Canada Seeks App Developers For Digital Currency Challenge

The Royal Canadian Mint in Canada is challenging software developers to create apps for MintChip, which it is calling “the evolution of currency.”

It is promising developers one of the oldest forms of currency, namely $50,000 (£31,449) in gold, under the terms of its MintChip Challenge.

Gold Reward

Essentially, the Royal Canadian Mint is asking for app developers and members of the public for their ideas on how a digital currency can be used. The challenge is designed to help create apps that use MintChip, as well as highlight the potential advantages of the technology and digital currency.It said that winners will receive approximately $50,000 Canadian (£31,449) in gold from the Mint as well as promotional exposure.

So what do you have to do in order to win the gold booty?

Well it seems that prizes will be awarded to those apps “that best demonstrate the potential value of the MintChip technology and have the greatest potential impact on digital payment technology.” The Mint will allow apps that run on Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Windows or desktop and mobile browsers.

It will issue developers with a software development kit (SDK), as well as two microSD MintChips. It will also provide two remote MintChip accounts, so developers can use these accounts to integrate the Mint’s technology with their digital payment applications.

Submissions will be expected by August, and the apps will apparently be judged by a “panel of distinguished judges from the tech, venture capital, media, and retailer industries.”

MintChip is of course not the world’s first digital currency, but is the Canadian government’s answer to Bitcoin.

BitCoins are anonymous decentralised virtual currency commonly used online among people interested in keeping their transactions secret, but in July 2011 it was revealed that cyber-criminals had built malware to steal BitCoins. The digital currency is not tied to any real money, but traded on an electronic exchange to establish its value.

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