Bringing Students to Miami to Build on Bitcoin
BEN has a long history of bringing students down to Miami for The North American Bitcoin Conference. For many students, it’s their first time travelling to a blockchain conference. It’s how I got started with BEN two years ago when I was brought down to TNABC 2018. I’ve been bullish on BEN ever since.
This year, BEN, TNABC, and The Blockchain Center Miami came together to provide students with free conference tickets and an airbnb for the ENTIRE Miami Blockchain Week. We had 13 BEN club leaders and students travel out of state from Rutgers Blockchain, Drexel Blockchain Club, Concordia Blockchain, and Mount St. Mary’s Blockchain Club. We also had 7 more students from the Miami area (Gator Blockchain Club, Florida International University) get their tickets through BEN. Even more BEN students and alumni met us down there.
How is this possible?
Thanks to our partners (Algorand, Bytom, OpenNode, The Blockchain Center, etc), students can earn points (in BENcoin) for completing activities on the BEN website blockchainedu.org. These activities range from fundamental concept lessons like “Blockchain 101” to hands on developer tutorials like “Run an Algorand Private Network” and “Launch a Bytom Smart Contract”.
Students can then redeem their BENcoin for financial aid, flights, airbnbs, and even visa application costs.
Throughout the week, our students attended talks, networked with the sponsors, volunteered for the conferences and side events, built projects for the hackathon, and more. They even met a few blockchain celebrities along way.
Did new people learn about BEN?
Our students went around telling everyone they were with BEN. We onboarded new students all throughout the week. We also met many new companies and communities who wanted to partner with BEN. I gave several talks about BEN, our mission, and how we do what we do.
What did the students build?
One of our students on a team with one of our alumni won the Miami Bitcoin Hackathon with an offline payment remittance system to send bitcoin using RSK smart contracts.
Another group (an entire BEN student team from Rutgers Blockchain) submitted a lightning-network enabled bitcoin donation portal for Australian wildlife charities using the OpenNode API.
But did the students have fun in Miami?
Ask them
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