Announcing BRLNCoin: Tokenizing Berlin’s Unique Ethos
The Bounties Network is teaming up with ETHBerlin to launch BRLNCoin and take community engagement to a whole new level.
BRLNCOIN is one of those amazing projects that sparked within the Ethereum space and went from idea to creation in just four weeks. I reached out to Maria on the ETHBerlin team back in May with the idea of creating a decentralized platform for the hackathon this September. The idea was inspired by the network we created for Boulder Startup Week in Colorado: participants were able to create bounties for a whole host of tasks and receive rewards in Colorado Coin, an event-specific ERC20 token tied to the Ethereum blockchain. With this successful experiment under our belts, the next level was natural – Berlin Coin.
Aside from its use during ETHBerlin, BRLN will also serve as a token of value throughout blockchain events and educational programmes around Berlin this year and beyond.
“While we started to organize ETHBerlin, we noticed that, although our city is flowing with top notch blockchain projects and events, and we are indeed proud to state we are a Blockchain hub, there was still a lack of connecting tissue.
ETHBerlin hopes that the Berlin coin will be implemented at many more events after our hackathon and that our collaboration with the Bounties Network will enable the further connection and collaboration of projects and events throughout the City.”Maria Paula Fernandez — ETHBerlin
During the event, the BRLN will act both as a tipping system for mentors and speakers, and a means of interaction between participants. We are expecting this to be much more than an experiment, we see it as a way to incentivize, organize and create impact in a tangible manner.
Aside its use during ETHBerlin, the coin will also serve as a token of value throughout blockchain events and educational programmes taking place around Berlin this year and beyond.
Why Berlin?
Looking at Berlin’s Blockchain history through ETHBerlin’s launch post, it’s clear the city has been the true capital of the blockchain movement right from the start:
“After the initial meetings in Miami, where Vitalik met others aligned in vision, he shared his ideas for Ethereum, Dr. Gavin Wood and Dr. Aeron Buchanan, some of Ethereum’s OGs, hopped in a car and drove to Berlin, scouting a place where they could run Ethereum’s initial operations. By then the project had been founded and seeded around, but Berlin as a city, was a major factor of the starting point, as Gavin considered it a great place to live, build, and of course, a buzzing city where they could enjoy their free time.
That day, Gavin, Co-Founder of Ethereum and its former CTO, kicked off the conference with a speech that would set the foundation for the community, which is constantly growing in the city: “Welcome! Our mission: dApps”
And so, continuing the journey, we want to enable ETHBerlin participants to interact with a live dApp through the berlin.bounties.network – which will launch in early August – so they can earn and exchange tokens on Ethereum. Using the token throughout the hackathon and beyond will help make Berlin a dynamic hub where people can collaborate, build, and knowledge swap in real life with others.
ETHBerlin
The event will be held at Factory Berlin, which has not one, but TWO venues. One is in the central district of Berlin, Mitte. The other brand new Factory venue is bang in the middle of the city’s startup scene, Gorlitzer Park. Factory is one of the city’s biggest innovation hubs and these guys have been involved with the blockchain community here for a long time, so it’s only fitting the hackathon is held here.
On Day 1 there will be a launch event/mini conference to kick everything off at Factory’s Mitte location, followed by a cocktail reception, to get those inspirational juices flowing.
There will also be a HACKER ONLY session at Factory’s other venue in Berlin’s infamous Gorlitzer Park, aimed at bringing the hackers up to speed, set testnets and prepare their skillsets.
Day 2 is for the Hackathon + workshops at the Görlitzer location.
Day 3 will see the end of the hackathon, followed by presentations to the judges and the announcement of the winners. In true Berlin style, the hackathon will end with a blowout so everyone can relax after an intense couple of days glued to their laptops.
Bounty Networks: Collaboration 2.0
One of the most rewarding and exciting aspects of having a live decentralized application on Ethereum is being able to offer people the chance to interact with the blockchain and earn their very first tokens in the process. It takes Ethereum beyond ideation into concrete expression, which is one of the key struggles audiences have when it comes to wrapping their heads around blockchain.
The Berlin Bounties Network is a blockchain bounty network built using our StandardBounties Protocol. It uses the ERC20 BRLN coin for all reward payments and will form the framework for community incentivization and organization during ETHBerlin.
The protocol is open source and enables anyone to create their own bounty network transacting in ETH or any other ERC20 token. The environment will run on Mainnet and is designed to promote engagement and activity on the blockchain.
During the hackathon, we will run a variety of bounties including Onboarding and Community bounties, all funded with freshly minted BRLN coins, as well as Voting bounties, which will promote attendee collaboration and more. We’ll also create a leaderboard to keep track of all BRLN tokens transacted throughout the hackathon, so competition will certainly ensue!
The BerlinCoin experiment is designed to create a real-world experience that allows users to engage with Ethereum across all verticals, not just code. ETHBerlin attendees will be given instructions on getting setup on the network and earning their first BRLN coins.
Examples of Potential Bounties
- Onboarding Bounties — are designed to help the new user walk through the basic steps to get setup on Berlin Bounties Network.
a) Post a screenshot of your first posted bounty. - Community Bounties
a) Wear an ETHBerlin T-shirt for an hour during ETHBerlin — 1 BRLN
b) Submit a video of your experience at ETHBerlin — 5 BRLN
c) If you could bounty anything in Berlin, what would it be? 1 BRLN - Collaboration Bounties
a) I’m looking for 3 engineers to review some current code I have on the go and provide 10 minutes of in person feedback — 3 BRLN
b) I’m looking for someone who can make introductions to great designers in the dApp space — 2 BRLN
Launch
Berlin.bounties.network will go live just before ETHBerlin. We will be launching a series of bounties to get you into the ETHBerlin spirit so keep your eyes peeled.
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Our thanks to the ETHBerlin team!
