The first blockchain hackathon for environmental action in Spain, organized by the IMDEA Software Institute and EIT Digital, whose awards were sponsored by the Tezos Foundation, ends with 11 award-winning participants from the three groups selected by the jury.
ChainrEaction had overall 26 participants, from 10 different countries. 10 of them were university students, 12 master students and 8 doctoral students. Almost 95% of the people respondents have interest (answering yes or maybe) in working at the IMDEA Software Institute. 50% of them punctuated 4 or 5 out of 5 according to their interest in a research-oriented career before chainrEaction, and this figure increased by 22,2% after the hackathon.
Three intensive days that began with presentations, and the introduction to the event given by Blanca Gutiérrez, Communication Manager, as well as Zsolt István, Assistant Research Professor, as part of the chanrEaction organizing committee of the IMDEA Software Institute. The morning continued with an inspiring talk by David Dao, Founder of Forest X, on “Decentralized Sustainability: Beyond the Tragedy of the Commons with Smart Contracts (and AI)”.
Daniel Pérez, Chief Technology Officer at the Imperial College London, gave a tutorial on Ethereum as a mentor of chainrEaction that was a valuable, practical and challenging information for participants.
The second talk of the first day was given by Chrysa Stathakopoulou, a chainrEaction mentor and PhD student at ETH Zurich, on how to use and apply blockchain technology in businessess.
Meanwhile, Matteo Campanelli, postdoctoral researcher at the IMDEA Software Institute, organizer of chainrEaction and also a mentor, presented the second tutorial of the day on the chain code of Fabric Hyperledger and websites to interact with it.
During the last part of the day the participants presented their ideas, selected the seven teams that were formed and started coding.
The second day began with an interesting talk by Matej Šima, CEO os Stove Labs, who gave a beginner’s guide to SmartContracts through Tezos technology. For the rest of the day participants had the opportunity to code practically the whole day, as well as to listen to the two EIT Digital Student Ambassadors, Renato Pinto and Cristina Ríos.
On the morning of the third day the seven groups were able to finish preparing their sustainable solutions. From 11 to 13 they presented their results to the jury made up of: the director of the IMDEA Software Institute, Manuel Carro; the director of the EIT Digital Co-Location Center, Jesús Contreras; the advisor to the Regional Ministry of Science, Universities and Innovation, Juan Jiménez; representative of the Blockchain Competence Center of Telefónica, María Teresa Nieto; the Head of Blockchain at iecisa, María Salgado; and the CEO of Stove Labs, Matej Šima.
At noon, “Reflections on blockchain at chanirEaction” began, an event opened to the public created within the framework of the hackathon, which featured different perspectives of blockchain through keynote talks given by international experts from industry and academia. Marko Vukolic, from IBM Research, Sara Tucci, from the CEA List Institute, and Jesús Ruiz, from the Spanish blockchain association, Alastria.
After the talks, Manuel Carro, as representative of the chainrEaction jury announced the winners of the three award categories and later proceeded to present the winning innovative ideas to the public.
The winner of the category “Most impressive proof of concept” was DONERO, an idea to give transparency to donations with a very strong focus. The category “Most viable pitch and business model” went to ENERGYCHAIN. A very well developed idea for transactions in the energy market. And finally, the award for “Most surprising use of blockchain” went to TRIPPIO, an idea to increase travel exchange using public transport.
The Director General of Research and Technological Innovation of the Madrid Regional Government, María Luisa Castaño, closed an event marked by the international youth talent that gave everything to create real wonders of sustainable solutions.