GRAZ, Austria, Dec. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BlockchainHub has announced Status, a WeChat inspired Ethereum mobile client, and Etherisc, a decentralized insurance application as the two main winners of their Blockchain Startup Contest, and awarded EUR15,000 in prizes.
Contestants from 29 different nations entered showcasing a variety of blockchain use-cases. The top 20 finalists were judged by both their pitch and a live Q&A session, by a jury made up of eight thought leaders from within the industry. Evaluation criteria included market timing, idea, business model, social impact, team, and execution.
BlockchainHub Graz created the contest and awarded the prizes in ETH to the winners at the closing ceremony, demonstrating the powerful potential of near real-time cross-border payments - just one of the many use-cases of the Ethereum Network.
"We were amazed by the amount, diversity and quality of the received 80 applications from 29 countries. Most projects share not only the Blockchain as a technical foundation, but also the common goal to make the world a better place," commented Thomas Zeinzinger, Co-Founder of BlockchainHub Graz. "We thank everybody for their participation, swift interaction and support to make this a great event and look forward to future co-operations with startups and companies all over the globe."
"We couldn't be more excited at the prospect of bringing Ethereum and decentralized technologies directly to the general public," commented Carl Bennetts, a Co-Founder at Status. "It's pleasing to see initiatives like this one encouraging a transition towards decentralization -- they provide a valuable service not only to startups in the industry, but also in exposing more established institutions to the potential of blockchains."
"It is hard to overestimate the impact that blockchain will have on the insurance market," says Stephan Karpischek, one of the Co-Founders of Etherisc. "We build smart insurance applications on Ethereum. While we knew we are onto something big here, we now feel humbled to win in such a great competition. This is a great motivation for us to continue with making insurance processes more efficient, transparent and fair."
About The Blockchain Startup Contest
The event was organised by the BlockchainHub Graz, a collaboration between lab10, Coinfinity and MakerSpace, and was sponsored and supported by Energie Steiermark, Steiermärkische Sparkasse + Erste Bank, eCounting, KaPa Ventures and the city of Graz.
About Status
Status is headquartered in Singapore, and is a open source project that combines a messenger, wallet, and DApps browser for the mass market to begin using cryptocurrency and decentralized applications directly from their Android or iOS devices. Status will be launching an API and developer tooling at the end of Q1 2017, enabling DApp developers to reach new users through its open, decentralized platform.
About Etherisc
Etherisc builds smart insurance applications on the blockchain, with the goal to make insurance processes much more efficient and fully transparent. At devcon2 in Shanghai in September 2016 Etherisc demonstrated the benefits of a fully automated process with the flight delay DApp. Now the goal is to extend this model to other insurance verticals, and provide investors with a truly peer-to-peer and decentralized insurance market.
Related Links
BlockchainHub Graz
Status Ethereum Client
Status is on Twitter, Facebook and Slack
Etherisc
Etherisc is on Twitter and Gitter
Status logo, download from: https://cl.ly/1m1y3U271y0n
Media Contact:
Chase Thompson
1-857-2044878
chase@status.im
