Virginia Tech Blockchain Challenge Competition Winners

Recently, Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science hosted the Blockchain Challenge Spring 2020 competition. The competition offered a total of $25,000 in scholarships, made possible by a gift from Block.one. 

Contestants that met the criteria for the two-phased challenge were judged based on the team’s use of EOSIO, design and usability, functionality, creativity, and on the project’s overall impact on the Virginia Tech community. Teams were given a choice of one of four possible use cases for their blockchain applications including class dates/times, parking spaces, football tickets, or textbooks.

Winners were announced on May 4, 2020. Block.one would like to congratulate these teams for their originality in using EOSIO to provide everyday solutions and improve campus life. Projects like these are a fine example of how sophisticated systems can be built on EOSIO while enhancing the user experience.

If you’d like to innovate with EOSIO, you can refer to the free libraries, toolkits, and plugins documented in our Developer’s Portal. 

Grand Prize Winner: The Goblins

The grand prize winning team, The Goblins, earned a $15,000 scholarship with their EOSIO blockchain application that provides students a fair ticketing system, Hokie Tickets.

Students access Hokie Tickets by logging into the iOS application or website and entering their PID number. From there, they can buy tickets with Hokie Tokens or enter lotteries to get tickets to sought-after games. Once acquired, a ticket can be sold back to the university for the same value it was purchased. Tickets can also be auctioned off to the highest bidder of Hokie Tokens. 

On gameday, the application generates a unique QR code for each ticket. An admin scans the ticket holder’s QR code when you attend the game. Verified attendance gives the ticket holder a Hokie Token reward; however, missing attendance will result in a penalty.

Hokie Tickets incentivizes attendance by increasing rewards for games that have historically low crowd turnout. As a result, Hokie Tickets helps to support a broader spectrum of Virginia Tech sports, including the most popular one.

Runner-Up: Block.two

Block.two, the runner up in the competition and recipient of an $8,000 scholarship, also built their own version of a ticket marketplace on EOSIO.

In their example students access a web app and login with their PID and private key. Once logged in, students can buy, sell, auction off, and bid on tickets. Tickets can be viewed in the web app and on an iOS companion app. Yet another iOS app validates the tickets by scanning the ticket’s QR code, enabling it to invalidate fraudulent tickets.

Honorable Mention: SLim’s Crew Electric Boogaloo

With an honorable mention, SLim’s Crew Electric Boogaloo’s Pylon Parking project earned a $1,000 scholarship.

Students register as users on the application and create an account. After logging in, they can click on the map, choose the lot they want to park in, and purchase the desired amount of time in an available parking space from students or the university. They can also sell spots to other students. If someone is in their spot, they can upload a photo of the license plate to be rewarded.

Stay Connected

Block.one is dedicated to putting tools directly in the hands of the next generation of blockchain developers. We believe incentive-based programs and challenges, including the Blockchain Challenge Spring 2020 competition, produce results that serve the common goals of the blockchain ecosystem. For this reason, we continue to sponsor and make possible events and activities that both reward participation and provide value to the greater community at large.

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