Singapore Blockchain Innovation Program (SBIP), an initiative supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) to excite growth opportunities for Singapore’s blockchain innovation landscape, has announced the launch of the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Challenge 2022.

Since its establishment in 2020, SBIP, which is anchored at the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing, has been enabling decentralization and data immutability while enhancing security and transparency in blockchain technology. Entrusted with accelerating blockchain adoption in the country, SBIP is working towards making Singapore a trusted digital economy and preparing for the next phase of digital evolution.

The Singapore Blockchain Innovation Challenge 2022 aims to unleash innovation and creativity to redefine Web3.0 by testing and challenging the next generation of blockchain leaders. The hackathon is organized to encourage the adoption of blockchain technology in industries beyond finance and help Singaporean businesses be globally connected and competitive.

Themed “Web3.0: The Next Vision of the Internet”, the hackathon tests participants’ proposed Web3.0 solutions with blockchain as the underlying technology stack. Applications are now open until Jan 9, 2023 and the prizes will be awarded at the closing ceremony on Jan 13, 2023.

“Web3.0, also known as the third generation of the Internet, is widely heralded as the next big technological advancement. It will have a major impact on decentralized applications through the use of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, empowering more intelligent and adaptive applications,” shared Professor Ooi Beng Chin, Program Lead at SBIP. “While Web3.0 is still in its stage of infancy, there is the potential to innovate and create solutions and methods to define and develop its technology.”

The launch of the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Challenge 2022 – sponsored by Bybit, Moledao, and Beosin – involved panel discussions and seminars featuring expert speakers from renowned institutions such as Dfinity Foundation, UKISS Technology, Phala Network, and Mercedes-Benz Singapore. The panel discussions and seminars covered all things Web3.0 including topics such as how Web3.0 can and will be applied and used in real-life businesses; dApps; security in Web3.0; decentralized cloud and blockchain; and the impact of a post-quantum world on the blockchain.

The Singapore Blockchain Innovation Challenge 2022 is open to students, professionals, and enterprises across the country who can bring their blockchain innovation to life.

Three finalists will be selected respectively from the Corporate Track (for enterprises/SMEs) and the Enthusiasts Track (for students/professionals) based on Originality, Business Value & Relevancy, Innovation & Creativity, Operational Feasibility & Scalability, and Quality of Pitch Delivery. These finalists will present their solutions at the closing ceremony and the jury will assess them on two additional criteria of Technical Competency and User Experience.

The total prize pool of S$80,000 ($58,279) will be distributed among the six winners based on their overall performance. Winners of the Corporate Track will also be awarded SBIP membership, giving them access to seminars and workshops, technical support, and shared testbed notes.
Additionally, SBIP has partnered with IMDA and SG Women in Tech to provide special prizes for promising female participants to encourage more Singaporean women to pursue tech entrepreneurship.

In Singapore Blockchain Innovation Challenge 2021, PIEChain and Automata won the first and second prizes respectively for the Enthusiast Track. The judges were impressed with the creativity and applicability of PIEChain’s end-to-end solution to enhance DeFi interoperability through cross-chain flash loans. Automata, on the other hand, presented a trustless cross-chain service to migrate NFTs to low-fee blockchains. Last year’s winners have been using the triumph as a stepping stone to further success, as they continue to develop their solutions further to become big players in blockchain technology.

“We are implementing a generally-applicable cross-chain token bridge that uses PIEChain’s Kafka backend to relay information about token transfers between chains. We’re still working on PIEChain from a research perspective, with a commercial application perhaps in the future,” shared Dr Daniel Reijsbergen, a member of the PIEChain team and Senior Research Fellow at SUTD. “As a researcher, I think the hackathon provides a good opportunity and incentive to put ideas into practice and compare the outcome with the results of other teams.”

Dr Ho Nhut Minh of Automata decided to join the SBIP team as a Research Fellow following his team’s second-place finish. “I have learned a lot about recent trends and developments in blockchains through the hackathon. The two-week adventure had encouraged me to become a blockchain researcher focusing on security and interoperability”, shared Dr Minh. “Currently, I am working on one of the key projects in SBIP, called Verazt which aims to develop technologies for smart contract verification.”

This year, participants will have a chance to show off their blockchain knowledge and expertise at the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Challenge and accelerate their solutions’ growth and development. Interested participants can register their teams for the Challenge before Jan 9, 2023 here.