Ether Camp’s second generation version of the hackathon platform – The Virtual Accelerator (VA) was launched with the intent of providing transparent and true acceleration to blockchain developers around the world.
The Virtual Accelerator has different ‘camps’ of developers from around the world working together on a completely transparent project. Interested people can view the concept; see the code being written live on their open IDE.
Interested people can also buy the Hacker Gold (HKG) through which they can acquire tokens initiated by the individual startups during the incubation period of the hackathon.
These tokens provide them with preferred voting rights on the way that funds are used to develop the applicable startup’s idea.
These early adopters are more than just the people who test the initial versions of a product, believes the Virtual Accelerator. Therefore, it guarantees the rights of each person that acquires the tokens initiated by the startup. This is achieved via the DSTContract, where DST stands for Decentralised Startup Team.
For the Virtual Accelerator, early adopters are actually real world validation that the project will have users. And the valuable contribution of early adopters is rewarded by providing them with voting rights.
The Virtual Accelerator encourages hackers to share their ideas publicly. Well explained ideas attract people who are willing to try out the prototype, express interest in the product and commit to the future roadmap. These early adopters are important as it proves to the development team that they’re on the right track.
The Virtual Accelerator proves beneficial to the early backers of a project by letting them show their conviction using units of uniform value. The rights of early adopters who support an idea and project at the initial stages are enforced by the Solidity [Reitwiessner 2015] smart contract deployed to the Ethereum blockchain.