Our second global Bitcoin hackathon, BitHack v2, recently concluded and we’re excited to announce the winners, who will collectively receive over $70,000 worth of prizes. The BitHack is important to us because it taps into a core benefit of Bitcoin: permissionless innovation. Anyone from anywhere in the world could submit a Bitcoin project to BitHack v2, as long as it met our simple guidelines. Over 300 teams registered, and we received 84 qualified submissions from twelve different countries. Many of these submissions came from people who were not able to build payment applications before Bitcoin.
We’d like to acknowledge the following major prize winners, who (across multiple platforms and continents) have demonstrated an exceptional level of innovation and technical prowess in the development of their respective Bitcoin apps. True to Bitcoin’s global potential, the five winning projects were built in four different countries, each with a unique economic climate: Pakistan, Philippines, Germany, and the U.S.
First an honorable mention goes out to Streamium, an app that received the highest score by many judges but whose team started work before the BitHack v2 start date, therefore disqualifying them from the formal competition. Nevertheless, we wish them continued success on their outstanding project.
Now, on to the winners.
1st Place: $10,000* of bitcoin and a place in Boost VC’s bitcoin accelerator class, valued at $50,000 - Mailman
Mailman is an email paywall system which allows you to reward timely replies with bitcoin and filter spam using the blockchain.
2nd Place: $5,000* of bitcoin- SatoshiPay
SatoshiPay is a bitcoin nanopayment wall for publishers which allows you to pay for the section of text that really interests you, make metered payments for streaming video, and make paid downloads with a single click.
3rd Place: $3,000* of bitcoin - Rebittance
Rebittance is a remittance aggregator that provides senders with a single place to find and transact with Rebittance cash-out partners around the world.
4th Place: $1,500* of bitcoin - BlockchainME
BlockchainME offers a tool for creating verifiable IDs on the blockchain, promoting the encryption layer of cryptocurrency to help prevent skimming, catfishing, counterfeiting and other fraudulent activity.
5th Place: $500* of bitcoin - BitcoinDial
BitcoinDial is a ‘pay phone’ app that accepts bitcoin instead of quarters, allowing users to make affordable international calls.
*As valued on the date of announcement.
Congratulations to all of the talented developers behind this bitcoin wizardry: Syed Muhammad Amin Gilani (Mailman), Meinhard Benn (SatoshiPay), Luis Buenaventura (Rebittance), Kiara Robles (BlockchainME) and Peter D. Gray (BitcoinDial). If you're interested in contacting any of the developers above, feel free to reach out to us for an introduction, at bithack@coinbase.com.
Apps Awarded for General Excellence
The quality and volume of bitcoin apps we received was so high throughout the BitHack v2 process that we decided to add six additional prize categories for apps that demonstrated general excellence. Congratulations to the following winners, who are receiving some great prizes from our partner sponsors:
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iPad Air, courtesy of Tradewave
BitStation: Bitcoin exchange trading software.
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Jawbone Big Jambox Bluetooth Speaker, courtesy of Clef
BlockIntel: A blockchain investigation tool.
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SmartThings starter kit, courtesy of Localytics
Snacks for Bitcoin: A vending machine that accepts bitcoin.
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$100 Apple gift card, courtesy of Openfolio
CoinConfident: Predicts when to spend/buy bitcoin.
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1/10 oz. gold coin, redeemable for bitcoin, courtesy of Serica
CoinBate: Sell your items for bitcoin using crowd rewards.
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Swag pack and Starbucks gift card, courtesy of Lawnmower
100bits: Send 100 bits to random people or charities
Judging Process
Our winners were carefully selected from a total of 84 entries.* To ensure the judging process was fair, we screened all apps for eligibility according to the BitHack v2 rules. This included confirming that the app hadn’t previously been published and was built during the six-week competition period. We then split all eligible apps into manageable groups which were each scored by at least two Coinbase judges using our evaluation criteria: creativity, usability, and execution. All judges submitted their scores, all scores were normalized to ensure consistency of scores across judges, and from these lists we selected our finalists. These finalists were sent to a team of four external judges, whose scores were once again used to stack rank each app and to assign our top winners.
Many thanks to Adam Draper, Chris Dixon, Fred Wilson and Gavin Andresen for judging.
Until Next Time..
Thank you to everyone who participated in the BitHack v2. Many of the developers that participated have enabled new behaviors that weren’t possible before bitcoin. Developers are essential to Bitcoin’s success, by introducing new functionality to people around the world. No doubt there’s much more to be done, but BitHack v2 participants have made significant strides!
via The Coinbase Blog http://ift.tt/1IvRekJ
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