Philippines has been continually progressing in accepting innovation through Blockchain industry. Many investors, even Filipino employees, are willing take chances in creating different solutions and build startups by collaborating with different organizations and entities. All for a purpose of establishing an entrepreneurship-driven economy as a means to nation building, sustainable development, and inclusive growth.
For this year, Singapore-based BCB Blockchain announced their partnership with two leading Technology Business Incubators (TBIs), QBO Innovation Hub and Animo Labs to build a blockchain ecosystem for smart city projects. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with the two parties respectively as joint efforts to reach out and engage researchers, startups and community members to use the Building Cities Beyond (BCB) Blockchain platform and its technologies to create smart city projects and applications.
The MOU signifies the partners’ commitment to work closely in critical areas including, co-incubation of projects, research and development, seminars and trainings, promotional activities, competitions, hackathons and collaborative endeavors for smart city or blockchain development. The project collaboration includes promotional activities, development of tech communities, mentorship, funding of projects and access to global markets across variety of sectors upon successful commercialisation of the projects.
Competitions, Hackathons and Bug Bounty programs will be launched in the final half of 2019 as part of the BCB education initiative. There will be prize money of up to USD$15,000 for winners participating in these events. Selected projects are given opportunities to participate in the incubation programs for commercialisation and fundraising.
“We are glad to have a strong and rigorous collaboration with QBO and Animo Labs, tapping on their expertise, knowledge and experience to create the next wave of applications for the development of sustainable smart cities of the future,” said Vanessa Koh, Co-CTO of BCB. “Providing QBO and Animo Labs a holistic understanding of BCB Blockchain platform and access to hands-on workshops, materials, events and technical support will allow them to deepen their competencies in the area of designing and developing applications and projects for smart cities,” she added.
BCB will work with these leading TBIs to contribute towards the breakthrough of blockchain technology as a strategic platform to accelerate the development of the next generation of smart city applications and projects in emerging countries, with the vision to build eco-friendly cities.
“We believe that blockchain will play a crucial role in the development of smart cities with increasing number of people living in urban areas. We are pleased to work closely with BCB and establishing their BCB Blockchain platform and technology in QBO hub to create the next generation of smart city applications,” said Katrina Rausa Chan, Director of QBO Innovation Hub. “It will be exciting to see the actual implementation of these smart city applications of tomorrow in the Philippines and appreciate BCB’s support to bring them to fruition,” she added.
BCB believes the next step towards a smart city ecosystem will be through its BCB Blockchain, and mass adoption is the key to success. To achieve this, BCB strives to educate the community on blockchain technology and build trust in its platform.
“Through the mutual collaboration between Animo Labs and BCB, we hope that our technological expertise and access to a wide range of research institutions will help to build and promote the growth of blockchain and smart city projects, promoting innovation within the blockchain sphere for smart city solutions,” said Mr Federico C. Gonzalez, Executive Director of Animo Labs.
Commenting on the initiatives, Jhaze Asuncion, Business Development Lead of UPSCALE Innovation Hub of The University of the Philippines (UP) said, “As part of a fast-growing community of tech-based start-ups, we are glad to offer our support to develop this blockchain ecosystem in the Philippines.”
