Accenture and Hyperledger host 'Blockchain for Good Hackathon' in Dublin, inviting coders to help develop solutions for digital identities and eco-friendly supply chains

Inaugural event takes place this weekend at The Dock in Dublin

DUBLIN; Sept. 26, 2017 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Hyperledger, a collaborative cross-industry effort hosted by The Linux Foundation to advance blockchain technology, have teamed to host the inaugural “Blockchain for Good Hackathon” taking place at The Dock, Accenture’s multidisciplinary research and incubation hub, on Saturday, Sept. 30 and Sunday, Oct. 1. The two organizations are inviting developers across Ireland to help apply blockchain technology to develop game changing ideas and solutions for providing secure digital identities and sustainable, eco-friendly supply chains.

The grand prize winning team will receive an 8,500 EUR cash prize and a two-day all expenses paid trip to visit Accenture’s Blockchain Center of Excellence in the South of France to develop their hack into a proof of concept. Blockchain is a new type of database system that enables multiple parties to share access to the same data with an extremely high level of confidence and security.

“Blockchain technology is on course to revolutionize how the world exchanges value, information and material,” said David Treat, event co-host and managing director in Accenture’s global blockchain practice. “This hackathon is geared to channel these innovations for humanitarian and environmental benefit, beginning with the right to identity and the need for environmentally sustainable supply chains. And we’re calling on the many talented engineers in this region to help.”

“The Linux Foundation and Accenture both have long histories looking for ways to apply technology to improve the way people live and work,” said Hyperledger Executive Director Brian Behlendorf, co-host of the Hackathon. “We see blockchain in particular as a technology that has the ability to drive positive impact in areas that may not have reaped the full benefit of the digital revolution.”

Participants in the Blockchain for Good Hackathon will work together with top coders, architects and leading thinkers to build innovative solutions that can positively impact millions of lives and the environment.

• To register for the event visit:

http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/blockchain-for-good-hackathon/attend/register

• To review the agenda visit:

http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/blockchain-for-good-hackathon/program/agenda.

Revolutionizing Identity Management and Supply Chains

At the event, developers will hear from Dakota Gruener, the executive director of ID2020 and Accenture’s Treat, member of the ID2020 advisory committee, about the challenges that 1.1 billion people face living without an official identity, and why blockchain may play a crucial role in the technical solution.

The event will also explore challenges in sustainable supply chain and trade finance and describe how blockchain can establish provenance and trackability to ensure that things like timber, fish, coffee and palm oil have been ethically sourced and adhere to sustainability protocols.

Julie Spillane, Director, The Dock, commented;

“We are delighted to host this blockchain hackathon at The Dock. Through our work with ID2020, we have seen how blockchain can be used to help people establish identity. It is a technology that can also enhance eco-friendly supply chains, offering provenance and traceability, as well as a multiple of broader applications. We look forward to seeing the innovative solutions proposed by participants from all over Ireland at this important event”.

Accenture is a founding member of the ID2020 Alliance, a public-private partnership working to improve lives through digital identity, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Its mandate is to bring verifiable digital IDs to the 1.1 billion individuals, including 65.3 million refugees that currently have no proof of their existence. In June, Accenture unveiled a prototype of a blockchain-biometric identity solution jointly developed for ID2020 with Microsoft that was incubated at The Dock in Dublin.

Hyperledger, the Linux Foundation open source blockchain initiative of which Accenture is a premiere member, includes the open source self-sovereign identity project Hyperledger Indy and also has a dedicated Identity working group focused on these challenges.

About Hyperledger

Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort created to advance blockchain technology by addressing important features for a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers. It is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and Technology. The Linux Foundation hosts Hyperledger as a Collaborative Project under the foundation.