The SWIFT Hackathon 2022 continues our innovation mission to work together with experts in the industry to solve the biggest technological puzzles as the digital economy evolves.

We’re looking to harness the brightest minds in the tech world, and those at the forefront of finance, to take part.

Spotlight on digital assets

Following on from our hugely successful hackathon last year, we’re now drilling into the theme of digital assets.

Are you thinking about how new networks of value will be connected to the existing infrastructure of today? Are you concerned about the traceability of ownership of digital assets? Are you currently exploring interoperability between the platforms that process these assets? We’re bringing together experts at the cutting-edge of the latest developments around these questions and giving them a unique platform to share their knowledge. 

We expect ideas to fly, thoughts to be challenged, and more than a little disruption…

And we invite you to join. Entry is only open until Friday 12 August, so sign up now to be sure to reserve your team’s place.

About the SWIFT Hackathon theme

Digital assets are a key topic on the innovation agenda, as many leading forces in the industry know.

At SWIFT, we’ve already been experimenting around this topic with major industry players and fintechs, as well as using our expertise to help others.

So it made sense to take it one step further – and collaborate and innovate as an industry. That’s why we’ve made the theme for this year’s SWIFT Hackathon “Digital assets: exploring interoperability and ownership.”

The challenges

These are the challenges we’ll be giving to hackathon teams this year:

Challenge one

Interoperability: how might we achieve interoperability between multiple digital asset platforms to have a scalable, secure, irrevocable exchange of assets against payment?

Challenge two

Ownership: how might we achieve traceability of ownership of digital assets across multiple ledgers on multiple technologies?

Neither of these questions has a simple answer. But by sharing our knowledge and expertise, together we can create solutions. We want you to challenge each other’s views, think beyond the obvious, and expand established industry thinking.  

Areas to consider

Challenge one: financial firms want faster transactions and reduced costs. Meanwhile, the introduction of new technologies may well help resolve longstanding interoperability issues.

From a legal responsibility perspective, finality and irrevocability of asset purchase is a key question in traditional asset management.

Participants should address one or more of the following use cases: coin-to-coin, tokenised asset to a single currency, tokenised asset purchase with multi-linking.

Challenge two: for traditional assets, traceability of ownership is an aspect that the industry has been actively trying to improve and gain better control over. Could accelerated creation of digitally-native assets and conversion of existing ones bring new solutions?

Another factor is that digital assets will be expected to be transferred from one ledger to another, and these ledgers use different technologies. Will this lead to even more complexity, or will it force issuers and intermediaries to adopt relevant solutions?

If you’re ready to get going and create solutions to these issues, grab a team and let’s go.

Sharing industry expertise

When you join the hackathon, you’re guaranteed to be in good company. Last year’s participating teams came from leading global financial firms as well as cutting-edge fintech challengers.

The hackathon is an opportunity to delve into key issues affecting your organisation, focus minds, and benefit from the support and expertise of SWIFT.

The solution you develop could not only help your organisation but also future-proof key elements of our industry.

Individually, this is an opportunity to deepen your expertise, and to give yourself time to innovate and explore key issues. It’s also a chance to show the rest of your firm what you can do.

How does the hackathon work?

Each company can submit one team per challenge, with a maximum of 10 participants per team.

One solution per team can be submitted.

The winners will be announced at Sibos and have the chance to show off their solutions.

On top of that, the joy is in taking part, and knowing that your skills have added to some of the biggest challenges the industry is facing right now. Share your insight, and in return, you’ll get ah-ha moments, industry connections and the chance to innovate.

We want to foster this spirit of innovation across the whole industry. Because learning benefits the industry as a whole. And connections are our driving force.

Registrations are open until Friday 12 August with the hackathon commencing on 6 September until 23 September.