While the crypto markets are down, there is no doubt that the number of young talents entering the industry have only gone up – and what better place to see them come together than at NUS Fintech Month?
Happening till the 27th of January, NUS Fintech Month helps passionate individuals develop their skills every year with talks, workshops, and most importantly, a month-long hackathon.
This year, their theme “Fintech-as-a-service” has seen hundreds of participants coming together to compete competing for a $31,000 prize pool while developing innovative solutions to real world problems.
Talks From CoinGecko, Bybit, and More!
While the Hackathon may be the star of the show, participants were also able to attend talks with some of the top minds from the Fintech space.
Aside from companies native to the Web3.0 space, key leaders from industry giants such as Mastercard and PayPal were also invited to speak on a myriad of topics, including digital payments and community building.
With a core theme of “Fintech-as-a-service”, the talks eventually delved into deeper discussions on disrupting the current system of digital payments, sparking a fire in the eyes of those present. Drawing from their wealth of experience, the speakers were able to give deeper insights to those curious about the space.
Attendees also had the opportunity to interact with speakers, putting forth questions of their own both during QnA sessions as well as during fireside chats. Both online and offline workshops were also held, which took an experiential approach to learning.
If you missed out on attending the talks in real life, be sure to check out the NUS Fintech Society’s Youtube channel!
Borderless Banking With NUS Fintech Month’s Hackathon
As part of the month-long event, Hackathon participants were tasked in solving one of two problems in Fintech. Under the “blockchain” category, groups were required to develop a banking product for Panda Bank that could be integrated onto the Ethereum blockchain.
Mentored by industry professionals, the groups would then be judged based on factors such as creativity, feasibility, and business potential.
Although more than 90 teams signed up for the event, only 6 emerged as finalists in the blockchain category.
They include:
- PandaBorderless, Cross-border payments solution focused on remittances
- WIME, Smart contract-powered wealth inheritance and protection service
- Panda Pay, Smart contract-powered supply-chain management and reconciliation solution
- FusionWallet, A cryptocurrency wallet for Panda Pay customers
- Pandassurance by TRE, smart-contract powered insurance products
- Xyfer, Cross-border payments solution focused on improving the consistency of finance systems
While each and every idea here has already passed two rounds of rigorous vetting, their final demonstration will only occur on Friday, 27th of Jan, 9.30am SGT at the NUS SAFH auditorium, in front of a panel of judges from AWS, Panda Bank, Vega Solutions, Bybit, and 1Inch.
“Panda Bank sees great potential in Fintech as new technologies reshape financial services around the world and we are excited to participate in NUS Fintech Month and support the development of talents and the ecosystem in the industry!”
– Cynthia Liaw, CEO, Panda Bank
Itching to see what these young minds have prepared? Make sure to join the NUS Fintech Month’s telegram channel for more updates, and sign up to attend the finalists’ demonstration – food, drinks, and exclusive merch will be available!
Chain Debrief is proud to be the official Media Partner for NUS Fintech Month.
Also Read: How To Get Started In Crypto (UPDATED 2023)
[Editor’s Note: This article does not represent financial advice. Please do your research before investing.]
Featured Image Credit: Chaindebrief
