Africa Bitcoin Conference announces $5K Prize for Building for Africa Hackathon
From October 12th to December 7th, 2022, bitcoiners, technologists, investors, humanitarians, educators, advocates, and artists from across Africa and the world will develop and pitch solutions to problems using bitcoin technology as part of the Building for Africa track in BOLTFUN’s #LegendsOfLightning tournament which is also sponsored by Fulgur Ventures – A bitcoin and lightning focused VC. Project entries open from 12th October and will close November 24th at 12:00 pm (GMT)
The #LegendsOfLightning ‘Building for Africa’ track is sponsored by the Africa Bitcoin Conference. Registrations for the tournament are currently open; makers can begin discussing their ideas and forming teams prior to when e building will begin on October 12thh. The Building for Africa track seeks to encourage people to build solutions that solve Africa challenges and increase bitcoin adoption on the continent. All project entries will be done via the Legends of Lightning tournament portal. In order to register for the event and enter their project, makers must first create their BOLTFUN profile and add their project to BOLTFUN’s directory. Once ready, the hackathon participants can enter their project into the Legends of Lightning ⚡️ tournament and compete for loads of awesome prizes!
How to enter the Building For Africa track
When entering your project(s), you will be asked to select a specific project track of which ‘Building for Africa’ (sponsored by ABC 22) is part. The tracks format helps makers focus their projects over the course of the event, and to solve crucial challenges in bitcoin adoption either online or in specific regions of the world. The ‘Building for Africa’ track specifically looks to encourage participants to build solutions that solve Africa challenges and increase bitcoin adoption on the continent. , The #LegendsOfLightning ‘Building for Africa’ track will have 4 prizes available:
- 1st place: $5k
- 2nd place: $2.5k
- 3rd place: $1.5k
- Best design: $1k
#LegendsOfLightning Grand Prizes
Every project entered into the ‘Building for Africa’ track will ALSO be eligible for the tournament’s grand prizes. These winners will be the best projects selected across all tracks, and there will be 3 prizes available:
- Grand Champion (1 BTC)
- Runners Up x2 (0.5 BTC)
These grand prizes are kindly sponsored by Fulgur Ventures.
The track winners and grand champions of #LegendsOfLightning will be announced on Dec 7th on the final day of the ABC conference.
A call to arms for African builders
Over the past few years, there has been a massive surge in the adoption and use of cryptocurrency across the world. In Africa, even though internet penetration is low, the growth has been phenomenal with a 1200 per cent increase in adoption between June 2020 and July 2021. This growth has been likely contributed to by the numerous crypto developers, technologists, investors, advocates, and educationists operating in African bitcoin ecosystems. In Africa, Nigeria is ranked first in the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, followed by Togo, with Nigeria topping the peer-to-peer (P2P) global rankings.
Even though there is a huge driving force behind the scenes for the bitcoin market in Africa, there is little discussion on the tremendous opportunities bitcoin offers and the future of Bitcoin within the continent. This has created the need for increased collaboration among the various contributors to the cryptocurrency industry to reinforce knowledge and resource sharing as well as deepen networking between African actors and those operating in developed nations.
Bitcoin has transformed the way people interact with money and the global monetary system. Over 300 million crypto users have emerged in just over a decade, far outnumbering the annual adoption rate of other digital innovations such as the internet or mobile money. Despite having the lowest internet penetration in the world, Africa has experienced the fastest growth in bitcoin adoption. For example, the BitGive Foundation, which called itself the first Bitcoin nonprofit when it was founded in 2013, is running a pilot of GiveTrack, a crowdfunding website that uses blockchain technology to show donors how their cryptocurrency donations are being spent.
The winners of the ‘Building For Africa’ track will be announced as well as streamed live during the closing ceremony on the 7th of December 2022 at the Africa Bitcoin Conference at Kempinski Hotel in Accra, Ghana.
