Updates from the Dev Cave: SacHacks

Hi folks!

Earlier this month the XYO Sacramento team helped the Sacramento Kings host “SacHacks,” Sacramento’s first major intercollegiate hackathon. It was a great way to get insight into what resources young developers are looking for to learn more about blockchain development and working with smart contracts.

We quickly realized a lot of them would get great use out of Interplanetary File System (IPFS), XYO Lead Blockchain Engineer Kevin Weiler’s favorite blockchain tool. It’s a way to store media, images, files, and other data on the blockchain at a significantly lower cost. Storing files on blockchain can get incredibly expensive. IPFS allows you to store these files in a decentralized way, but store just the hash on the blockchain itself. 15 minutes of HD video can become just a few digits in a hash, rather than a 1 GB file.

Because of high demand for learning resources, Kevin’s workshop had a HUGE turnout.

The winning team at SacHacks built a proof-of-concept wholesale food market on Ethereum, powered by the XYO Network. Their vision is to allow rural Indian farmers to be able to get full market price for their goods.

It wasn’t just an XYO Network event, though! There were other contests built around data analytics, game development, and social media tools. Ryan Montoya, CTO of the Sacramento Kings spoke on the importance of innovation, and how the Kings have increased community participation by implementing cutting-edge tech in their new stadium.

We’ll be participating in and hosting more hackathons in the future — they’re a great way to spread knowledge and to find talented developers! If you’re hosting a hackathon and think we’d be a good addition, contact Graham McBain, our developer evangelist, at graham@xy.company.

Johnny Kolasinski
Head of Community
XYO Network