The winners of the IBCOL 2021 received more than 40 thousand USD as prizes
Mohammad Ali Hazari Russell, Dhaka.
Bangladesh successfully concluded the 3-day “International Blockchain Olympiad 2021 (IBCOL 2021)”. On Sunday night, October 10, 2021, the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence and the year of Mujib, a colorful closing and award ceremony of IBCOL 2021 was held at ICT Tower, Agargaon, Dhaka. The event was jointly organized by the ICT Division of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Computer Council, Blockchain Olympiad Bangladesh and Technohaven Company Limited. Other collaborators include FBCCI, BASIS, IBA, ACI Ltd., BRAC University, Youth Policy Forum and Ekattar TV. The much-anticipated Olympiad, which started in Hong Kong, is going to be held in Bangladesh for the first time outside of Hong Kong. In this year’s event, Bangladesh won a total of 4 awards in 1 silver, 2 categories and 1 prototype category.
Hon’ble Commerce Minister Mr. Tipu Munshi was present as the Chief Guest on the occasion. The Hon’ble State Minister for ICT Division Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak also joined the program as the special guest. The Executive Director and Additional Secretary of BCC Dr. Md Abdul Mannan presided over the program while Senior Secretary of ICT Division Mr. N M Zeaul Alam PAA and the Chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam were present as guests of honor.
The Chairman of IBCOL 2021 Organizing Committee and the Founder & CEO of Technohaven Company Ltd. Mr. Habibibullah N Karim joined the closing ceremony and gave his welcome speech at the program. The Convener of the BCOLBD & Distinguished Professor of CSE of BRAC University Dr. Mohammad Kaykobad was also there at the program as a guest. The President of Hong Kong Blockchain Society Dr. Lawrence Ma and Mr. David Siegel of the Blockchain Society joined the event online.
Speaking as the chief guest, Commerce Minister Mr. Tipu Munshi said, “IBCOL 2021” is a truly remarkable event with the participation of all, including government, industry and academia, and everyone has worked together. He said that it has been possible to organize this event very beautifully and successfully which will serve as an experience for the future. He commented that blockchain is a kind of database technology that is a necessity in daily life. The Commerce Minister said, “I believe that the International Blockchain Olympiad will take the research and development of such technology by the youth further. The government of Bangladesh will always support the talents and efforts of the youth.”
The Hon’ble State Minister for ICT Division Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak mentioned the multi-dimensional use of blockchain and said that this technology is a new type of technology. Palak said it is making a huge difference in every case. Fintech, Agrotech, Healthtech, Edutech – this blockchain will be used today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. So, we have to embrace this technology. Opportunities must be taken. Drawing attention to the youth, Palak said, “In the long run, the industry will be able to transform this blockchain in the operating model. The blockchain will be used to verify value exchanges, transfer of ownership and transactions, just as we exchange information across the Internet. This shows the importance of blockchain technology.” He said, “This technology will be used in every aspect of our industrial sector. Therefore, my call to the participants in the competition, the capital market, the Ministry of Finance, including the country’s private sector to emphasize the importance of this technology.”
Mr. Palak thanked the Prime Minister and said, “People’s Leader Sheikh Hasina has given us the courage to dream big.” “Under the good advice and leadership of the Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser Mr. Sajeeb Wazed, we have created about 2 million jobs in the IT and ITES sector,” he said. We’ve built over 120 million Internet subscribers in the last 1 decade. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser, we have been able to create a new industry with about 1.3 billion in exports of software, hardware and services.” Finally, he commented that the entire government system has been digitized.
In the end, the guests officially handed over the prizes among the winners of “IBCOL 2021”. Prizes figuring more than 40,000 US Dollars were awarded to the winners. Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards were given as thematic prizes along with 8 categories of prizes. In the Identity & Privacy category, Hong Kong’s “HelpProof” Gold Medal winner won 10,000 US Dollars. In addition, Bangladesh’s “Hopefully Hypothetically Theoretically” in the FinTech category received 7,500 US Dollars in the Silver Medal Award and Vietnam’s “VifaChain” in the Supply chain category received 5,000 US Dollars in the Bronze Medal Award.
Other categories include Rocket of Bangladesh in e-Governance, Brogrammers of Bangladesh in Document Authentication, Fidello of Hong Kong in FinTech, LifeLink of Vietnam in HealthTech, KidKat of Vietnam in Identity & Privacy, Adarna of Philippines in EduTech, 2Lux of Hong Kong in Supply Chain and DU Nimbus of Bangladesh in the Prototype at FinTech category the name is announced. Each of these 8 category-based projects will receive a prize of 2,500 US Dollars.
The Olympiad started its journey with an inaugural ceremony on 8 October and continued till 10 October 2021. This year, among other events, a total of 4 seminars on CBDC and Cryptocurrency, e-Governance, Identity and Privacy and Fintech were organized. A total of 12 countries participated in this global competition. Over the last 3 days, many national and international blockchain experts have joined the event as judges and speakers. Finally, the International Blockchain Olympiad 2021 concluded with an excellent musical performance by the popular Bangladeshi band “Miles”.
