TAIKAI (大会 – “coopetition” in Japanese Kanji) is a web platform that facilitates the hosting of online hackathons or idea challenges and was recently selected as one of the 34 EOS VC grant recipients. We were happy to learn more about this project in the latest episode of the #BuiltOnEOSIO series.
The goal of the platform is to attract global talent and foster innovation by providing a framework to host challenges, manage applications and entries, vote, and reward the winners.
The founders decided to integrate a blockchain component to TAIKAI to ensure a transparent and auditable selection process. EOSIO was the obvious choice for its advantages in scalability, cost-efficiency and ease of use.
“For us, it was important that the regular user wouldn’t notice any difference between using our platform and a non-blockchain platform. It wouldn’t be possible to provide such a seamless experience with any other blockchain.”
In its first year since inception the platform already boasts a great track record:
- 17 innovation challenges by 12 organizations
- 4000+ participants hosted
- Approximately 500 open source projects built
TAIKAI built a network with many universities and startups in Portugal, where the team is based, and is part of the “Microsoft for Startups” program.
Companies and Organizations that are choosing TAIKAI will find a collaborative and intuitive environment and can improve the speed, diversity and quality of their solution development thanks to aligned incentives.
Mário Alves, Founder & CEO of TAIKAI, had some good things to say about the EOSIO community in the interview, as he is impressed by the quality of other projects and he hopes to launch some joint challenges soon.
Read the full interview to learn about how TAIKAI plans to grow, who else is in the team, and why there’s such great potential in online hackathons and remote cooperation.