EOS Nairobi attended the third series of the Global EOS Hackathon in London on 22 and 23 September 2018, an event that convened hackers and developers from all over the world to build decentralized apps on the EOSIO platform. Over 44 countries were represented at the London hackathon.

The global series of events were introduced by Block.One with the aim of supporting the growth of a decentralized global community. The first two events took place in Hong Kong and Sydney earlier this year while the fourth event will take place in San Francisco on 10 and 11 November.

The events will be followed by a Grand Finale Pitch Competition where winners of each event will have the opportunity to compete for the grand prize of $500,000 and a sit down with Block.one and EOS VC. The global hackathon has set aside $1,500,000 in prizes across the five events.

The individual event prizes include $100,000, $25,000, and $10,000 for the first, second, and third winners respectively. In addition, there will be three $3,000 superlative prizes for teams with the best user experience design, the greatest social media impact, and the best social media post.

EOS Nairobi co-founder and Chief Executive, Daniel Kimotho, said he attended the event with a purpose of learning and experiencing a hackathon which will help the community to plan better hackathons in Africa.

The EOS Hackathon Challenge: Data Security & Privacy

The London EOS Hackathon challenge focused on data security and privacy, two aspects that are crucial in the digital world. The participants were expected to create an application on the EOSIO platform that improves the relationship between technology and a user’s privacy or security. The challenge also entailed engaging the EOS community on the EOSIO social media channels.

“Blockchain has the potential to redefine the way we understand technology and its effects on a user’s privacy and security. […] Now is the time to explore ways in which this new technology will impact our personal security or privacy in applications we use online every day,” the EOS site noted.

The hackathon allowed teams of five to participate in the challenge where some of the rules included starting coding at the same time, conducting a 3-minute presentation of prototype, and a 2-minute Q&A from the judges.

The judging included a maximum score of 20 with five points each awarded to the utilization of EOSIO blockchain technology, creativity, impact, and scalability.

Expanding the EOS Community Across Africa

The Block.One team is excited in promoting a developer ecosystem on the continent since several nations are launching EOS communities and there is a lot of developer interest in the project according to Kimotho. Some of the African countries with EOS communities include Nigeria, Botswana, and Kenya.

Discussions in London by EOS Nairobi were mostly around growing the EOS community in Africa with a lot of concentration around equipping developers with skills to develop on blockchain.

EOS Nairobi is also planning on creating a portal for developers across the continent with the aim of instilling them with the skills to develop on the blockchain. The Nairobi-based community is also interested in incorporating the EOS Universal Basic Income (UBI) in Africa.

In order to grow a developer ecosystem across Africa, EOS Nairobi is opening more branches in partnership with Genesis Block Africa. EOS communities and training programs for EOS developers will allow for development of more solutions on the continent on EOSIO and EOS Nairobi is spearheading this movement.

One of these developer communities to be created outside of Kenya is EOS Botswana, under the able leadership of Alakanani Itireleng. In a Medium post, EOS Nairobi stated that:

“EOS Botswana will receive support from the EOS Nairobi community in setting up the community. EOS Nairobi will among other things provide developer training support on EOS, community growth and education support as well as increasing adoption of EOS in Botswana.”

Enabling thriving developer communities is also a top agenda for Block.One, the company behind the EOSIO blockchain protocol.

According to an article on the Cryptonomist, the co-founder and CTO of Block.one Daniel Larimer is one of the supporters of UBI and he recommends creating a Basic Income System within EOS by allocating four per cent of the total EOS supply annually to the creation of a treasury. The treasury will be used for Universal Basic Income.

However, Larimer rebranded UBI to Universal Resource Inheritance (URI) to clarify that his idea is not about income or providing a basic level of sustenance but is about equal opportunities for everyone with regards to property rights and a balance of political control.

“Nobody should have the right to unilaterally claim the Earth’s resources like oceans, forests, minerals and land, as well as all the other forms of abundance the earth holds that have been unjustly appropriated,” the article reads.

With a view of Africa, URI has the potential to reduce the control governments and the wealthy have on resources such as land and minerals and reduce corruption.