Ideas. Coding. Burning the midnight oil. Chocopies.

Hackathons are the endurance sport of the information technology world. And “2018 Unlimited ICON: Show me the passion on ICON,” held last Thursday and Friday at the WeWork Building in Euljiro, was no different, testing the creativity, ingenuity and stamina of its participants.

This hackathon, however, was about more than building DApps. It also a company-wide team building exercise, bringing together members of far-flung corners of the ICON world together to work as one for a common purpose.

Two days. Two goals.

“2018 Unlimited ICON: Show me the passion on ICON” sought to achieve two goals.

The first was to promote a deeper understanding of ICON from the perspective of the “consumer” by giving participants a chance to experience ICON’s MainNet in a direct, hands-on way.

The second was to strengthen communication between the various constituents of the ICON family, providing an opportunity for members of different organizations to work together.

Though blockchain ecosystem builder De:Nexo (whose head of strategy and development, Lena Kim, we interviewed here) was the primary organizer, a task force composed of members of Ad4th Insight, Deblock, De:Nexo, Nomad Connection and, of course, ICON spent several days planning the event.

The two-day hackathon was open to all from not only ICON, but also from ICON’s partner companies.

The participants formed seven teams of two to five members each. The teams were highly heterogeneous, each one boasting representatives from the many partner companies that make up the ICON ecosystem. The teams went into battle with names like “Team Contact,” “Rala-land,” “Team Grandpa” and “Show Me the Money.”

At stake – a first place prize of KRW 5 million in ICX, with smaller but still significant purses given to the second and third place winners, too.

32 ramyeon and Chocopie-fueled hours