Over 200 participants from fintechs, banks, associations, media, and developer communities came together to attend the first ever “Inclusive Prosperity Fintech Summit” recently (April 6 and 7).
As a proof-of-concept, two independent parties and a bank joined forces (BlockchainSpace, BlockDevs Asia and Unionbank) to address an overarching mission of “inclusive prosperity” through two simultaneous events—a Fintech Forum and a Blockchain Hackathon.
The financial technology forum titled “Fintech Forum” allowed participants to learn from industry leaders throughout the weekend about underlying challenges faced in the Philippine financial landscape and the culminating blockchain hackathon (DISH – Decentralized Innovation Startup Hackathon) concluded the weekend with ways that financial technology could solve these problems, presented by blockchain developers.
The first day of the Fintech Forum kicked off with leaders in the regulation and fintech association spaces painting the Fintech regulatory landscape. This was followed by established names Unionbank, FWD Insurance, and Cebuana Lhuillier showcasing their efforts to use technology to enable digital transformation to enhance their current products and services. By contrast, the second day focused on payments and blockchain solutions that have an impact on the wider financial technology landscape featuring pioneering companies such as SCI Ventures, Qwikwire, and Coins.ph.
Happening concurrently was DISH 2019, a blockchain hackathon with over 75 participants spread across more than a dozen teams. Each team was tasked with developing a blockchain-based application centered around the idea of inclusive prosperity utilizing platforms such as Ethereum, Stellar, and IOST.
The summit concluded with judging of the 12 qualifying teams for DISH at the Fintech Forum where contestants pitched their project to a panel of expert judges.
In third place was Seven Seven A, a quiz platform that utilizing blockchain technology, Team Ernest came in second with an alternative schooling platform in which students can pay for classes using cryptocurrency, and grand prize winner GigaMike with their decentralized funding platform ProperEOS.
The two-day event was able to bring together like-minded individuals from both the local and international fintech space, allowing them to connect with the right people to help them propel their fintech businesses forward. Whether this being businesses integrating their API systems through existing platforms shared or companies reaching out to individual DISH hackathon programmers, the event achieved its goal for raising financial inclusion and prosperity awareness in the Philippines.
Major sponsors are Token News, HB Wallet, Aizen, CEstates and our organizing partners BlockchainSPACE, Acceler8, SCI Ventures, BlockDevs Asia, Oost & Voort, EOI Digital, and Unionbank. Last but not least, we greatly appreciate all our participants and attendees for helping make the inaugural Inclusive Prosperity Fintech Forum possible. Until next year!
The Inclusive Prosperity Fintech Summit is a partnership between Unionbank of the Philippines, Blockdevs Asia (Oost & Voort Inc. – EOI Digital) and Blockchain Space.