Zurich, 18 September 2023
The Swiss Blockchain Hackathon (SBHACK) partnered up with Europe's largest Hackathon – HackZurich – for the second time, bringing its contribution through a dedicated Blockchain Special. This Blockchain Special at HackZurich was organized by Trust Square and was part of the Innovation Booster Blockchain Nation Switzerland program, powered by Innosuisse.
The Blockchain Special offered hackers the opportunity to tackle four Blockchain use cases, spanning two challenges: 'Blockchain for good', presented by challenge partner UNICC, and 'Blockchain for enterprise', contributed by industry partner Richemont. The 'Blockchain for Good' challenge is a novel and unique to HackZurich. It showcased use cases that illustrate the potential of blockchain technology in driving beneficial projects that foster sustainable progress in areas of public importance.
Challenge 1: Blockchain for Good
- Secure Voting Platform: How can digital tools and techniques enhance Digital Diplomacy to support international subjects, foster multilateralism, and achieve Sustainable Development Goals?
- Quality Education: How can blockchain technology be used for identity verification and management in education, including digital credentials, student identity, and record management?
Challenge 2: Blockchain for Enterprise
- Token/NFT Provenance Analysis: How can end consumers easily verify the origin and originality of NFTs or Tokens using an accessible tool?
- Smart Contract Interoperability: How can decentralized oracles facilitate the exchange of information between blockchain layers for material sourcing and product traceability?
During the Swiss Blockchain Hackathon, the hackers received support from Trust Square, as well as from experts from the fields such as technology, business, academia, protocols, challenge partners, and external associates. The Blockchain Special at HackZurich marked an important milestone towards the integration of Blockchain technology into the broader technology landscape. It emphasized collaboration on equal footing alongside traditional technology providers. By positioning protocols and consortium partners at the forefront of Swiss innovation and the direct exposure to 1’500 current and future IT experts, the Blockchain Special demonstrated a crucial fact: The Blockchain protocols and hackers showed that real-world use cases can be solved successfully, harnessing the power of blockchain technology.
As a component of the Innovation Booster Blockchain Nation Switzerland, powered by Innosuisse, motivated hackers residing in Switzerland will receive ongoing support beyond the hackathon. The aim is to empower them to further develop their newly generated, radical ideas and solutions.
The winners of the Blockchain Special were announced Sunday, 17 September 2023 at 3 pm CET.
Blockchain Special at HackZurich winner overview
Workshop Awards
1st prize Blockchain for Good challenge:
LedgerGuard
Blockchain-driven, end-to-end, fully-decentralized solution for digital election, voting, and referendum
1st prize Blockchain for Enterprise challenge:
Verifiable Blockchain
Verify the authenticity of a Certificate or NFT using decentralised technology
About HackZurich:
- Founded in 2014, HackZurich rapidly became Europe's largest and most prestigious Hackathon. Every year, 600 international participants are invited to Zurich. Since 2020, they are joined by as many participating remotely from around the world in a first of its kind hybrid setup. Participants are selected from a global pool of over 5500 applications, representing several elite universities from more than 85 countries. Together these tech talents develop highly innovative web-, mobile- and hardware applications during a 40-hour hackathon in teams of 2 to 4 people. International companies and organizations of different industries provide participants with hardware, brand new technologies, tools, datasets, and APIs to spark the creation of new prototypes.
- HackZurich represents a unique opportunity to touch base with new technologies, innovation opportunities and a selection of the world's best tech talents. The focus at HackZurich is firmly on fun, exchanging knowledge, and the unique atmosphere and opportunities for mutual learning and inspiration.
About Trust Square:
- Trust Square is an eco-system, positioned at the very heart of Switzerland's blockchain and deep-tech scene. Trust Square's co-working offices provide a physical space for innovation and exchange, our events inspire and educate, and the holistic service portfolio allows ventures of all sizes to succeed.
Since 2018, Trust Square has hosted more than 400 events, from panels and talks with industry experts to think tanks, hackathons, and tech conferences. With the Swiss Blockchain Hackathons (SBHack) over the past years Trust Square attracted more than 500 hackers from all over the world.
- Trust Square has provided office space to more than 80 blockchain companies, among them Cardano, B3i, Neo, Sygnum, flov technologies, Procivis, Verum Capital, Blockchain Valley Ventures, Bittrex and Consensys. The hub works closely with ETH Zurich, the universities of Zurich, Basel, Lucerne and St. Gallen, the Rapperswil University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, and Zurich's location development agency.
About Blockchain Nation Switzerland:
- Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) represents a revolutionary and disruptive approach for business, science and society and offers numerous application possibilities. Switzerland recognized this potential early on and has established itself as one of the world's most attractive locations for the blockchain industry under the name Crypto Valley. In 2021, Switzerland introduced new legislation that is among the most innovation friendly DLT regulations in the world.
- The NTN Innovation Booster - Blockchain Nation Switzerland builds on this spirit of optimism and euphoria. Since the so-called Crypto Valley has gradually spread beyond its original epicenter of Zug to the whole of Switzerland and even beyond, this programme combines existing initiatives with organizations and individuals who want to become active in the field of blockchain technology. True to its nationwide activities over the past years, the Swiss Blockchain Federation is now entering a new dimension by actively promoting innovation.
- Gold Partner: SEBA Bank
About Innosuisse:
- Innosuisse is the Swiss Innovation Agency. Innosuisse's mission is to promote science-based innovation in the interest of business and society. The NTN Innovation Booster funding instrument brings together interested teams from universities, businesses, and community around an innovation topic at a national level. It stimulates the testing of concrete innovation ideas. Innosuisse is supporting 18 NTN Innovation Boosters with a focus on a broad range of different topics.
