSIO blockchain. We’ve seen many interesting ideas this weekend and we are excited to announce the first round of investments in the coming weeks.”

Earlier this year, one of EOS VC’s EOS-focused funds led the US$35 million Series D funding round for open-source distributed virtual reality (VR) platform High Fidelity, with an investment of US$20 million to allow the company to increase research, development and testing to integrate virtual reality and blockchain technologies.

High Fidelity CEO and co-founder Philip Rosedale, who also created and oversaw the growth of revolutionary virtual reality company Second Life, appeared at the hackathon via VR and gave a speech to attendees, encouraging them to pursue their entrepreneurial goals in a time of great change in technology.

Havven announces launch on EOSIO, will airdrop Havven Token

Havven, an open-source blockchain software project that enables US dollar payments in DAPPs through its stablecoin nUSD, announced at the hackathon that it will port its software to the EOSIO platform. Havven will airdrop its Havven Tokens as part of its EOSIO launch.

“As critical infrastructure for decentralized applications, Havven believes it’s important to support a number of blockchains,” said Havven Founder Kain Warwick. “EOSIO has the scalability, transaction volume and growing DAPP ecosystem that fits with our vision, and we are thrilled to be joining the platform.”

Full winners list

Top prizes

• First Prize, US$100,000 — SmartPress (Australia)
• Second Prize, US$25,000 — GreenKeep (Australia)
• Third Prize, US$10,000 — TokenTree (Australia)

Secondary prizes

• Best Social Impact, US$3,000 — Jarmbi (Australia)
• Best User Experience, US$3,000 — GreenFix
• Best Social Media Post, US$3,000 — Alfred Cheuk

Australia judges

• Rob Jesudason — Block.one Group President
• Andrew Bliss — Block.one CFO
• Jonny Hendriksen — ShuttleRock Founder and CEO
• Joe Cincotta — Thinking Studio Managing Director
• Dr. Jane Thomason — Blockchain Quantum Impact CEO / Abt Associates Australia Senior Advisor
• Lina Lim — NSX Limited Head of Technology / Tempus Adventus Managing Director
• Reece Proudfoot — WWF-Australia Innovation Strategist

The Sydney event was the second in a series of five taking place around the world this year, with a total of US$1.5 million in prizes to be awarded by EOS VC. The first event in the global series was hosted in Hong Kong in June and drew more than 350 entrants from 17 countries.

Each hackathon event features a unique challenge for developers to “hack” the challenge with the goal of designing blockchain applications (DAPPs) with real-world utility using EOSIO code.

Top three prize winners from each of the four hackathons will compete in a Grand Finale Pitch Competition event in December.

Originally published at block.one on August 5, 2018.

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