THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Students of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) won the NITI Aayog prize at the inaugural edition of the Proffer Hackathon held at IIT, New Delhi.The IIITM-K team, comprising of Nikhil V Chandran, Adarsh S and Anoop V S of the Data Engineering Lab mentored by D Asharaf S, emerged as the winners in the India Chain category. Their award-winning entry was AgroChain, a blockchain-based transparent marketplace where farmers and consumers can implement a co-operative farming method.
The international blockchain hackathon was jointly organised by NITI Aayog, the policy think tank of central government and Harvard-based blockchain startup Proffer from November 10 to 13.
The objective of the hackathon was to look beyond currency use cases to see how blockchain technology can make a difference to governments, economies, businesses and individuals.
A panel of judges from Coinbase, IBM, Microsoft, Harvard, BoostVC, and Government of India assessed the projects.More than 1,900 students and young professionals from 28 countries signed up to participate in-person and remotely in the event.About 93 participants from MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, IITs and top engineering institutions around the world submitted projects.