From third place to first in two blockchain hackathons

In May 2024 I attended training on the Internet Computer (ICP), a blockchain platform that can host full applications, not only transactions. Within a few months, I had entered two hackathons on it.

June: an estate planning platform

On 28 June 2024 our team, UWAYEZU Jean Felix, TURIKUMWENIMANA Daniel, NSHUTI Emmanuel and I, built a virtual estate planning platform on ICP. It helped elderly parents make their wills before they die, and later let their heirs follow the will once it applied.

A will is exactly the kind of record that must not be changed after the fact. Storing it on a blockchain makes it tamper-evident.

We took part remotely, because we had classes at the same time, and finished in third place, with 200,000 Frw.

September: TransFund wins

On 27 September 2024 the same team won the ICP Rwanda Hackathon with TransFund, a crowdfunding platform built on blockchain, and 500,000 Frw. I led the team, with UWAYEZU Jean Felix, TURIKUMWENIMANA Daniel and NSHUTI Emmanuel.

Crowdfunding depends on trust. People giving money want to know it reaches the cause and is used as promised. Recording contributions on a blockchain makes them transparent and hard to tamper with.

The part I'm proudest of

Most people who would fund a cause in Rwanda don't hold cryptocurrency. They pay with mobile money or cards.

So the piece I'm proudest of is connecting off-chain payment providers to the on-chain platform. A contributor pays the way they normally do, and the contribution is recorded on the blockchain. That bridge is what makes a blockchain product usable by ordinary people.

What I took from it

Use new technology where it solves a real problem. Blockchain fits wills and crowdfunding because trust and tamper-evidence are the core issues.

Meet users where their money is. A blockchain product that only accepts crypto excludes most of its users. Bridging familiar payments to the chain made TransFund practical.

Iterate across competitions. A third place in June was feedback. We came back three months later and won.