Global AI and Blockchain Hackathon to Solve Societal Challenges

Published Jun-21-19

Breakthrough:
A virtual mobile power plant, a social badge that shows the real impact of corporate donations and other winning ideas at a global blockchain and artificial intelligence hackathon.

Company:
DutchChain, Netherlands

The Story:

One of the many advantages of hosting a problem-solving hackathon is that the limited 24 or 48-hour timeframes mean there is a laser-like focus on coming up with breakthrough solutions – an intensity that galvanizes creative minds.

DutchChain, an ecosystem for blockchain-powered innovation lays claim to hosting the largest blockchain and AI hackathon in the world, called Odyssey. During the third edition of the global open innovation event, 100 teams worked collaboratively for 48 hours on developing solutions to 20 complex societal challenges.

"At the Odyssey hackathon, we have experienced an unwavering spirit of collaboration as well as the ability to completely change people's perspectives on assumptions they bring with them to the hackathon,” said Rutger van Zuidam, Founder and CEO of DutchChain and Odyssey.

“People work together, not to prove they are right, but to see how they can do things in a new way, and then come to a different understanding of the problem and potential solutions.

“That is what it means to not optimize for the status quo, but to find ways to break through perceived barriers. From the results, we learn that this actually works.”

The 2019 hackathon attracted around 1,500 participants and 100 prototypes were built.

Among the winning ideas were:

Fossil-Free Future Vertical

HorsePower - a proposal to create virtual mobile power plants for local communities sharing electricity for local line capacity improvement and normalizing demand and supply.

Scaling Wildlife Verical

BerChain - an idea for a social badge to be awarded to corporate websites backed by real data showing the social impact of their donation/s.

Rethink Retirement Vertical

Tradisys - a job marketplace for social organizations and responsible citizens that helps people to retire earlier and make their local communities better places.

International Travel Vertical

idShapers - a digital passenger ID that lets individuals control what information they show and minimizes GDPR (general data protection regulation) risks for airlines.

Crisis and Disaster Management Vertical

Edgica - tokenizing the safety of hazardous material transportation by logging and validating the relevant data within an IOTA ecosystem - (open source distributed ledger).

Turning Winning Ideas into Action

In addition to cash prizes, the winning teams moved forward into the Odyssey Incubation Program that connects them with corporate, non-profit and governmental launching partners. It lasts for 100 days and the aim is to make their ideas a reality, to prepare them for the mass market. Six of the winning teams were awarded additional support and access to mentors and investors.

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