Key Takeaways:
- The company stated on its website that a “Santander X Global Challenge | Blockchain” awards ceremony would take place in the Decentraland metaverse on July 14.
- The six winners will receive a total of €120,000 and will become members of its entrepreneurship community.
- The ceremony marks the end of the competition organised in collaboration with the Oxentia Foundation, which received a total of roughly 400 entries.
As the blockchain and cryptocurrency make substantial growth with every passing day , large financial institutions are becoming more involved in the crypto realm, with Santander planning a metaverse awards ceremony.
Santander preserves a top spot in assets and loans in Spain, and has a huge branch network that is constantly working on developing tailored offers to individuals, SMEs, and corporates, as well as compelling value policy proposals for their customers.
Santander revealed plans to hold an awards ceremony for its Santander X Global Challenge | Blockchain on July 14 in the Decentraland metaverse.
After all projects have been evaluated by a panel of judges of competent international experts in innovation and entrepreneurship from Santander and other organisations, the six winners will be announced on Monday, July 14th. The awards ceremony can be viewed via the Decentraland metaverse and livestreaming at this link.
The event, held in collaborative efforts with the Oxentia Foundation, marks the conclusion of a contest that received approximately 400 submissions. Based on the applications received by June 9, 2022, an expert committee narrowed the list to 20 finalists.
During the awards ceremony, the six winners will be awarded a total of €120,000 (approximately $121,985), which will be divided among their three winning startups and three winning scaleups.
Aside from that, they’ll have access to Santander X 100, the bank’s worldwide extensive network for enterprises that helps entrepreneurs with mentoring, financial support, client leads, and strong ties.
The 20 finalists stood out for their workarounds to improve productivity and employment while addressing important societal issues in difficulties to strengthen user privacy and security in blockchain networks, facilitating decentralised finance
One of its finalists, nChain, is well-known. Craig Wright, the company’s CTO, claims to be Satoshi Nakomoto, the creator of Bitcoin. The ironic part is that Bitcoin is aimed to be fully decentralized money, whereas NChain is trying to pitch a central bank digital currency system based on central banks’ trust.
Hakan Yuksel, CEO of nChain, believes that everyone should have access to their money regardless of where they are in the world. nChain would like to collaborate with governments and central banks to develop a digital form of central bank currency for the benefit of humanity.”
According to the nChain venture, CBDCs:
- Take reasonable actions to ensure and strengthen trust in an economy
- Incorporates accountability and transparency
- enhances the effectiveness of money flows.
Competitions like these definitely act as an encouraging element for young developers and enthusiasts of the crypto community, like @r_graph_beyond says More and more catalysts are coming! .
“ They are preparing for the arrival of the bulls.”
Meanwhile, Santander is the most recent bank to enter the web3 metaverse. JP Morgan was the first, in February. Many other financial services firms have since joined, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, Siam Commercial Bank’s SCB 10X, Fidelity, and Mastercard. They have all launched in Decentraland or The SandBox.
Santander may be a latecomer in the metaverse, but it has been a pioneer in other blockchain-related fields. On the open Ethereum network, it was the second company to issue a regulated bond.
More recently, the UK division of the Santander group stated in a report that frauds employing digital currencies promoted by celebrities rose 61 percent in the first quarter of 2022, indicating that the number will probably double in 2022 and expand by 87 percent compared to 2021.
