80 people from 19 teams completed an exciting 48-hour marathon in the 'Akbank ReFi Hackathon', which was brought to life with Avalanche technology and Regenerative Finance theme.
In the Akbank ReFi Hackathon, the first hackathon organized by a bank on the blockchain network in Turkey, Chainway won the first prize and MonoPayments teams won the second prize, while ITU Blockchain and MedipolDAO teams shared the third prize.
Akbank LAB has added a new hackathon with the theme of “Regenerative Finance” to the hackathons it organizes every year. The 'Akbank ReFi Hackathon', the first hackathon organized by a bank on the blockchain network in Turkey, was held at Sabancı Center between September 30 and October 2 in cooperation with the Avalanche network. In the hackathon, where software developers, designers and developers from all over the country showed great interest, innovative ideas were developed on the Avalanche platform that serve the repair process of humans and the world.
19 teams consisting of students from 7 different cities, 11 different blockchain clubs and 23 different universities, as well as private sector employees, projected their Regenerative Finance focused ideas within 48 hours with the support of expert mentors from the impact and Web3 ecosystem. Before the final jury presentation, 12 teams selected as a result of the technical evaluation carried out by the Hackathon Committee, consisting of expert technical mentors from Avalanche and the blockchain ecosystem, made their presentations to the jury.
BRSA Vice President Mustafa Aydın, Akbank Retail Banking and Digital Solutions Deputy General Manager Burcu Civelek Yüce, Avalanche Foundation Managing Director Aytunç Yıldızlı and Ava Labs Turkey Business Development Director Selim Kender, Purpose-Sustainable Ideas Founder Dilek Bil took part in the jury of Akbank ReFi Hackathon. Among the 12 projects evaluated by esteemed jury members, 4 teams that ranked high received their awards.
Chainway team won the first prize of 100 thousand TL by creating a transparent, fair and sustainable Quadratic Funding Subnet in order to find solutions to local problems with its “Local Impact” projects, while the MonoPayments team created the “MonoCarbon” name offered by the centralized carbon exchange system to certificate providers for democratic scaling. The platform was deemed worthy of the second prize of 60 thousand TL. As a result of the jury evaluation, the third prize was given to both teams. While ITU Blockchain, one of the teams sharing the third place, is developing a mechanism that stratifies the communities according to the efforts of the members and ensures that the members' contributions are rewarded with tokens, while at the same time determining the needs of the community and meeting with various supporters; MedipolDAO team, on the other hand, established a marketplace called “Granteed” and worked on the optimization of social development projects with the corporate social responsibility algorithm, and the improvement of social impact with the impact certificate, and they took their 40 thousand TL awards home.
“All the projects that come out of here are a source of hope for us”
Akbank Retail Banking and Digital Solutions Deputy General Manager Burcu Civelek Yüce shared the excitement of the teams competing in the Akbank ReFi Hackathon. Yüce said, “We turned the call for invitation to design a new economy that will repair the world through the impact ecosystem with the Web3 transformation, which we started with the ReFi Turkey Program, into concrete outputs with the hackathon this weekend. As Akbank, we will continue to support the ideas we have projected here and the ReFi ecosystem. I can say that all the projects that come out of here are a source of hope for us. I would like to thank everyone who volunteered their time for us, our jury members, partners and mentors. I hope Akbank ReFi Hackathon has been a spark to direct projects that will repair our future with concrete scenarios.” said.
“The next step is to turn these projects into products and contribute to sustainability”
Avalanche Foundation Managing Director Aytunç Yıldızlı evaluated the successful post-hackathon process. Yıldızlı said, “Under the leadership of Akbank, we carried out a very successful hackathon in a very niche area of ??blockchain that has just burgeoned. Since we realized AvalancheHacks, the first hackathon in the field of blockchain in our country, about a year ago, we have come a long way, and it is quite possible to understand this from the quality and quantity of the projects participating in the Akbank ReFi Hackathon. The next step is to turn these projects into products and contribute to sustainability. As an institution, we will continue to support the developer ecosystem.” said.
Akbank will continue to support Web3 and ReFi ecosystems as part of the ReFi Turkey program after the ReFi Hackathon. ReFi Turkey platform is open to anyone who wants to support to participate as a partner: https://platform.refiturkiye.com/
Akbank LAB plays an active role in many areas in the process of bringing innovations to the bank, from finding and developing innovative ideas to establishing business partnerships. Believing in the creative power of hackathon and seeing that it is an indispensable tool in bringing innovative ideas into the ecosystem, Akbank LAB team will organize hackathons in different fields from now on.
