For four days and nights, the Blockchaingers open innovation program turns Dutch multiple Nobel Prize-winning city into the global epicentre of blockchain prototyping.
From 5-8 April, over 700 pioneers from 5 continents will gather in Groningen, the Netherlands, for the second edition of the largest physical annual blockchain hackathon in the world with €100,000 in prize stimulus. For four days and nights, the city of Groningen – home to several Nobel Prize winners and a vibrant start-up and scale-up ecosystem – will turn into a global epicentre of blockchain prototyping. 63 selected teams will co-create prototype solutions for global challenges with their future clients. Software developers will work together with top civil servants, designers will collaborate with international corporate innovators, and entrepreneurs will join forces with investors. The Blockchaingers bring together a complete ecosystem, with official support from the Dutch government and regulators, that serves as a launch pad for exponential blockchain solutions.
Kick-off of the Blockchaingers season in the Dutch Hall of Knights
Launch Pad for Ambitious Blockchain Pioneers
“Our hackathon turns the best of what the Netherlands has to offer into the perfect launch pad for blockchain pioneers with the ambition to make an intercontinental impact,” explains Rutger van Zuidam, founder and CEO of DutchChain, the company organizing the Blockchaingers innovation program. “For example, where on earth do you have the opportunity to build on top of the most advanced pension system to unlock its social and economic benefits for the rest of the world? Where do you have the full support of a national government and its regulators to explore the uncharted territory of blockchain technology? Where can you work with international corporates and all their resources to explore the future applications of blockchain? By leveraging the world-class business and governmental infrastructure of the Netherlands and unlocking its potential for international corporates, blockchain companies and startup teams, the Blockchaingers create a scalable international blockchain venture movement.
Joep Beukers, Innovation Director of APG, the Blockchaingers’ Ecosystem Lead Partner: ”This year, we are joining the hackathon with over 20 colleagues who are all experts in the field of pensions, to co-create with the selected teams. Last year’s results and prototypes enabled us to leap to the next level because, honestly, nothing beats the experience of producing a real, working solution. We even aqui-hired one of last year’s teams. Of course, those solutions and teams need further development after the hackathon. This is exactly what we do, together with the teams, in our incubator at the Brightlands Smart Services Campus.”
Major Dutch and European corporates and governmental organizations sponsor seven tracks. They are potential launching customers teaming up with key stakeholders and essential blockchain consortium partners to challenge and support pioneering teams to come up with relevant solutions for their grand challenges. They will work together with the teams at the hackathon and provide essential knowledge about the industry. The close collaboration between teams and launching customers ensures that blockchain applications meet actual needs from the industry and society. It also forms the basis for continued cooperation after the hackathon, when the sponsors will become the startups’ first clients and provide an opening into an international market. Solutions that arise from the Blockchaingers Hackathon are not straightforward answers to one-dimensional problems. They rather serve as software ecosystem solutions for entire collaborative networks.
The Blockchaingers Hackathon consists of seven thematic tracks:
- Future of Pensions – APG Pension Service Provider (biggest in Europe)
- Digital Nation’s Infrastructure – Dutch Chamber of Commerce and Dutch Cadastre
- Energy Transition – NUON Vattenfall, Gasunie and New Energy Coalition
- Global Digital Identity – Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, DUO (student loan and grading administration agency for the Netherlands), Sweetbridge, Identity Insurance Consortium
- Health – University Medical Center Groningen & Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport
- Machine Economy – E-laad (Enexis)
- Public Safety and Security – Dutch National Police
On the fourth and last day of the hackathon, April 8th, the 63 teams will be judged by accelerators and super accelerators, like the State Secretary of the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops, Mattereum founder and CEO Vinay Gupta and Special Envoy for Startup Delta HRH Prince Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau. A total of € 105.000 will be distributed as cash acceleration prizes.
2017-edition of the hackathon
A Full Year of Preparing the Ecosystem
In September 2017, the Blockchaingers kicked off the new season in the Dutch National Hall of Knights in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Dutch Blockchain Coalition. To further prepare the ecosystem for the hackathon momentum, ten deep dive events were organized in which more than 3,000 pioneers participated.
“The first edition in February 2017 was a pilot which turned out beyond everyone’s expectations.” Van Zuidam continues. “The 2018 hackathon in Groningen will be the accumulation of all the potential created in a year of preparation. The ecosystem is collectively prepared to make its next leap. Teams are carefully selected out of many applications, based on their plans, motivation and potential and matched to the track challenges. By preparing the ecosystem and selecting the best teams, we expect it to become a hackathon with an exponential impact, topping last year’s results.”
