Hear from Frederic Meyer-Scharenberg, Technology Hub Manager at Trust Square AG’s, organizer of the Swiss Blockchain Hackathon 2021, why they chose to use Request to pay out crypto prizes at their event.
“Using Request, we could effortlessly manage, and pay invoices denominated in both fiat and crypto. This ensured that the winning teams were paid promptly, and without error after the hackathon”.
About the Swiss Blockchain Hackathon
This year’s Swiss Blockchain Hackathon, or #SBHACK21 saw over 400 participants from 31 countries come together to tackle real-world challenges with applications built on cutting-edge blockchain protocols like Algorand, Casper, NEAR Protocol, Streamr, and Velas.
The sixteen-day hackathon held in October, took place simultaneously at locations across Switzerland, with many more joining in online from around the globe. Over $380,000 in fiat, crypto, and other swag was awarded in 17 prizes among the 29 teams who took part in SBHACK21. Of which, $65,000 was awarded in crypto tokens.
What challenges led to using Request Finance?
Managing prize monies in both fiat currencies like CHF, and different crypto tokens is slow, laborious, and error prone.
Leading up to the event, we needed to track and account for the prizes being sent in the native tokens of the protocols sponsoring the hackathon. This included tokens not compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
After the event, it would also have been a lengthy and tedious effort to meticulously detail payouts of the prizes, and reconcile participants’ data like wallet addresses from an Excel sheet.
In previous events, the crypto prizes had to be transferred to a hardware wallet and then transferred individually to each winner — a very cumbersome procedure.
What were the benefits of using Request Finance?
As the hackathon organizers, using Request is an easier and less error-prone way to manage crypto payments in different tokens. The ability to make batch payments meant we could effortlessly manage, and pay invoices en masse with just one click. This ensured that all the winning teams were paid promptly, and without error after the hackathon.
What made Request Finance stand out against other alternatives?
Winning teams can use Request to send pre-filled invoices with the correct payment information linked to their email accounts. This helps us prevent administrative errors, and save time from not having to retrieve and key in the right payment details.
Request supports over 43 different cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, and nine different fiat currencies. It also allows both the prize claimants, and our team to easily monitor the status of invoices we receive, and to verify that a payment was made, all within the web app.
It’s a great way for event organizers like us to manage crypto payments for sponsorships, ticket sales, and competition prizes.
How long did it take to get up and running?
Within a day.
Originally published at https://www.request.finance.