Block.one, publisher of the EOSIO blockchain protocol, brought its EOS Global Hackathon series to Europe, as London’s Science Museum played host to one of the UK’s biggest-ever blockchain hackathon events and the company’s EOS VC business unit awarded US$144,000 to projects focused on solving real-world problems related to data security and privacy.
Participants were challenged to:
Create an application on the EOSIO platform that improves the relationship between technology and a user’s privacy or security.
The top prize of US$100,000 was won by EOShield, a team formed by UK-based duo James Pavur and Casey Knerr, who developed an application that can protect consumers from malware through a blockchain-based verification and blacklisting process.
A panel of international judges, including Block.one’s co-founders, CEO Brendan Blumer and CTO Dan Larimer, as well as other global technology and blockchain leaders, selected the winners from a pool of 90 teams, formed by 468 participants from a total of 44 countries. The teams spent 26 consecutive hours programming before pitching their ideas.
“Hacking and data leaks cost organisations and individuals billions of dollars every year,” said Block.one CTO Dan Larimer. “Fortunately, blockchain technology offers a way of securing our connected world, and has enormous potential for user privacy and data security. With the innovation we’re seeing in the industry, now is the time to explore workable solutions that make mass adoption of blockchain an easy step. It’s clear from our London hackathon that the global EOS community is very much focused on that goal.”
“We were very new to some elements of developing on blockchain, and the EOS hackathon provided a great format for us to learn new things,” said EOShield’s Casey Knerr. “We really believe in the idea of smart contracts, which are at the heart of our project. We’re incredibly excited to have won.”
A second prize of US$25,000 was awarded to Chestnut, a smart bank account project designed to help protect funds from cyber criminals.
The team behind On The Block, an app that simplifies credit-checks by removing third-parties, picked up US$10,000 for the third-place prize.
The Best Social Impact Prize was awarded to GeneOS for its work on an application that aims to incentivise individuals to donate genomics data in a secure, anonymised way to further research into Alzheimer’s disease.
“London is a renowned business center and financial hub. In recent years, it’s become a global fintech destination and now it’s emerging as a blockchain industry hotspot,” said Serg Metelin, Block.one’s Head of Developer Relations. “There’s no better place for us to look at solving privacy and security problems than here. The creativity and ingenuity we’ve witnessed over the weekend demonstrates how blockchain offers real-world solutions to these challenges.”
