Pitbull has become the latest name to join the crypto-craze. The popular singer flagged off of his latest venture, an international blockchain coding competition “Smackathon”, focused at innovating the present state of the music industry.
Smackathon is a name inspired by the popular IT event hackathon, will allow participants across the globe to use Ethereum blockchain as they look for innovative ideas to take on music's biggest challenges - ranging from artist royalty agreements to curated playlists.
Pitbull is introducing the event in Miami Beach where the eMerge Americas conference is held, which is aimed at connecting Europe, Latin America, and North America.
According to the Vice President of eMerge- Melissa Medina, they always wanted to connect a music component to eMerge.
The competition is simple: Participants will have a month — from 24th April to 25th of May to develop a blockchain-based solution via Zeppelin's open-source, smart contract platform. The ideas will be judged and tightened down to a group of finalists who will then fly to Miami to pitch their explanation to Pitbull.Medina also adds that Pitbull is extremely curious to solve the problems of the artists by solving the roadblocks they face. There isno criteria for entrants, they just need to prove that they can come up with an idea so innovative that it can disrupt one of the music industry with blockchain tech!.
Submissions will be examined on a set of criteria which includes originality, usefulness, comprehensiveness, design, and technology. Bonus points will also be given to developers who utilize the OpenZeppelin platform, which is the technical and back-end support partner of the Smackathon event.
"At Zeppelin, we try and make it easy and secure for any developer or individual to participate," says Zeppelin founder and CEO Demian Brener. "Doing Smackathon and leveraging Pitbull's brand is a great way to push our goals even farther forward."
The panel will consist of four judges, including Pitbull himself, the winning team will get assured $6,000. If Pitbull likes an idea, he will sign the cheque and fund the startup on the spot! Also, Zeppelin, eMerge Americas and Medina Capital are also planning to personally invest in the best ideas.