Over 200 developers gathered on the University of Oxford's campus to participate in the ETH Oxford hackathon and kickstart a flurry of blockchain innovation. This event not only showcased cutting-edge ideas but also served as the ideal setting for Midnight’s first hackathon.
Read on to learn more about the day and the winning project.
A hotbed of innovation and collaboration
The ETH Oxford hackathon presented an environment where creativity met opportunity across five main tracks:
- Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK Proofs)
- Real-world assets (RWA)
- Decentralized finance (DeFi)
- Decentralized social media and gaming
- A mix of AI, account abstraction, and other emerging ideas.
Each track offered developers a chance to dive deep into blockchain challenges and explore novel solutions that could redefine the industry.
Midnight's hackathon was part of the ZK Proofs track, with developers keen to apply their skills to real-world scenarios and contribute to a platform that emphasizes privacy, security, and compliance.
Teams presented their visions and discussed details of their projects before a panel of expert judges who helped the developers refine their ideas in real time. Some of the ideas explored use cases like:
- an email information extraction tool
- a Chrome extension that alerts users when they purchase items that contain cobalt from Congo and enables them to donate to the miners
- a payroll transactions system that gives companies and employees privacy while offering regulators transparency.
Spotlight on the winning team
The winners of Midnight’s hackathon were Imperial4, a team formed by Grigorios Chatziandreou, Paul Pöhl, Rishabh Jain, and Edward Peterson. Their project, MediChain, is designed to revolutionize the handling of medical histories. By leveraging Midnight’s zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (ZK Snarks), MediChain aims to:
- enhance medical records’ security and privacy
- protect sensitive data and metadata
- allow temporary and controlled access to parts of the records
- ensure full compliance with healthcare regulations like HIPAA and GDPR while maintaining the highest standards of privacy.
Midnight Hackathon WinnersCongratulations to the Imperial4 and all the ETH Oxford hackers. We look forward to seeing more from these teams in the future.
Join the Midnight community
There’s growing excitement around Midnight and its potential applications, especially in enabling data protection in regulated industries with ZK Proofs. If you’re a developer or tech enthusiast looking to stay at the forefront of blockchain technologies, don’t miss out on future hackathons and the chance to be part of pioneering solutions that could transform industries. Join Midnight's Discord today for announcements and updates on upcoming events.