Developers Code on Ontology at TechCrunch Hackathon

The Ontology Team
OntologyNetwork
Published in
6 min readNov 23, 2018

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TechCrunch China held a hackathon in Shenzhen from November 17th-18th, 2018, which attracted developers from around the world who are interested in blockchain, dApps, and other emerging technologies.

Ontology was a sponsor of the event and hackathon participants had the opportunity to develop on Ontology over 24 hours and win prizes for best ideas, innovation, and user experience.

Before the start of the competition, Ontology senior software engineer HU Guanjun gave an opening speech, in which he introduces two key Ontology development tools:

  • SmartX, a one-stop IDE that can be used to compile, deploy, and invoke smart contracts. It provides a range of smart contract templates and a powerful online editor. Individuals can use SmartX templates or commission community developers to customize contracts.
  • Punica Suite, a dApp development framework. Punica Suite provides a complete set of development tools for developers, including command line tools (Punica CLI), a test node with UI (Solo Chain), a variety of dApp templates and cases (Punica-Box), and development tutorials (dApp Tutorial) for users to get started and develop quickly.

On-site developers selected tasks under the guidance of Ontology developers, who answered questions on Ontology’s blockchain infrastructure including the use of dAPIs, ONT ID, and the OEP-4 token standard.

The tasks for the Ontology hackathon where as followed:

Task 1:

Using Ontology’s digital identity and data exchange protocol (DDXF), build an application scenario.

Task 2:

Optimize and extend existing Ontology modules (OWallet, DID, OEPs, etc.) by adding new features, functionalities, and GUIs, or creating new valuable modules.

Task 3:

Enhance the Ontology block explorer, adding features such as dApp overview and details, and provide a customizable development interface that enables public or private blockchain technology to serve physical industries.

Entries

1. Anti-harassment call tool

The first group to present developed a blockchain-based anti-harassment call system, which accurately records call time, calling number, and recording of harassment calls and the like, saving users time in the reporting process and reducing economic losses from fraud.

2. Improving asset management on the Ontology block explorer

Independent developer Wuyun chose to expand the Ontology block explorer, including monitoring on-chain asset changes, displaying homogeneous and non-homogeneous assets, displaying records under OEP-4, and more, all of which aim to further help users view and manage their digital assets.

3. STO (Security Token Offering) investment tools

The third group focused on STOs, giving comprehensive analysis in returns, barriers to entry, asset liquidity, and decentralized operation and transaction processes, hoping to merge STO investment processes with the blockchain technology these users are investing in.

4. Improving blockchain game incentives

The fourth group — Pandas — committed to using Ontology technology to enrich the gaming industry, including increasing recommendation incentives and attracting more users to the Ontology platform.

5. Verified support

The fifth group — Lyman — presented a chat records project. Using WeChat service accounts to build the basic framework, users can easily verify the authenticity of the information they receive. The profit model is SaaS and charges users dynamically. The team also included suggestions for future improvements of their product.

6. One-stop blockchain ecological entrance

Onion, the sixth group, who also participated in the second round of Ontology seed nodes, designed a dApp that provides one-stop access to information and sharing, Ontology ecosystem management, and dApp application centers.

7. Using blockchain to support the medical industry

CYDA consists of two students from the University of Hong Kong who came to Shenzhen for the hackathon. They explained:

“In Hong Kong, by the time children are 12 years old they need at least 17 kinds of vaccinations, but accidents caused by the quality of the drugs are always happening. Safety is important, and the quality of vaccines must not be ignored!”

Based on these pain points, the two students think that products should be recorded to a blockchain at the beginning of production to facilitate follow-up investigations, tracking, traceability, and the overall strict control of medical care quality.

8. Create unique hashes for copyright

The “Catalyst” team’s ideas revolve around digital rights, taking into consideration the pain points of copyright— when and where copyright is generated, who holds it, and how it is aligned with technological advancement.

Team leader SONG Tong believes that the non-repudiation of blockchain and advanced tools such as smart contracts should be used to solve the problems of copyright. In the contract, the copyright will exist in the form of a unique hash value. The rights are divided into the right to use and ownership. The ownership can be used to issue the right to use, ownership can be transferred, and others can have their authority verified.

9. Use ONT ID to help MSF (Doctors Without Borders)

The DONTOR team’s project hoped to use Ontology blockchain technology to help children and MSD. An ONT ID can be generated using facial identification of children in need and worn in the form of a bracelet. This way, past information for diagnosis and treatment can be quickly accessed.

10. Creating a credit system “library”

ONTOFRAUD teamed up onsite and together envisioned an anti-fraud system. User credit status is first determined and then stored in a “library”. The library provides a real-time display of the proportion of trusted and untrusted users in the data system. When the user conducts a transaction, the credit rating of the recipient can be checked to prevent the risk.

11. Decentralized art mall

The “Tianrun” team envisioned a decentralized shopping marketplace for art, which uses ONT ID for registration, product confirmation, and product identification, which can then be evaluated and purchased through multi-signature systems, all within an Ontology environment. At the same time, the product includes membership systems, expert review, incentives, social media, and insurance services, to make the value of art more visible, while bringing greater trust to the trading process.

12. Live broadcast of scientific experiments

The Zscope team proposed a system in which live broadcasts of scientific experiments could then have their information stored on-chain. They use smart contracts to register microscope instruments so that scientific researchers all over the world can view medical experiments and data obtained cannot be falsified once recorded, ensuring the accuracy of scientific experiments.

The judges were entangled in the choices they had to make, and after careful consideration, decided to break the first and second prizes into three joint first places, awarding CYDA, Wuyun, and ONTOFRAUD.

The Catalyst team won the third place, Pandas won the best innovation award, and Zscope received the best user experience award.

Congratulations to the winning teams, and thank you for everyone who participated and followed the events over the two days. We feel honored to see Ontology used for trust collaboration, the very idea Ontology was conceived by. If you are a developer or know someone who would be interested, we invite you to check out Ontology:

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