The Babylon Project: A Blockchain Focused Hackathon and Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

World Blockchain Hackathon, a 100% community funded global organization, have announced the details of their latest hackathon on October 9 -11, 2020, a 3-day global virtual event that will attract more than 3000 participants and contributions across 50 countries. The Babylon Project aims to democratize access to global innovation with blockchain technology: its a project that aims on developing a new generation of diverse leaders in the crypto community within the next 5 years.

Key Takeaways:
— Community focused, protocol agnostic blockchain hackathon w/ 3000 global participants
— Focusing on diversity and inclusion, with international ‘Supernode’ ambassadors
— 200 international mentors, investors & tech community partners

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Babylon, from its history, is what many consider to be the cradle of civilization – the first time a complex societal structure came into existence by bringing together different people under one common vision to build. Gideon Nweze, the founder of World Blockchain Hackathon, is aiming to do the same with the Babylon Project, a hackathon that will focus on teaching developmental skills in blockchain and building an accompanying protocol-agnostic developer community.

“The way I see blockchain,” Gideon says, “is the same way I see the rise of electricity in the late 1800s or the internet in the late 1900s. We’re at a time where one revolutionary idea can create a significant amount of technological change in a short amount of time. Though I’ve been involved with blockchain for a long time, I have noticed that there isn’t an easy way to onboard those who aren’t familiar with this technology yet, and that it’s fairly difficult to actually teach people the skills to make an impact in this ecosystem. This is what I want to change with the Babylon Project.”

The Babylon Project is a protocol agnostic and community focused hackathon. For this reason, partnership is free and open to respected global and local organizations that have aligned visions. Chukwudi Derek Uche, the CoFounder and CEO of Village, a startup aiming to create an alternative to real estate ownership, is an active contributor to the hackathon. “Blockchain technology is still nascent, but for it to grow to its potential, we need to educate everyone about it,” Chukwudi says. “We need to show people what the world can look like in ten, twenty, thirty years with it, and get enough current outsiders to believe the same vision the people in this community do.”

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Hackathons, short for “hacking marathons,” are mini-conventions where designers, developers, and project managers congregate and fraction themselves into teams to make a product demo within a confined amount of time, usually between two and three days. They are essentially as old as the tech industry itself, and many products and companies were born from hackathons. Moreover, though, hackathons serve the purpose of creating an environment and a community willing to listen, network, and, most importantly, build.

Blockchain, on the other hand, is a distributed ledger technology, allowing users to send, receive, and create money without the interference or supervision of a third-party financial institution. For blockchain protocols such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, users trade coins for goods and services instead of cash or digital representations of state-backed currencies. The purpose of this is to return the power of currency back to the people, back to ancient Babylon where users bartered their goods and services before fungible currencies were created.

Dennis Liu, a director at BitTemple and a speaker at the Babylon Project, says, “Blockchain is the ultimate tool to remove international barriers by enabling trust and efficiency between different cultures.” The Babylon Project is committed to supporting emerging and diverse leadership in the crypto space. 80% of the Babylon Project staff are of underrepresented backgrounds, further solidifying the organization’s dedication to amplifying minority voices in the crypto & blockchain community.

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The Babylon Project is partnering with international startups and developer communities, and impact focused organizations. Though the Babylon Project is creating the foundation to support up-and-coming blockchain companies that may launch at the event, many venture capital firms are already seeing the value of this technology. For example, Andreesen Horowitz, a prominent San Francisco fund, has invested in over twenty blockchain-related funds in the last few years, betting that the next big wave of technology could provide more than just a return on investment.

The World Blockchain Hackathon series has been held for three years running, organized by a team of California blockchain evangelists. Adding to the excitement at this year’s Babylon Project Hackathon, the strong potential for hackers’ innovations to attract venture capital. “Silicon Valley VC firms and other international investors are actively participating in the judging for the stated purpose of assessing fresh blockchain investments,” said Gideon.

The hackathon is 100% community funded, for establishing a strong foundation for a decentralized blockchain future through #BUILDING & value creation across the globe. Partners include Africa Blockchain Institute, BitTemple, Blockchain Acceleration Foundation, Blockchain Chamber of Commerce, GVA Capital, InvestShow, Wiase Capital, UniDAO, Blockchain Center Miami, ChickTech, AIHUB, BlockLeaders, Domineum, XR-Labs, Village and more.

“One of the problems of hackathons is that there are many projects that can become billion dollar companies,” says Vadim Romanov, a venture capitalist at Elysium, a VC firm in Silicon Valley. “But they don’t have a lifeline or a path to funding. Providing resources to foster and reward innovation will create even more innovation, expanding this technology even faster than automation, electricity, and internet technologies.”

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