Bitcoin Foundation Announces Bitcoin 2014 Startup Challenge Finalists

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The Bitcoin Foundation on Tuesday announced the eight finalists for the Startup Challenge taking place at the Bitcoin 2014 conference in Amsterdam this week.

The eight finalists are divided into two groups, and they will be competing on Saturday, May 17th.

Contestants for the “Won for the People” competition (presented by the Bitcoin Foundation) are: XBTerminal, who’ve designed a bitcoin point-of-sale terminal; StableWallet, a digital wallet that protects against price volatility; Mobbr, a “Plug-in to pay collaborators in Bitcoin on any platform”; and Open Asset Platform by Coinprism, a new open platform for both storing and transferring assets on the Blockchain.

The following will be considered in selecting a winner:

1. Broadens appeal and strengthens infrastructure globally
2. User friendly (especially for consumers)
3. Can contribute to scalability
4. Can contribute to liquidity
5. Increases broad merchant acceptance

Winners in this category will receive $10,000 USD in bitcoin.

The second category is presented by Ripple Labs, the “Most Innovative Payment Solution”

Contestants are: eSpend, a reloadable debit card for use on the Ripple network; RealityKeys, escrow and contract service; Zetta Payments (no description provided); and Qllector (no description provided).

Here’s what the judges will be looking for:

1. Can address common problems in payments
2. Improves on existing systems (speed, security, cost, and ease-of-use)
3. The solution is technologically feasible
4. Must be creative

For this category, the winner gets the opportunity to pitch their product to CrossCoin Ventures in San Francisco (with flight and accommodation paid for by Ripple). This can provide the opportunity for the winner to become and incubated company.

The winner will also get 500,000 XRP.

We’ll have more on this competition come this weekend.