New year – new Blockchain Hackathon.

The successfull format of last year’s Blockchain Hackathon, organized by bwcon and blockLAB Stuttgart went into its second round. On the weekend between 15 and 17 February, more than 150 hackers came together to elaborate visionary ideas under the motto: “converging the crypto universe into industrial IoT”. In 20 teams and with the support of about 20 mentors, they developed innovative concepts, business models and proof-of-concept implementations. Which innovative ideas could emerge when Blockchain technology meets digital infrastructure? How exactly could Blockchain technology drive innovations like AI or Robotics forward? These and many more questions were answered during the three days of the Blockchain Hackathon 2019.
For the first time, the Hackathon also marked the opening event of the Blockchain Stuttgart Week. This is one week of conferences held by experts, meetups and more events which offer both newbies and experts inspiring insight into the latest Blockchain topics.

The Stuttgart region is predestined to play a leading role in the intersection between blockchain technology and industrial applications. With its industry-oriented value creation structure, the local global players and hidden champions the region has a lot to offer. Accordingly, the hackathon has launched challenges in the fields of industry 4.0-IoT, mobility and finance.

A total of 15.000 euro prizes money was awarded in the categories “best visionary concept”, “best technical implementation”, “best business model”, “Hackathon challenges” and “audience prize”. The event was supported – among others – by Daimler AG, LBBW, targens, MHP and Alcatel Lucent.  In addition, two keynote contributes with great insights into Blockchain technology: Ikhlaq Sidhu, Founder and Chief Scientist of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) in Berkeley give a speech about “Industrial application of Blockchain”, while Oliver Terbu from ConsenSys, uPort illustrated how to scale Decentralized Identities.

This year’s winning Teams:

Most visionary concept:
Team “Zietle”: Enables a seamless shopping experience like Amazon-GO by offering a B2B service for retailers combining object recognition, machine learning and an ID / payment infrastructure. Based on Ethereum integrating uPort self-sovereign ID.

Best technical implementation:
Team “Thank me later!”: NFC devices with own Blockchain based private keys to identify, check, authenticate and validate that goods and products are original and not fake.

Best business model:
Team “Schrodingers’ cat”: The smart solution for fine particles matter prevention and an alternative to the Diesel vehicles prohibitions in German cities. Schrodingers’ cat tracks data (particles) and charges fees of Diesel vehicles real-time when driving through Diesel-free zones based on IOTA.

Finance challenge:
Team “The Avalizers”: A vision for startup financing via a bank guarantee platform based on R3 Corda. This will lead to better incentivization of capital allocation, risk reduction and thus enabling more entrepreneurship.

Mobility challenge:
Team “CryptoManiacs”: Jobocar lets your car earn money for you. It’s a solution combining frontend and backend for autonomous driving self-sharing cars built on Ethereum, integrating uPort and Kyber Network.

Audience price:
Team “TrustX”: A platform to automatically prevent tax fraud and full tax processing, directly connecting government, payment processors and consumers based on R3 Corda.

Here is an overview of all Hackathon’s teams:

Team “BlockBooks”: BlockBooks is a marketplace based on Hyperledger Fabric that offers comprehensive asset tracking from production to vehicle usage and services, connecting all stakeholders relevant to identify true vehicle value in the after-market.

Team “Treecall”: Tackling the problems of automotive recalls via supply chain management based on Ethereum. Treecall enables more secure, cheaper and faster recalls and predictive defect management.

Team “CGC”: CGC is a smart financial data auditing solution based on IOTA.

Team “CryptoCrumbs”: CryptoCrumbs offers a smart shipments B2B solution for logistics combining AI, machine learning and Blockchain based on Hyperledger.

Team “The CUBE”: A general purpose Blockchain enabled plug-in HW device that combines sensors and connectivity for monitoring supply chain conditions based on IOTA.

Team “IPrint”: IPrint is a solution for filing and protecting digital product models in additive manufacturing, incentivizing content creators and enabling on-demand manufacturing. It is based on a combination of permissioned and permissionless Blockchain architecture on Ethereum and IFPS.

Team “Data Park”: Parking your car has never been easier. Aggregating all parking spot data into a real-time parking map. A data marketplace that collects and trades parking spaces based on Ethereum integrating Streamr.

Team “Hyperprivacy”: Hyperprivacy is addressing dangerous goods transport using a combination of smart IoT devices for monitoring and the Hyperledger Blockchain.

Team “Innewsveritas”: Innewsveritas is trying to combat fake news. A plug-in for news sites and content creators to authenticate sources of content validated via the community and AI based on R3 Corda.

Team “Juve “: Mobility app to revolutionize how we consume public transportation by providing an intermodal ticketing platform for seamless usage of different means of public transport.

Team “Relathereum”: A solution combining mobile sleeping capsules. A mobile application for end users and Blockchain based backend to manage bookings and real-time payments based on Ethereum.

Team “Rocket Billing”: Rocket Billing is a solution for intra-company billing systems for small and medium sized companies based on a private, distributed Blockchain enabling real-time and cost-efficient accounting. Open source and based on Stellar, integrating an own token as payment mechanism.

Team “StartBlock”: StartBlock is a decentralized EV charging station marketplace to accelerate growth of charging stations. Based on Ethereum and integrating Raiden as L2 payment channel.

 

The second Blockchain Hackathon Stuttgart showed once more the huge potential of hackers in our region. We’re impressed by all the great ideas that were developed in these three days. Therefore we give a huge shout out to all sponsors, mentors and participants for paving the way into a new crypto future – to be continued…