Come join us for the first ever "Bitcoin For Your Thoughts" blockchain hackathon, brought to you by Purse.io, GenLife, and Hack Reactor! This will be an opportunity to network, learn about Blockchain development, and present your project to some of the leaders in the space. We're also providing breakfast and dinner all weekend to keep you energized while you hack, plus a kickoff event (food and drink also included) the first night with guest speakers Chris Jeffery, CTO at Purse.io, and Mason Borda, CTO of GenLife. Enter for a chance to win one of three great prizes including 1BTC for first place!





Bitcoin For Your Thoughts is an event aimed to introduce both new and experienced developers to some of the groundbreaking tools that are allowing us to build with the blockchain in ever more innovative and exciting ways. Join us for a weekend of crypto-hacking, meet other blockchain enthusiasts, and get the opportunity to show off your skills. Your team will also get to present your project to a panel of judges for a chance to win one of three great prizes! (see details below)







How it works:

On the evening of Friday, March 24th, we'll invite all of the participants to meet at the flagship Hack Reactor location in downtown San Francisco for beer and food. There, we will introduce the teams and talk a little bit more about how the event will work. We've also got two amazing talks lined up for the night. You'll get to hear from Chris Jeffery, the CTO at Purse.io and lead developer for BCoin, who will talk about developing with the JavaScript full node Bitcoin implementation he helped build and why he built it. Mason Borda, Cofounder/CTO of GenLife, will also be there to talk about application layer blockchain development.

After that, it's off to the races! You and your team (or solo if you prefer) will have until 5pm on Sunday to build something that uses cryptocurrency or blockchain tech. Afterward, each team will have just 3 minutes to present what they built to the judges. The projects will be evaluated based on the uniqueness of the idea, the execution and use of the chosen core technology, and the overall presentation. Breakfast and dinner will be provided each day courtesy of our sponsor, Purse.io.





Judges

Chris Jeffery - CTO at Purse.io, Lead Developer on Bcoin

Mason Borda - Creator of Etherli - BitGo Alum - Cofounder / CTO GenLife (Blockchain / AI for insurance)

Olaoluwa Osuntokun - Chief Scientist at Lightning, BS/MS Computer Science from UCSB, and 3x Software Engineer Intern at Google





Prizes (generously sponsored by Purse.io & Ledger):

1st Place: 1BTC, a signed copy of "The Internet of Money" by Andreas Antonopoulos, and a Ledger Nano S

2nd Place: $100 in BTC, 3 Ledger Nano S's



3rd Place: 3 "Make Bitcoin Great Again" hats

All winners will also receive a 1 year of free VPN service provided by Private Internet Access.





FAQs

Do I need to have experience developing with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies?



Absolutely not! One of our aims with this event is to introduce engineers who haven't worked with blockchain tech to the incredible things that can be built with it. We will be providing support in the form of boilerplate repos you can fork and build on top of. The library we are showcasing, BCoin, is well documented with plenty of information to help you get started. Experience developing with JavaScript and/or Python however is encouraged. While we are focusing on BCoin and Bitcoin, any library (e.g. pybitcointools, 21, etc.) or blockchain (e.g. Ethereum) is also acceptable. Just be sure to justify your decisions to the judges!







How are the teams picked?

Once everyone is signed up, we will send around a survey to get an idea of all of the participants' experience level which we'll use to match you up with a group to complement your skills. You can also let us know if you'd prefer to form your own team but we ask that there be no more than 3-4 people per group. If you prefer to work on your own, that's fine too, but we highly encourage joining a team to get the full benefit of the experience, whether it's networking, learning new skills, or building a full-featured application.





What kind of resources will be available to us?

You will have to bring your own computer, however Hack Reactor is making most of their space available for the event which means monitors, wifi, whiteboards, meeting rooms, even yoga mats!





How can I contact the organizer with any questions?

You can find us on Twitter or reply to the order confirmation email that was sent if you purchased a ticket.





Why is there a fee to participate and where does the money go?

Since space is limited, the ticket price is to help hold your spot. Proceeds go directly to help cover the expenses of the event (namely food and drink).





What's the refund policy?

100% refund if it's not within 2 weeks of the event, otherwise 50% as there is limited space available.





Can I update my registration information?

Yep! No problem. Send us an email and we can help you update your information.





Is it ok if the name on my ticket or registration doesn't match the person who attends?

That's totally ok. We have limited space available but anyone who is interested is invited to attend. If, for some reason, you find out you can't make it, but know someone who's interested that can, we understand.