Recap: Blockchain Israel’s Hackathon

Can blockchain save the world? There are certainly a lot of people who think so. One of those people is my friend Yael Rozencwajg, the CEO at Blockchain Israel. Recently Blockchain Israel hosted a “Blockchain for Social Impact” Hackathon in Tel Aviv where participants were given a problem to solve that applied blockchain technology to a real world situation. The options for the blockchain capabilities were IBM and Linux’s Hyperledger Fabric or Microsoft’s Azure + Workbench.

According to attendee David Suter, participants in the hackathon were given 30 hours to design a smart contract system with either Hyperledger or Workbench, which boiled down to permission or permissionless.

The winning team was a group of young women who are high school aged, some recent graduates awaiting their military service to commence. They had just met 10 days prior. Their winning idea related to providing true results in testing, which can apply to businesses and schools.

A blockchain hackathon is an exciting concept, because it allows for fresh ideas into the ecosystem. Blockchain technology is often daunting to approach, even though it is not as complicated or as new as most people believe.

Education is one of the main missions for Blockchain Israel. The thinking is that there are lots of problems out there that can be solved using blockchain technology, and those solutions could lead to a better life for everyone. By bringing together folks from the industry side and from the community side with a common goal in mind, the hackathon leverages diversity to provide blockchain based solutions to everyday problems.

There are many problems yet to be solved that blockchain technology can handle. I’m looking forward to the next Blockchain Israel hackathon to see what solutions develop.

Photos Courtesy of Yael Rozencwajg and David Suter