Cristóbal Blanco García, Head of Marketing at Qredo, reflects on Qredo's participation in the El Salvador Bitcoin Banking Marathon. He also shared why he is more excited about the potential of crypto in Latin America in 2022 and beyond.
Last year was a busy one for Qredo, but for me last month's Bitcoin Banking Blackathon was a personal highlight.
Traveling to El Salvador and seeing street vendors accepting bitcoin for prices in sats is something I've always dreamed about.
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First-Ever Bitcoin Banking Hackathon
From November 18th to December 9th, 2021, Qredo Unitedand, Open Bank Project, API3andTropykus, co-hostedBitcoin Banking Hackathon.
In case you missed the previous news, here’s a recap: El Salvador is the first country in the world to approve Bitcoin as legal tender — and here it isNayib BukelePart of the President's mission to promote financial inclusion and promote economic development.
The event brought together more than 320 developers (split online and on-site in El Salvador) in a competition to build new Bitcoin-based solutions—drawing participants from El Salvador and around the world, including Canada, the Czech Republic Players from countries such as the Republic of China, India and Norway.
It's inspiring to see so many talented developers using Bitcoin and blockchain technology to build new, democratized financial services for their communities.
But the icing on the cake was seeing these projects engage in serious, detailed conversations with the seasoned entrepreneurs and bank representatives present at the event.
To see these people collaborating around such a revolutionary technology would have been unthinkable just a few years ago — and even more so in a country like El Salvador, where about70% of citizensUnable to use the financial system.
As Bankathon's main sponsor, Qredo was part of the panel that judged the shortlisted projects.
While we are all familiar with the high-level theory surrounding Bitcoin, in real life Bitcoin and decentralized architectures are used to solve real local problems that affect everyday life. Deciding between them is a tough job!
Winners in each award category:
Most Visionary Concept:Tlanetia & Chimera
Best Comprehensive Product:BitFunding & Growr On-chain
Best uses for off-chain data:Cardinal & Blockchain Carbon Registry
Best use of advanced technology:PISTO.NET
Social Media Heroes:JV Social Media
Caption: Xavier Font Sole, Business Operations Manager of Qredo, participated in the event as a member of the jury for the Bitcoin Banking Hackathon
image descriptionhttps://apimages.photoshelter.com/galleries/C0000acrhihR45kQ/G0000mPzkQxQJW_0/I0000810rabzWiME/Bitcoin-Bankathon-El-Salvador
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Image Source:https://twitter.com/OpenBankProject/status/1468751492572196866
Lots of use cases for Qredo!Qredo's brand new infrastructure is designed to support builders. Here is a selection of Bankathon winning projects using Qredo:
Cardinal— A smart virtual debit card that allows SMEs and entrepreneurs to easily integrate Bitcoin into their business operations. Cardinal liaises with banks to provide liquidity to virtual debit cards and to fund bank accounts through transactions in customers’ bitcoin wallets.
Talentia– A mobile-first app using blockchain and bitcoin to provide sef banking and financial empowerment to women in El Salvador. Four out of five women in El Salvador lack access to traditional financial services. Reasons include many women's disadvantaged socioeconomic status negatively impacting credit scores. Talentia addresses this issue by providing a collaborative framework for community bitcoin banking and microfinance, supported by targeted financial education.
PISTO.NET– Low-income groups and those living in rural areas of El Salvador do not have reliable internet or mobile data plans required for Bitcoin payments. Pisto is a solution that helps merchants receive bitcoin by selling prepaid gift cards that customers can save to their phone and then be topped up with with bitcoin by family, friends and relatives in the US.
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We will explore more South American crypto community projects in a later article, but for now I want to mention some of the passionate crypto communities I met at Bankathon.
First of all, a big thanks to Diego Villeda Abdalah (https://twitter.com/DiegoVilledaa). He created a website showingWhere can I use Bitcoin locally?。
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Diego stillMi Primer BitcoinEvangelist for (My First Bitcoin), an international education program focused on El Salvador, teaching people how to use Bitcoin.
The charity is run by journalistsJohn DennehyFounded in September 2021, and is a Venezuelan cryptocurrency KOLJoJoJovier BastardoChosen to be the recipient of Galoy's regular giveaway for the Bitcoin Adoption Project.
instagram influencerJairo Andrés Vélez Pérezimage description
We are now discussing next steps with some of the event's winning projects.
We also had active conversations with attendees from the traditional finance and fintech communities who were exploring how to integrate and implement their own crypto payment and savings solutions.
For organizing this bank hackathonnational bank of el salvadorFor many, this type of event is important because it showcases ideas and creates a dialogue with the local development ecosystem.
President of the National Bank of El SalvadorCelina PadillaOne of the panel judges, she was ahead of most bankers in her understanding of the implications of bitcoin's wider adoption. We talked with her and the bank's technology team about how Qredo can help.
andOpen Bank Project，API3andTropykus. Qredo operates in the deep tech space, but forging new relationships and collaborating on ideas will always be a key part of reimagining the future of finance.
in conclusion? We are very bullish on Latin AmericaThe government of El Salvador knows it is doing something radical and has become a beacon in the international bitcoinization space.
The good news is that this event is unlikely to be the last. El Salvador’s neighbors Argentina, Paraguay, Panama and Cuba have all begun to consider how to adopt and integrate cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
Perhaps because of Qredo's large Spanish-speaking population, our commitment to the region couldn't be stronger. As our half-Mexican COO Josh Goodbodyexpressed, we believe that Latin America has the potential to become a global cryptocurrency hub.
The Bitcoin Banking Hackathon was just the beginning — a new space for a new seed of innovation.
We at Qredo look forward to supporting what comes next.
Vaaaaamos!! ("Come on" in Spanish!)
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