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A team featuring three NSW startups won a recent blockchain hackathon in New York

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NSW’s credentials as a global source of innovation in blockchain – technology which makes data more secure by splitting it up into connected blocks that cannot be altered without all the blocks being altered – were on display in New York last month where a team featuring three NSW companies won a blockchain hackathon.

Minister for Trade and Industry Niall Blair said the NSW Department of Industry – in partnership with Austrade – co-sponsored a delegation of technology companies to attend the Consensus Blockchain Technology Summit in New York on May 22-24th.

“It’s fantastic to see these three NSW companies – Block8, AgriDigital and Veredictum – demonstrate our State’s expertise in the game-changing area of blockchain technology,” said Mr Blair.

“NSW truly is the leading state for startups and for business technology solutions as shown when 34 countries came to Sydney to showcase their innovations at CeBIT Australia in May.”

What went down at The Consensus hackathon?

The Consensus hackathon saw the team challenged to use blockchain technology to create an application to solve the problem of safety in a future filled with autonomous cars.

Using a drone to simulate how the likely scenario would play out, the Australian team demonstrated how blockchain technology could help to gather data directly from the road in the case of an accident that an insurance company could then use to speed up the claims process.

The team’s concept impressed the panel of judges, drawn from some of the biggest names in the global technology industry including Deloitte, IBM, and Microsoft.

Block8 Technologies co-founder, Tim Bass, said it was great to team up with other NSW innovators at the Consensus hackathon.

“We wanted to show the community what the Australian blockchain scene has to offer, and how this game changing technology could be used in tomorrow’s smart city,” said Mr Bass.

“We knew our traffic system would require a high throughput solution with near realtime functionality and therefore would push the limits of blockchain technology. It was great to work with such a talented team of developers and demonstrate our tech on the world stage.”

The Australian team, considered to have the “highest potential for commercialisation”, walked away with $5,000 and a free three-hour consulting session at Deloitte’s Blockchain Lab in Wall Street, New York.

Sydney is among the world’s top financial technology hubs, with key strengths in blockchain, wearable technology, payments and big-data.

For more information on the team’s blockchain solution visit: https://devpost.com/software/blockbox