This week, Winding Tree announced it will host a hackathon at the Travel Forward/ World Travel Market (WTM) trade show. The blockchain travel firm will provide demonstrations and crash courses on smart contracts, public blockchains, and decentralization to help participants. Companies involved aim to create a proof of concept (PoC) while gaining tech experience.
Travel Forward, the technology track of the World Travel Market (WTM) series of events, will run the hackathon with Winding Tree in London next month. It is the third such event hosted by the firm, which welcomes airlines, travel companies, and blockchain startups.
The two previous events had leading airlines Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways as winners. Both firms are partners of the Winding Tree blockchain platform and used it as a basis for their winning PoCs.
“We are honored to be able to participate in World Travel Market (WTM) and Travel Forward in such a profound way,” said Pedro Anderson, COO and co-founder of Winding Tree.
This week’s statement claims that WTM events generate over $7 billion of industry deals, with its London show generating $3.4 billion in travel contracts. The hackathon will run at its next iteration, from November 4th to 6th.
Anderson continued: “Each Hackathon we’ve held in the past has had impressive results, showing the possibility and necessity for open-source technology among travel and hospitality companies, and I’m sure this one will be no different.”
Aside from the previous hackathon winners, Winding Tree has partnerships with Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swissport, and Air France. Earlier this year the firm announced its successful pilot which facilitated booking a hotel on public Ethereum.
The platform aims to eliminate the need for intermediaries, bringing cost and time savings to airlines and consumers. Hence the use of a public, not private, blockchain. It currently allows travel providers to accept fiat, credit, or the Ether or Lif cryptocurrencies.
