The third edition of the Blockchain4SDG challenge of the CBCat and BSV Association rewards innovative solutions that encourage sustainable forest management using blockchain technology.
Girona, 20th March 2023. The CBCat (Blockchain Center of Catalonia), of the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, held last Thursday an awards ceremony for the participants of its third Blockchain4SDG challenge; a programme aimed at university students that encourages training in blockchain technology, and its subsequent application in real projects, always focused on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This third edition was launched jointly with the BSV Association, a non-profit association that supports the BSV blockchain protocol and advocates for the construction of an ecosystem favourable to the regulation, encourages legal conduct and, at the same time, promotes digital currency and the innovation of the blockchain.
“For the first time, this challenge has combined the talent of Catalan students with others from international universities,” explained Carles Agustí, director of the BlockchainxODS programme, “Being an international challenge, we have had to overcome some difficulties such as the different time zones, but in the end the experience has been positive with multidisciplinary contributions from all over the world.
In the first round, more than eighty university students registered for the challenge. After a selection process, around fifteen participants continued with the contest, distributed in two teams, who presented, last Thursday, their solutions to the public in attendance today.
In the awards ceremony, besides the CBCat and BSV Association, there was also the participation of Bet Piella, councillor for economic promotion, trade and culture of the city of Vic, where the CBCat has an important presence with a vertical that applies blockchain technology to the agri-food sector. “The city of Vic is becoming a benchmark in the implementation of blockchain technology, even beyond the borders of Catalonia, as this challenge demonstrates,” said the councillor, “together with the CBCat, Vic City Council is carrying out an important project with some of the main companies in our territory, to build a carbon footprint measurement standard and then redeem it, a project very much in line with the solutions that are being presented today”.
In this edition, in order to make possible a meeting between the different members of the challenge, from students and organisers to mentors and members of the jury, the awards ceremony was held at CatVers, the Catalan metavers developed by the CBCat.
At the event, the two team captains, Álvaro Bravo, a student at the University of Oviedo in Spain, and Britt Trago, from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands, presented the solutions of the teams they lead. Said proposals are aimed at calculating and incentivising the decarbonisation provided by the areas covered, thus responding to SDG 13, to adopt urgent measures to combat climate change and its effects, and also to SDG 15, to sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt the loss of biodiversity.
Bryan Daugherty, BSV Association’s Global Public Policy Director, said: ‘The BlockchainxODS programme’s international challenge has successfully brought together students from Catalonia and around the world. It has allowed a multidisciplinary approach to finding solutions, promoting legal conduct and innovation in the cryptocurrency/blockchain technology industry. The collaboration between CBCat and other entities highlights the importance of building a supportive ecosystem and the growth of digital innovation, paving the way for a favourable regulatory ecosystem.’
Finally, the jury declared both teams joint winners, and recommended the merger of the two proposals, in order to arrive at a solution that encourages sustainable forest management thanks to a data tokenisation system enabled by blockchain technology.
About the CBCat
The CBCat (Blockchain Centre of Catalonia), of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and promoted by the Catalan Government, aims to promote the adoption of digital assets and decentralised technologies (DLTs) in Catalonia through the dissemination and digital literacy, not only among each and every industrial sector but also, and without exception, among those actors, individual or collective, private or institutional, potentially concerned. It promotes, explains and educates about blockchain technology, current cases of application and future possibilities.