IBM's Call for Code Hackathon Winners Announced; Coinbase Unveils Global Remittance Features

By: Eliza Bennet

The winners of the 2023 Call for Code hackathon, an initiative of IBM, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the Commissioner, the David Clark Cause, and the Linux Foundation, were announced on December 6. The noteworthy event, which attracts participants from over 180 nations, concentrates on leveraging advanced technologies like AI, cloud computing, and blockchain to address imminent global issues. This year's emphasis was on IBM’s generative artificial intelligence service, Watson X, with significant awards allocated in three categories: developer, university, and independent vendor/startup.

In another significant development in the crypto world, American-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, launched 'Send money with a link', a user-friendly feature facilitating seamless international money transfers. This sophisticated feature, available within the Coinbase Wallet, streamlines the process by permitting users to generate a link that can be shared across social media platforms. However, for the transaction to be successful, both the sender and receiver need to own a Coinbase Wallet. If funds sent via this method are unclaimed for two weeks, they will automatically revert to the sender.

Consequently, this initiative resolves various inconveniences associated with traditional methods of global money transfer, including complex account and routing details, and slow processing times. The Coinbase wallet supports zero-fee transactions and instant settlements, demonstrating its efficiency, and it is accessible in more than 170 countries.