Blockathon 2019: INNOVATING SOLUTIONS TOWARDS THE FUTURE USING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Minds collided and fingers typed fast as the students competed in the first-ever Blockathon that commenced last May 18-19 at Kadena Hub, Davao City.

Hosted by Mary Rose Ofianga, Agilab TBI Coordinator, the two-day event held a pitching competition which challenged students’ innovative ideas highlighting an emerging technology called Blockchain –  A growing block of records that are linked using cryptography which serves as a distributed, decentralized public ledger which offers immutability, security, and transparency.

During the competition, Ann Cuisia, CEO of Traxion Tech Inc., delivered an inspiring message to the students to keep developing ideas and turn these into reality,

 “Starting with a good idea and try to make a great idea. Be restless, do not quit. Have an intention on why you are doing that cause and to be tenacious after making that goal to reality”, she said.

Joshua Allen Santos, CEO of Kadena Hub, delivered his opening message to the participants as a role model to everyone, “I am here today to show you that even though we are young, we can do so much”. Santos, Bermil Espina, Jan Koichi Dayanan, and Regine Evangelista were the four mentors who willingly shared their insights and expertise about business marketing and the technology used.     

During the first day, 14 teams with three to five members from different schools and industries participated in the event including media and sponsors. The participants had their own unique innovative ideas that aimed to help the government, indigenous people, politics, cosmetics, education, and business.

With the partnership of Agilab, University of Southeastern Philippines’ Technology Business Incubation (TBI), the students’ ideas will be enrolled into a seed program, this program will enable their ideas to grow with thorough research and will be funded and incubated. According to Mary Claudewyn Padasas, one of the Blockathon participants, “The event was very informative. This event really helped us students especially in our field as future IT professionals because it taught us how to be innovative and made us explore many things.”

The winners of Blockathon 2019 has been announced. Kiarrah Menil, Pauline Marie Dumagan, Frances Dimaano and Rio Jessa Mae Florida from USEP won the first prize for their innovative idea called MAMAY, a new tool that enables mothers to buy and sell breast milk online. According to Florida, it was inspired by their friend who is a mother that currently suffers breast milk deficiency. Team MAMAY won 400,000 worth of incubation and 100,000 seed program.

An application that eliminates fraudulent sales of land by Joshua James Cabrera, Jonard Tanilon, Sheila Joy Regis, Michael Juanito Regis Jr. and  Abdur Rahim Jumlani won second place for their Idea TITULO. Also, Dannah Rose Sanda, Pinky Corpin, Rolly Lee Linao, Gerondio Asejo Jr. and Leonard Bran Padada got the third place, with their product CommLabs, a mobile-based livestock finder with geotagging for buyers.

It wasn’t an easy battle, each group had their own valuable ideas and that made the judges think thoroughly. Because of the uniqueness of the ideas and possible greatness foreseen by the judges, surprise consolation prizes were given to selected outstanding contestants; Lucid, Musikatin, BusKoTo, and Diploma. Lucid — the same with the 2nd and 3rd placers — also received an offer for future incubation. Lucid offers a solution for the transparency of the transactions done by the government. Musikatin, BuSKoTo, and Diploma received an immensely advantageous free mentorship from TraxionTech.

Blockathon is a truly remarkable event which offers students the opportunity to showcase their unique ideas. This event was made possible, thanks to the involvement of our sponsors, contributors, media partners, and most importantly, to Kadena Hub, who willingly welcomed the participants and gave them accommodation. Traxion is a place where aspiring innovators can be incubated.

Kadena Hub by Traxion.tech, shared its values to its participants by giving them insight into how the company works. Traxion aims to help elevate the social-impact quotient (SIQ) of any business or organization it works with through transformative technology. Ensuring fairness and most of all, serving the underserved segments of society by giving them the same benefits and services just like the rest of society.