Shirley McPhaul-Castro believes that there is. McPhaul-Castro is the Director of CryptoCurious, an educational initiative from the Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association (PRBTA) that aims to bring Web 3 technology to the island in an accessible way.
November 11 marks the start of the Web 3 Hackathon 2.0, held by the PRBTA and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Blockchain Initiative, where participants will design and develop products to solve pressing issues — all using blockchain technology. Puerto Rico’s crypto and blockchain community has been steadily growing and is seen by many as the island’s golden ticket to improving its global position in tech and bringing high-paying jobs.
“Since Hurricane Maria, more than 90% of my friends have left. The island has become a lonely place,” said McPhaul-Castro in an interview with THE WEEKLY JOURNAL. “We can seize this opportunity to create high-paying jobs so our artists and engineers can stay and so that the diaspora will come back. No one leaves home because they want to, [you] migrate because you don’t have a choice. As Puerto Ricans, we want to change that, get our hands dirty, and get the work going. Hopefully more people will join us.”
Last August, the PRBTA and IEEE held the first Web 3 Hackathon, which hosted over 30 participants in 13 teams. This November, they are partnering with The Opportunity Project (TOP). TOP is an initiative led by the US Census Bureau, bringing together technologists, government agencies, and communities to rapidly prototype digital products using federal open data.
The PRBTA and IEEE chose three problem statements for participants to focus on: ‘Building Community and Individual Climate Resilience’, ‘Helping Communities Access Infrastructure Grant Funding’, and ‘Enhancing Children’s Resilience to Adversity in Puerto Rico’. As part of the partnership with TOP, experts from relevant federal agencies will advise participants in the development of their prototypes.
“By using data-driven solutions directly from the federal government, we would be able to create solutions that are more valuable, focused, and applicable to us here. With these challenges there is ample opportunity to apply the data sets. The way they are applied is up to the creativity of each team,” commented McPhaul-Castro.
The Hackathon invites professionals of all backgrounds, not just those in tech sectors. They want to see educators, artists, marketing experts, and others in addition to developers. It’s a reminder that blockchain technology and Web 3 offer opportunities far beyond investing in cryptocurrency.
“Crypto and NFTs are only 10% of use cases that blockchain can solve. Over the past months we have seen multiple corporations bringing blockchain technology to their organizations,” clarified Christian Meléndez, Blockchain Initiative Coordinator for IEEE.
Blockchain technology can be used to solve wide-ranging issues. For example, NFTs can be used to track manufacturing projects, trailers and vehicles, and even call records. “In the future, NFTs will be used for everything. Call records, SSN, all of the stuff will be attached to an NFT or a technology in the blockchain,” said Melendez.
Winners of the Web 3 Hackathon 2.0 will be featured during Blockchain Week, which will take place from December 5th to10th. They will get the opportunity to present in front of potential investors and other industry experts, giving the projects the visibility they need to continue innovating.
“At the end of the day, what we want is to give Puerto Ricans the possibility to create blockchain solutions to positively influence the island. I really do think that this technology is a way for us to empower ourselves on the island because it is open source, just getting started. It’s a tremendous opportunity for knowledge transfer to happen on the island. I have high hopes that creating these spaces and these events tailored for Puerto Ricans to collaborate,” highlighted McPhaul-Castro.