DIGITALL EXPERTS WITH BEST OVERALL PRODUCT PRIZE AT THE BITCOIN BANKATHON IN EL SALVADOR

The award-winning “Growr On-chain” project was developed by a team of international experts and supports fair and decentralized lending.

Frankfurt, Germany/Sofia, Bulgaria, January 21, 2022

An international team including Financial Services & Insurance experts and developers from DIGITALL won the prize for Best Overall Product at the Bitcoin Bankathon in El Salvador with their project “Growr On-chain” – a global, decentralized, open and fair lending protocol. The main task of the Bankathon participants was to “build the next generation of blockchain-based banking applications to unlock improved financial services in El Salvador”*.

The goal of the Bitcoin Bankathon

The Bitcoin Bankathon in El Salvador took place online between November 19th and December 7th, ending both online and on-site at Hacienda de Los Miranda in El Salvador. The main objective of the hackathon was to find solutions to five major Bitcoin-related challenges for the financial sector of the Latin American country that are as follows:

1. Facilitate the creation of an inclusive Bitcoin-enabled neobank (a virtual bank) for El Salvador

2. Redesign Bitcoin remittances to support people who rely on money from abroad

3. Assist banks and crypto companies in engaging the citizens of El Salvador to fight climate change

4. Leverage bitcoin and open banking data to empower women’s financial stability

5. Support merchants with the help of open banking data and smart contracts

Among the 324 participants from 40+ different countries that developed applications to address these challenges, winners were announced in five categories: Best Overall Product (main prize), Best Use of Off-Chain Data, Best Use of Advanced Technology, Most Visionary Concept, and Social Media Hero.

Growr On-chain – the fair lending protocol of the future

One of the two distinguished applications in the category Best Overall Product was Growr On-chain – “a decentralized protocol for providing open access to peer-to-peer lending services, in which institutional and individual investors can fund lending pools according to their risk/reward appetite, and borrowers can apply for and receive unsecured loans (loans without collateral)”**.

The fundamental advantages of Growr are educating and building better money habits in people so they have more control over their capital and strengthen their financial health. Growr uses the latest financial technologies to help people with little or no savings receive fair loans and manage their finances in the way that is most beneficial to them, protecting them from inflation and shifts in the financial system. The application covers the last two challenges on the list by taking into account women and micro-traders from poor communities who are at a high risk of financial hardship and violence and by providing a “fully decentralized architecture for funding and consuming loans on top of the Bitcoin network”**.

The Peseta mobile app, part of the Growr project, allows borrowers to connect with investors based on their risk profile on the Growr peer-to-peer platform (which uses data from the Open Banking Project API) and benefit from smart contracts on the RSK chain.

Find out more about the technology behind Growr On-chain.

DIGITALL experts part of the Growr team

Growr was developed by an international team consisting of experienced professionals among which several DIGITALL experts including Zhivko Angelov, Principal FSI Consultant, and Radoy Stoyanov, Vice President Financial Services Industry, who was invited to refine the vision of the project and pitch it to the jury.

Commenting on the Growr On-chain project, Zhivko Angelov said: „Our application Growr helps vulnerable people to save, grow, and get fair loans for a better life“.

DIGITALL is proud of its experts, who have developed various financial solutions within the last several years. In 2020, DIGITALL (then BULPROS) became one of the first IBM partners in EMEA to acquire the Build Competency for Banking and Financial Services for its ability to deliver cutting-edge AI-driven technology that can help banks transform and future-proof their operations. Through the unique combination of technology expertise, industry competence and customized approach, DIGITALL can deliver added value to its FSI clients.

You can find further information about DIGITALL’s FSI solutions.

* Source: https://bitcoin-bankathon.devpost.com/

** Source: https://devpost.com/software/growr-on-chain

About DIGITALL

We are DIGITALL – a digital leader born from two technology and business driven consulting companies with more than 20 years of success and experience on the global market. By joining forces, we deliver the next generation Digital Transformation & Digital Cloud Experience to enterprises. We digitalize and protect customers, employees and data. Our customers rely on us to transform their core business processes in a secure way in the digital world.

DIGITALL operates on a global scale with over 1,400 employees across 27 offices in 12 countries located in Europe and North America.

In addition to building a competitive portfolio, our team of expert employees has established strong relationships with strategic technology partners, including Salesforce, Microsoft, IBM, SAP, Oracle, Cisco, Snowflake, Zuora etc.