Chaintope Malaysia in collaboration with MDEC recently held its first-ever GBEC Hackathon (Go Blockchain Engineering Community) on 15th and 16th December 2018 in its office at The Vertical, Bangsar South. The event saw 100 participants comprising of students, professionals, startups and corporates. The event was held to encourage more top blockchain engineers to expand blockchain technologies and increase the number of blockchain engineers in ASEAN countries by providing valuable resources and educational contents to its members.
The hackathon comprised of 21 teams completing the whole event. Participants were given three main themes with an option to choose and work on to create their minimal viable product. The themes include Smart City — Blockchain for Digital ID, Supply Chain — Supply Chain Tokenization and Insurance — Blockchain for the uninsured. The speakers of the event include Mr. Jaspreet Singh, Regional Technical Specialist of United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Mr. Hariz and Mr. Calvin, Brand Activist and Project Management of Credit Bureau Malaysia and Mr. Arnold Aranez, Chief Executive Officer of Cendol.
The event kicked off with a welcome speech and introductory message by Chaintope’s Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Shigeyuki Azuchi explaining to participants on the research process carried out by Chaintope focusing towards the public blockchain and how Chaintope uses various proof of concept while working with partner companies and experts of the industry in developing protocols to solve public chain issues.
A training session on Ethereum was also conducted to educate participants on the overall essence of the blockchain, why is it known as the digital, decentralized and distributed ledger as well as how smart contracts and how Ethereum is built on its programming language. Participants were also shown samples of smart contract and developments on Decentralized Application (DAPP).
Some of the key takeaways during the event include Mr. Jaspreet’s overview on how a product revolves around the supply chain. He went on to further explain the payment flows, the challenges and gaps faced by the industry. In a recent interview when quizzed if blockchains would cause further disruptions in the finance sector, he mentioned “If you look at the world today, there is still a lot to be done in terms of going to the people. Making populations more inclusive. 85 percent of Malaysians have a bank account, 80 percent have a debit card but only 33 percent used debit card last year. It tells you a lot about how people perceive cash versus how they would move to digital. As long as we are looking at technology to address a backend issue in terms of efficiency, it’s all fine, the moment it includes to be more inclusive and be more interactive with the customer, that is where you need to be extra careful”
Participants were briefed before the start of the hackathon and were given a software demo by Chaintope Engineers. The participating teams were also able to pick a mentor with limited time given after the hackathon had begun.
The run-up from morning till the hackathon started got many participants in high anticipation state. This led to an hour-long discussion before proceeding to work on their individual projects. Although it was a long day, many stayed back to complete the process with only a mere 10 percent of participants leaving to return the next day.
The second day of the hackathon began with much enthusiasm, with teams rushing to complete the process. The winners were selected based on the assessment of four judges which comprised of two business and two technical judges. A large part of the judging criteria for the business judges was to assess participants to see if the project pitched would make a significant impact on businesses followed by creativity and practicality. As for the technical judges, a large part was to assess participants to see if the technicalities met what has been implied to them.
The climax of the hackathon saw the winners walking away with RM10,000 followed by runner-up RM2,000 and second runner-up RM1,000.
The winners of the Hackathon are the following;
Champion: Team Y — DrugSafe
1st Runner-Up: Team Haizzzz…Why So Many Assignments — Driving Behaviour Based Vehicle Insurance
2nd Runner-Up: Team ERROR101K — Supply Chain for Aftermarket
With an overwhelming turnout, Chaintope’s debut in its GBEC Hackathon is certainly a resounding success and an event which is most likely to be held again in the near future.
