100 days of blockchain code: learn, “build” and grow
As entrepreneurs, we live to witness the excitement of shipping out our products. Well, this is exactly that moment of joy where all of us at Blockchained India and Blocumen Studios are elated to present products from our very first cycle of ‘100 days of code’ program. We organised the collaborative learning initiative to teach participants the essentials of blockchain development. Before we get into anything else, this cohort was organised in with “The Open Application Network”(OAN).
We chose 10 developers who hustled for 100 days straight, alongside their day jobs. They were determined to make good on their aspiration of kickstarting their blockchain careers. Not only did 80% people complete the online training program (unprecedented success when thinking about online education, isn’t it?😎) but 7 amongst them also came up with blockchain focussed startup ideas. Now these ideas went onto collectively bag 22,000 USD from OAN and Tim Draper’s Draper University as equity free grants. Who knew?! I have told my team to find a new chief! 🤪 I am not missing my opportunity to participate and bootstrap my dream business in the next cohort. 😉
What’s interesting and never seen anywhere else is our focus with all participant projects to solve problems menacing the platforms(Upwork Uber, TaskRabbit, Disney+ ) and their ecosystems today. Matthew Spoke, CEO of Open Application Network who is himself working on an open app called Moves, deciphered the concept of open apps as a new evolution of blockchain in providing avenues that promise value creation at a scale within our existing world. He briefed Moves Financial and the way it is providing personal loans to gig workers and independent workers interfacing through gig economy platforms. You can watch it here.
Ian Chan, Chief Operating Officer at The OAN and the visionary behind India’s role in adoption of open apps, explained the benefits of ‘100 days of code’ program and his desire ”to have a community of OAN fans using our technology stack for solving local and global problems!” through the first two cohorts. He answered questions like ‘Why should the community members spend time with us?’.
I gave an analysis of the current state of the Indian Blockchain Landscape and various trends on which offerings could be built for India.
Without much ado, i am going to share about the wonderful startups that came out of the initiative.
- LENDRAV
Lendrav will act as a debt extension to existing crowdfunding campaigns that failed to reach the financial goals for their campaigns. It will bridge the gap between investors and suitable startups.
2. BGC DECENTRALIZED
BCG decentralised connects job seekers, background check parties, job portals and companies with the aim of making BGC cheaper and hassle free in a secured environment. Redundant background checks is the main issue they focus on with a market worth of nearly 100 billion $ globally.
3. LEARN WISELY
Learn Wisely is a decentralized review system for every online course which is hosted on e-learning platforms. It provides rewards in $Aions for reviewers in the form of incentives.
4. BLOCKCHAIN BASED USER AUTHENTICATION
Blockchain based user Authentication enables secure login to access application resources which is decentralized and only the user will be the super admin of his/her data.
5. ESCRO-PAY
Escro-pay enables buyers that make e-commerce purchases to opt for advance payment with trust and certainty so that if the product delivered is not up to their expectation, they get their money back. The team achieves this by building an extension to wallets of e-commerce platforms such that the money is kept with a third party until both the delivery executive and the buyer confirms the transaction.
6. NITSOL
Nitsol is an extension for online education platforms like Coursera such that learners connect with tutors/mentors for courses offered on these platforms. These tutors/mentors can be individuals from the industry who will guide them and can provide some extra information. Also, sharing some real-life experiences to make them relate with their learnings.
7. RATECAR.COM
Ratecar.com gets your used car reviewed when you wish to sell it. These reviews are then used by marketplaces to match you with a buyer.
Alexandra Faiz, Manager Deal flow and admissions at Draper University and a part of the jury, shared “All the pitches were high quality but unfortunately there could only be 3 winners.”
Want to know about the winners? We will announce them in the coming… just kidding! 😂🤣 Drum roll…
The first prize went to Lendrav, by K. Naga Tejaswini. She won a direct entry and scholarship worth 3 lakh rupees from Draper’s University for their Hero program in March 2021 and 50,000 $Aions i.e 3,75,000 rupees by OAN!
The second prize was bagged by Supra Bhat for Escro- pay which was closely followed by Avinash for Ratecars.com. Both won a scholarship worth 4000$ at Draper’s University and 25,000 $Aions i.e 1,87,500 rupees by OAN!
I am happy to see these projects will be getting to the users very soon. Just that kind of output makes it totally worth putting all the efforts for the last 100 days. You can talk to the founders of these amazing projects at Blockchained India community forum.
Want to become a blockchain developer? Or grab that equity-free grant for your blockchain startup? Come, register for our ‘100 days of code’ program and take a leap ahead in your career!
