Firm Puts Down $30,000 for Payment App Integrated with tbDEX

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

A grant of $30,000 has been offered by TBD, a part of Block, to address gaps in payment systems across Africa.

The funding support will be given through a contest known as TBD Hackathon, designed in collaboration with the Africa Bitcoin Conference to drive innovation, creativity, and technological advancement of payments in Africa using the tbDEX open-source protocol.

The submission period started on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, and will close on September 15, 2024, with the grand finale from December 9-11 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Developers across Africa will be tasked with developing a payment application that leverages the power of tbDEX. Join this hackathon and develop a wallet application integrated with tbDEX.

They will be provided with a sandbox of example PFIs (Participating Financial Institutions) to test their application’s functionality.

Participants will work in teams of up to two people and are expected to build their projects using the tbDEX SDK.

Six teams of finalists will be chosen and flown to Nairobi, Kenya to attend the Africa Bitcoin Conference in December 2024 and pitch what they’ve built to a panel of judges.

The winner will receive $15,000 in BTC, the first runner-up will take home $10,000 in BTC, while the second runner-up will smile home with $5,000 in BTC.

Business Post reports that the TBD Hackathon initiative is aimed at unleashing the potential of African developers and innovators.

The competition will bring together the best builders and entrepreneurs to address issues in payment systems across Africa.

Currently, many African countries face challenges such as limited access to banking services, high transaction fees, and inefficient cross-border payments. TBD’s open-source trust protocol, tbDEX, aims to address these problems by connecting users to wallet providers and financial institutions of their choice, surfacing competitive exchange rates and fees.

The Global VP of Developer Relations for TBD, Angie Jones, said, “We encourage developers, entrepreneurs, and innovators from all over Africa to participate.

“Whether you are a seasoned professional or a passionate newcomer, the TBD Hackathon is the perfect platform to build the next generation of financial tools for the continent.”