NYC Bitcoin Center Hosts its First Hackathon

The NYC Bitcoin Center held its first hackathon over the weekend.

An educational hub for the cryptocurrency, the Center hosted a developer event to further educate the technically inclined about the power of distributed money.

James V Barcia, the Center's Communications Director, said: “Hackathon participants worked on ways to improve cryptocurrency exchanges and streamline bitcoin-related apps, making them more efficient and user friendly."

Some of the featured projects included various types of wallets for bitcoins and altcoins, including Coinbase. A walkthrough of what it takes to build a bitcoin ATM was a population demonstration.

"One of the more noteworthy presentations was on a bitcoin ATM model including a discussion of the hardware and software," said Barcia.

Another intriguing project was Miningbot, a mining hardware that finds and mines the best cyprocurrency opportunities based on a number of daily metrics. During the hackathon, it became clear that Miningbot may be a viable business to pursue. “It’s a company formed as a result of our hackathon," Barcia said.

Another potentially viable venture Barcia described was a hardware project that uses Raspberry Pi and Arduino to allow travellers to automatically check in to their rooms: virtual currency solving a common travel problem.

"Basically, every doorknob at every vacation rental can be a hotel front desk. You check into a vacation rental with a QR code at the door, the door opens as you pay with bitcoin, and when you leave it pays the cleaning service with bitcoin."

The event lasted over a 72-hour period, and ended on the US holiday commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.

Going forward, the NYC Bitcoin Center plans to host these types of hackathons once every month.

The Center is located on Broad street in Manhattan, a location that is in close proximity to the New York Stock Exchange. It's no wonder, then, that it plans to educate investors with a bitcoin-based curriculum.

Bitcoin 101, digital currency, mining classes, cold storage classes and an internship program are all educational opportunities available to at the NYC Bitcoin Center, according to Barcia.

The NYC Bitcoin Center first opened on New Years Eve. Interestingly enough, the inaugural event there to celebrate the New Year featured a Republican primary candidate for US Congress wearing a QR code to elicit bitcoin donations for his campaign.

The Center's Facebook page, which it is currently using to communicate upcoming events, can be found here.