HYPERCYCLE BLOCKHACK HACKATHON RECAP & ANNOUNCEMENT OPEN D/I HACKATHON

Bianca Asilo

Published in

HyperCycle

5 min readNov 29, 2023

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INTRO

Excitement was high amongst participants at Blockhack Toronto 2023, as HyperCycle showcased its latest innovations, endeavors, and even a new product — The HyperAiBox. Launched by HyperCycle’s affiliate company HyperAppliance, it is a dedicated plug-and-play device designed to run HyperCycle nodes locally, right from your own home. All conditions combined, the event brought together enthusiasts of every level. From young, curious newcomers to seasoned engineers, these bright minds enjoyed a weekend of learning, workshopping, and of course, the chance to develop creative solutions for our HyperCycle hackathon challenge.

Quote: “ We were proud to showcase the capabilities of our HyperAiBox. With that device, we’ve proven that appliances can already run some AI components on the HyperCycle Network”
— Evan, HyperAppliance’s CEO

Contestants receiving guidance from Dr. Barry Rowe and Dr. Greg Colvin (not pictured). Travelling from California and Florida respectively, these two are members of the HyperCycle core team, and were elected to share their knowledge at Blockhack Toronto 2023.

BACKGROUND ON BLOCKHACK & BITCOIN BAY

Founded in 2018 and produced by Bitcoin Bay & George Brown College, Blockhack is a weekend-long event that aims to “combine the efforts of entrepreneurs and developers”. By featuring workshops, Q&A panels, and speeches from some of AI’s most influential scientists, event goers are able to learn about blockchain technology as it changes and grows in our real world today.

In addition to these events, participants often look forward to hackathon challenges — a fun and exciting way to work with/learn about technology, while competing to win sponsored prizes ranging from crypto to internships. By providing a platform for developers (beginner and advanced) to work and learn from each other, Blockhack continues to push the boundaries of the blockchain community, and promote the growth of blockchain related projects/ventures.

HYPERCYCLE’S PARTICIPATION

As platinum sponsors and long-time participants of Blockhack & Bitcoin Bay events, we at HyperCycle were more than happy to bring many of our skilled and talented team members to the event. Having offered a keynote speech, Q&A, coding workshop & challenge, it was imperative that our information come straight from the source. Joining this event we had a few core team members, such as Toufi Saliba (CEO, keynote speaker/judge), Dr. Robert Moir (Chief Data Scientist, judge/workshop leader) and Dann Toliver (CTO, judge). Helping with student support, Dr. Greg Colvin (Head of VM), Dr. Barry Rowe (Chief Math Scientist), Fabian Cudis (Senior Python Backend Developer), and David Liendo (Developer) also joined in, both in-person and remotely. Together, this multi-talented team was able to connect with contestants face to face, lending guidance technically, conceptually, and personally.

*Dr. Robert Moir, HyperCycle’s Chief Data Scientist, showcasing the utility of HyPC and the HyperCycle computation node in a comprehensive workshop.*

CHALLENGE & PRIZES

Motivation was not short in stock this year, as prizes seemed almost too good to be true. Boasting a grand total of $11,000 CAD in rewards, Blockhack offered 8 possible prizes, including crypto, hardware, and internship opportunities.

With only one challenge — to run your own AI model on the HyperAiBox — contestants worked diligently on their projects, occasionally receiving support from our HYPC team. Groups were able to “sign up for a developer”, in which they were put in direct contact with an HYPC developer to assist them throughout their journey. Fabian Cudis, a Senior backend Python developer, covered issues with backend development, while David Liendo, developer, offered some aid with frontend issues. Slowly but surely, strangers turned to partners, bonding over their challenges, and mutually working towards their goals.

After a few hours of presentations, judges announced their final decisions, happily awarding Classification AI, DeCoAI, ChatGBC, HealthChain Connect, and the Leftovers as 2023’s winners of the HyperCycle AI Challenge. Each team received $300 USDC, 1024 HYPC tokens, and a brand new, unreleased HyperAiBox as reward. As a special surprise, HyperCycle also awarded a 3 month Hyper Appliance internship to the first place project — HealthChain Connect.

Dann Toliver (CTO of Hypercycle) helps to offer support to contestants and presents the HyperAiBox.

EVENT TAKEAWAYS

Though most contestants initially had no idea what Hypercycle was, they succeeded in demoing their own solutions, built fully on Hypercycle, after only 2 days practice — a testament to HyperCycle’s and HyperAiBox’s accessibility to AI software developers.

It is evident that the AI’s accuracy was able to evolve faster by being built in a collaborative AI network, an accomplishment made possible by Hypercycle.

Watch our recap of Blockhack Toronto 2023 here:

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LOOKING FORWARD

Blockhack 2023 served as a springboard for HyperCycle, being the first hackathon the company has been a part of, and hosting the world’s first look at the HyperAiBox. More importantly, Blockhack was a huge step for our community, offering new developers the chance to explore skills, and supporting the growth of the larger blockchain community as a whole. This event is a small and sweet taste of what is yet to come, as HyperCycle continues to work towards future hackathons. Like a beacon, the memories made here will guide us in future endeavours, moving the industry toward a more secure, efficient, and user-centric blockchain landscape.

We at HyperCycle look forward to seeing our community again at our next event — The OpenD/I Hackathon. Available to register in-person or online, this 30 day hackathon intensive describes itself as the “largest hackathon for Open Data, Smart Contracts, AI & Infrastructure”, featuring challenges, workshops, networking opportunities, and more.

Join us as we close the year in true HyperCycle fashion, forging new connections and pushing the boundaries of technology together.

Event: OpenD/I Hackathon
https://odi.openmesh.network/hackathon | https://open.devpost.com/

Schedule: