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Mumbai, July 28, 2015: There is a mixed feeling of skepticism and optimism with regards to BitCoin as a form of Virtual Currency, especially in India.
RBI’s added fuel to the fire when it passed a statement dated Dec 24th, 2013 as it directly addressed the elephant in the room, stating the lack of any regulation or framework to virtual currency and have made no official stance on it just yet. Since then India has seen the rise of three prominent bitcoin exchange startups that are making headway in bitcoin area, which is gaining great momentum in the west. To find out where the community stands on this HackCoin Mumbai 2015 is being jointly organized by Zone Startups India, BitStreet and BlockChain University. This will be India’s inaugural Cryptocurrency Blockchain Hackathon, a two-day event on the weekend of August 1st to 2nd.
The objective of the hackathon is to engage the developer community and startups to work on the SHA256 BlockChain API, which is the core of Bitcoins. HackCoin Mumbai 2015 has strong ecosystem support from the likes of CoinSecure, CitrusPay, Nishith Desai Associates, IBM Global Entrepreneur Program, NASSCOM 10,000 Startups Program, and YourStory. The hackathon features prizes totaling over 2 Lakh INR in value and the opportunity to be a frontrunner amongst the first movers in the blockchain community. Benson Samuel –CTO of Coinsecure- a prominent Bitcoin Exchange in India, the sponsor of the event, mentioned that Hackcoin comes at an important time in the Bitcoin ecosystem in India.
Samuel said, “More and more venture capitalists are seeing the opportunity of investing in the early infrastructure of bitcoin, however, despite the large interest, more applications still need to be built around it. We’re excited for the outcome of Hackcoin.” Suril Desai, Partner, Nishith Desai Associates has previously organized a Bitcoin Conference, which featured prominent speakers such as X-Prize Co-Founder Jack Hidary states the hunger for the blockchain understanding, had grown exponentially. Benson Samuel further added, “Blockchain to me is kind of like a metaphor for freedom and a peaceful silent movement within itself which is showcasing a prolific shift towards total independence, from an ideology that money is purely a centralized concept, with the blockchain we hope to enable, engage & empower the youth.” HackCoinMumbai 2015 has three focus tracks – Payments, Big Data & Digital Experience& it aims to disrupt the fintech space usingthe BlockChain API’s across these tracks. The hackathon will be held at the Zone Startups India,a leading Mumbai-based startup accelerator situated in the BSE building. Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director, Zone Startups India commented, “Thematic hackathons like these, where participants are developing solutions over an existing technology or API, is a great way to foster collaboration between the industry and developer community. Also, partner organizations coming onboard have takeaways in terms of a prototype that they can think of building upon. Overall it is a great experience for everyone involved.”
Rajat Tandon, Vice President, NASSCOM 10,000 Startups is also supporting the Hackcoin 2015. He stated, “Bitcoin is potentially the most important technology innovation of our lifetime. We’re delighted to support the HackCoin initiative to bring together developers to disrupt on Blockchain to enfranchise people and bring them on to the financial grid. It has such far-reaching potential.” Before the Hackathon, there will be an evening crash course by Robert Schwenteker & Dr Jeff Flowers of the BitCoin University on Friday 31st July. The session will cover the length and breadth of the blockchain, bitcoins and the potential applications of the BlockChain which will leave participants ready to tackle the blockchain conundrum
The event will begin on Saturday, August 1st, with networking, key-note talks, and master class by Dr Jeff Flowers. Hacking will begin at 2 PM after lunch provided by the event’s sponsors. Hacking will continue throughout the day and night until 3 PM the next day, when participants will start preparing for presentations. The event is free and participants need to register before July29thand can do so at their websitewww.hackcoin.io
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