Village Gamer

The Royal Canadian Mint is pleased to announce the winners in the MintChip™ Developer Challenge, which began on April 4 when developers from across North America were invited to test the technology as part of the continuing research and development of MintChip™ and to determine its applicability to the current marketplace. The results of the Developer Challenge will form part of the Mint’s ongoing evaluation of possible next steps in the development of the MintChip™ technology. More than $50,000 worth of prizes will be awarded to the winners later in the fall.

 

“The submissions we received for the Developer Challenge showed the unbelievable creativity of the North American developer community and the depth of its passion for bringing the MintChip™ concept to life,” said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.  “I would like to congratulate the winners and all those who submitted many interesting and innovative ideas for possible uses of this technology.”

Winners in the following categories are as follows:

• Best Overall App – Grand Prize MintWallet; Second Prize Pennies a Day; Third Prize FlashCash: Pay all at once!
• Best Person-to-Person App – MintWallet
• Best Business-to-Consumer App – FlashCash: Pay all at once!
• Best Micropayment App – Pennies a Day
• Large Organization Recognition Award – DonRiver MintChip App
• Popular Choice Award – Mini Checkout

Winners were selected by a seven-member panel of judges that consisted of:

• Osama Bedier, Vice President of Payments, Google
• David Birch, Director, Consult Hyperion
• Bob Borchers, General Partner, Opus Capital
• David Crow, Chief Marketing Officer, Maintenance Assistant Inc.
• Jeff King, Senior Director X.commerce Platform Partnerships, eBay
• Amanda Lang, Senior Business Correspondent for CBC News and Anchor of The Lang & O’Leary Exchange
• Ian E. Bennett, Royal Canadian Mint President and CEO

The winner of the Popular Choice Award was determined through public voting.

The MintChip™ digital currency employs innovative technology, for which the Mint has prototypes and eight patents pending in all major world markets, and could be the digital equivalent of the coins Canadians use every day to carry out financial transactions with retailers and with each other. It uses a secure chip to hold electronic value and a secure protocol to transfer electronic value from one chip to another.