Switzerland Reflections

1. Overall Experience

I had never been to a hackathon before, let alone one in Zurich, Switzerland. In the days
leading up to SBHack19, I truly did not know what to expect from the experience. Now
that I am safely on the other side, l can say that it was actually pretty fun, and that I would
definitely recommend it to young IT professionals looking to build a career in Blockchain
development. Trust Square, the organizers, were incredibly generous, and my team
included was full of thoughtful and talented individuals.

In the end, attending the Swiss Blockchain hackathon was both a truly mentally and
intellectually rewarding experience, and I came out knowing people from all over the
world: Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and even Japan. I hope that in the future, we can all
reunite and build amazing projects.

2. What I have learned

Over the course of the weekend I learned a lot about myself. While working in a group
with complete strangers, learning new programming aspects, perfecting business
development skills and gaining more insight on Blockchain development, I grew
exponentially. Here are my takeaways from my first hackathon:

a) It doesn’t matter how much you know about coding… Although Blockchain
development was a new, challenging concept to me, I managed to still add value to our
project, I found my strength and showcased it.

b) If you have an idea, present it…share it…! Out of the many ideas our team pitched, I
don’t think any of them received zero votes. They were all very intriguing concepts.

c) Ask questions… a lot of questions…. about anything. I have learned the one thing
about asking questions is that it helps you as well as the person answering. You have to
be able to succinctly ask questions to keep your team on track and you also have to be
able to respond to questions asked of you especially if it’s being asked by a hackathon
judge. It’s true, the only dumb questions are the ones you don’t ask!

d) Celebrate any small victories. This is big. Many times I was head down, Googling,
trying new code for the millionth time but when that one line of code just magically
works, it’s important to just celebrate. This was really confirmation that I CAN do this!!!
 e) I was given a chance to do something I’m not accustomed to doing on a regular basis.
I haven’t worked on a group project for years. My current position is primarily as an
individual developer with my own work. The weekend’s experience in Switzerland was
refreshing to be able to work in a small group, of women at that! We all had very unique
personalities but so much to contribute. The willingness to help each other learn and
perfect skills was amazing to me. My mind is now more open to working in groups.

Apart from personal experience, I also managed to understand and work with new
technology concepts:

a) Blockchain is, in its core, an empowering technology. It enables digital peer-to-peer

transactions without the need for a trusted third party. The concept of decentralized
computing via Blockchain means that data is processed, verified, and recorded
everywhere. This can create some lengthy transaction processing time - you initiate a
transaction that needs to be verified by the nodes on that network before the block is
added to the Blockchain. Miners (computing systems that perform mathematical
functions to verify these transactions) serve an important role in the transaction
processing speed. With more miners or more high-performance miners, the speed of
these transactions can be improved.
b) Smart contracts are extremely powerful and unlimited, the power is in the automation
of execution and the fact that nearly anything can be programmed into the smart
contract. Subsequently, it can be recorded on the Blockchain after execution. Smart
contracts allow two or more parties which may not trust each other to operate in a
trustless state. In other words, they do not have to trust each other, they pass that
responsibility to the smart contract and the Blockchain to execute on their behalf.

3. Key Highlights

 Networking - the amount of interesting, interdisciplinary, and highly-

qualified individuals I met, talked to and worked with, was just an amazing
pathway for future collaboration on projects.
 Being introduced to new technologies: At this hackathon, I was introduced
to a lot of new technology, particularly Blockchain development which I
believe to be the key in developing future applications.
 Learning from others: Learned a lot from other people by witnessing them
doing something a bit differently and more efficient, and meeting Ray (a
genius) in Blockchain development - I got plenty of aha-moments and left a
lot wiser.

4. ARC Opportunities

 Explore how Blockchain technology can be used in new and existing projects
within the ARC.
 Skills and knowledge of various hackathon participants can be shared on future
ARC projects.
  Explore contacts made with members from other organizations.

5. General

Would like to thank the ARC for this amazing opportunity. I look forward to applying
the knowledge gained at this hackathon within ARC projects. I also look forward to
represent the ARC in future hackathons.