Field Notes: U of T’s Blockfest Hackathon
This past weekend, Shyft proudly co-sponsored University of Toronto’s Blockfest Hackathon. Participating teams had 72 hours to respond to one of two available challenges: either to build a solution on the TODA protocol, or to come up with a dispute resolution system for the Bunz trading platform. Contestants were judged by overall ranking, as well as awarded prizes specific to each challenge.
Teams taking on the TODA challenge offered a diverse set of asset-based solutions. The team with the most polished offering was Land23, which already had 3D models of their system on-hand. Land23’s ambitious goal is to create a digital land registry of all of Canada’s public land — over 90% of the country is publicly owned — in order to get more utility out of the land. Land23 users could purchase this land by the cm2 , with each tiny parcel logged on the blockchain. Users can also upload existing land deeds and, after a confirmation period, have already-purchased land added to the registry and listed as theirs.
On the payments side, the TransferHub team sought to bring e-transfers to the TODA system. Using a system integrated with multiple major Canadian banks, TransferHub is intended to make it easier to manage multiple accounts or credit cards, with instant payments that can be registered with a single tap of your mobile device. The team at TalentHub, meanwhile, sought to distribute an entirely different asset. Intended as a decentralized alternative to the likes of Kickstarter or Gofundme, albeit with a specific focus on funding individuals’ education, TalentHub enables users to make profiles listing their qualifications and interests, then lets investors buy “talent” (the system’s currency), which is in turn sent to the user in the form of US dollars, which is intended to help the user pay for their education costs. Buyers are essentially betting on users’ future success, and can check in with them periodically to keep tabs on the state of their investment, or trade their investment with other buyers. The intention is to build a crowdfunding platform with built-in incentives based on potential, rather than the typical tiered rewards system you would see in a Gofundme-style platform.
The final TODA challengers were VEST, who built a solution for logging verified, limited-run products, aimed at making this process much simpler for small businesses. (Essentially, it’s an Etsy or Bandcamp alternative that takes advantage of the security and efficiency advantages of the blockchain.) For the purposes of the hackathon, the VEST team took ten of the branded hackathon shirt and numbered them 1–10, logged them onto their blockchain, then showed off a demo of what making a purchase looks like. One quick scan of shirt’s QR code later, and the purchase was visible on Etherscan, complete with the custom token associated with the limited-run asset.
Meanwhile, three teams took on the Bunz challenge: Bunz Dispute Resolution, BunzCourt, and FLOW. Bunz Dispute Resolution took a curated approach to the problem, leveraging power users as “jurors” who rule on each dispute. (Bunz already has a reputation system built into their platform, so it would only need to be referenced.) BunzCourt, on the other hand, opts for a “wisdom of the crowd” approach, with the Bunz community as a whole being able to vote on individual disputes and being compensated in BTZ (the Bunz token) for siding with the correct party. Finally, FLOW took perhaps the most technical approach to the problem, creating a disincentivization scheme intended to discourage disputes before they can occur by incurring penalties for both parties in any dispute, with particularly hefty fines in place for sellers who offer faulty wares.
In the end, a panel of judges (including our own Chief Strategy Officer, Frederico Nassire) chose VEST as the overall best in show, with Land32 and BunzCourt taking 2nd and 3rd place. TalentHub won the TODA challenge, while BunzCourt doubled up on their winnings by coming out on top in the Bunz challenge.
Thanks to everyone who participated and came out, as well as the organizing team at the U of T Blockchain Society!
