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.