Xend Finance, a leading financial technology company in Nigeria, has set out a $100,000 fund exclusively for the largest blockchain and cryptocurrency hackathon in Africa. It has also partnered with leading technologists like Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, Zack Seward, Managing Editor of Coindesk, as well as leaders from Google, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and Huobi as both judges and speakers.
The hackathon is focusing on boosting the developer communities in Africa and stimulating the ecosystem that will allow seasoned and aspiring developers to build more decentralized finance options using blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency has opened a unique pathway in the finance sector for all players. The recent trends in financial development, using blockchain technology, shows that it can play a vital role in developing banking and finance systems. These systems can cater to the millions of people that are still unbanked around the world – with more than 350 million in Africa alone unbanked.
Xend Finance aims to democratize access to finance by bringing more DeFi opportunities to underserved regions. As part of this process, the Xend Finance DeFi Hackathon will open access to as many developers as possible to build solutions where millions of people can access financial services without stress.
Partnering with over one-hundred universities and developer organizations, the Hackathon developers that can develop unique financial products to bridge the gap for those that have limited access to any form of financial products. The Xend Finance Hackathon will solve the problem of finance for developers, allowing them to focus on ideating and creating DeFi software platforms that target the unbanked. These software applications will revolutionize the way banking is done and create access to financial services, with the ability to help financial institutions reach a wider audience.
Developers can connect and brainstorm to find new ideas and bootstrap to attain advanced levels of software development. They can create products and protocols on the Xend Finance Layer 2 DeFi infrastructure.
Xend Finance has partnered with local and international bodies interested in supporting the growth of developers in the African ecosystem. Some of these partners include Google, Binance Smart Chain, and Huobi, among others. The hackathon is also supported by DoraHacks. Africa is the next big frontier in the development of financial technology, since it is home to a majority of the world’s unbanked population.
With an increasing need for financial technology, developing unique interfaces that cater to the need of unbanked Africans, as well as serve current users more efficiently, the Hackathon will be a major effort to plug this gap in the African market.
The partnership for the Hackathon has garnered prizes worth over $1,000,000 that has been provided by Xend Finance Partners. More information on the Hackathon can be found at hackathon.xend.finance.
