There are some more or less successful Bitcoin and Blockchain startups that continue to participate in hackathons or have connected accelerators. The Bitfury Group, a company providing blockchain services, has raised $90 million in capital for Bitcoin Mining Services. With this money they were able to set up their own accelerator, the Blockchain Trust Accelerator.
Bitcoin loophole supported by Ernst & Young
Nevertheless, this company joined an Accelerator supported by Ernst & Young. Bitfury received a review for the Bitcoin loophole last week for the best pitch for a digital rights management solution based on the blockchain. This helped her to carry her Blockchain-based solutions to large companies together with Ernst & Young.
„Of course, we are very proud of the result. We have established a good business relationship with senior partners. We quickly understood that such a relationship with Ernst & Young is a good way to offer blockchain solutions to multinational companies,“ said Mark Taverner, Head of Business Development at Bitfury.
Darren Tseng is co-founder and vice president of product at Adjoint, a distributed ledger platform that enables smart contract-based solutions for financial services. He founded his company in June, but continues to participate in hackathons.
„I participate in them for fun and networking,“ said Darren. These hackathons don’t have much to do with his work at Adjoint, but on such hackathons you can find new friends as well as potential developers.
Places of pure creativity
Hackathons are also a good breeding ground for new ideas and potential employees or cooperation partners.
Jeremy Gardner, founder of the Blockchain Education Network and Entrepreneur in Residence at Blockchain Capital, is enthusiastic about hackathons: „This is the best breeding ground for new ideas I have ever known.
„Forcing programmers to get from a sketch sheet to a working demo within 24-72 hours produces a very special, raw form of creativity. You can’t find this kind of creativity anywhere else“.
Gardner has been responsible for the organization of hackathons for several years. Some time ago at the Distributed Health Hackathon he decided to become Saavha Co-Founder and Head of Business Development at the startup. Saavha is a startup who wants to secure appointments with the doctor on the blockchain.
He is of the opinion that programmers and other developers, even if they are already employed in a company or have a running startup, should continue to participate in hackathons. This is the only way to bring them together with new concepts, products and potential cooperation partners.
„The ROI is clear for simple participants, but it can also be helpful for companies to send their programmers to such events.