EOS Costa Rica: 2020 Recap

Some new projects, events, and lessons learned!

Close to the end of 2020, our team wants to share a short recap of this somewhat different year with the EOS community. We believe that when challenges approach, it’s better to turn them into opportunities. And so we did! Check out this summary of what we’ve been up to during these past twelve months. We hope to continue moving forward in 2021!

New Projects

1. LatamLink: We co-founded this initiative at the start of the year along with EOS Argentina and EOS Venezuela. LatamLink is a voluntary alliance to offer an EOSIO-based testnet to LACChain — a regional program to accelerate the development of the blockchain ecosystem in Latin America.
2. Lifebank: Lifebank was our entry to the “Coding for Change” challenge by block.one and was chosen as the winning project among 900 other participants. Lifebank is an open-source blockchain-based app that incentivizes blood donations by creating a virtuous circle of value between donors, blood banks, and local businesses, leveraged by a token economy. We’re currently talking to a local blood bank to become the app’s first users, hopefully in the upcoming months.
3. SMARTGATE: SMARTGATE is a joint-venture project in the logistics sector. It is an EOSIO-based platform that provides solutions for gate-in/gate-out activity for the container industry. It is currently in the beta stage, and we’ll be happy to share more updates very soon.
4. EOS Rate: EOS Rate is an open-source dapp that allows EOS token holders to access a rating system and voting portal for BPs and Proxies in the EOS Mainnet. EOS Rate intends to make it easier for the token holders to make an informed decision when voting for BPs. It is currently live, so you can easily use it by logging in with your Ledger, Scatter, or Anchor account.
5. Evodex: Evodex is the front-end user interface for a liquidity pool protocol where users vote on the pool liquidity fees and pay zero gas. We were in charge of UX and front-end design of this amazing tool built with EOSIO. You can also try it out by logging in with your Anchor account.
6. EOSIO Dashboard: The EOSIO Dashboard is an open-source project that allows users to visualize the rewards distribution along the EOS network to seek accountability and transparency. It is currently live to be tested. Let us know in the comments what you think!
7. Enterprise EOSIO Forum: We are part of the Enterprise EOSIO Forum, a community-driven initiative to discuss enterprise blockchain solutions deploying EOSIO technology. It is intended to develop an interest in EOSIO technology among the enterprise community. We hosted the first event in July where Pranav Badhwar and our co-founder, Edgar Fernández, were speakers. You can see the webinar here. Also, please follow us on LinkedIn here.
8. Notario Digital: Notario Digital is an open-source project that generates a hash of any file to register it immutably on an EOSIO network. We’re currently exploring its uses in law tech and are planning to continue developing new functionalities in the next months.

Events We Attended

Costa Rica Services Summit: Breakfast to promote industry 4.0 services, February 2020. CR.

1. Costa Rica Services Summit: In February, before the first case of COVID-19 in the country, we attended the Costa Rica Services Summit of 2020. It is a high-level event organized by the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Promoter (PROCOMER) where dozens of international buyers met with local service providers. We had the opportunity to attend as technical service providers (and one of the few in the industry 4.0!) and as guest speakers to talk about blockchain technology in front of guest executives.
2. Open Data Day: Also, before lockdown in Costa Rica, we spoke at the Open Data Day of 2020 in San José. It was a one-week event, and we were invited to talk about how blockchain and EOSIO can leverage open data access and improve security.
3. Block Spain Virtual Meetup: We were invited to speak at an online conference organized by Block Spain in April, where we talked about EOSIO technology with the Spanish-speaking blockchain community.
4. NovaFIN Connect 2020: In September, we were invited to talk about blockchain in the digital transformation roadmap by a Costa Rican tech company. It was a one-week virtual event attended by local executives interested in new technologies.
5. Blockchain Academy Chile Developers Workshop: Also, in September, we were invited to teach about EOSIO and how to develop a first “hello world” contract at a virtual workshop organized by Blockchain Academy Chile.
6. IT Tech Talk: IT Tech Talk is a series of webinars organized by CINDE, the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of Costa Rica. It is intended to offer update courses to executives in the country. We had the chance to talk about blockchain technology. You can see the video here.
7. Blockchain Summit Latam Online Edition: The BSL Online 2020 was a one-week event that connected the Latin American blockchain community. We participated as speakers on governance for decentralized apps as one of the closing presentations of the event.
8. Local universities students workshops: We also talked about blockchain and its growth opportunities for students in local universities such as the Technological University of Costa Rica (TEC) and the Technical National University (UTN). This is part of our efforts to bring new talents to the blockchain ecosystem.

Events We Organized

Café Blockchain #3: Blockchain in healthcare and life sciences. May 2020.

1. Café Blockchain: Café Blockchain became our leading series of webinars this year. It was first thought to be an offline event until lockdown began, so we made it virtual. We have organized four different webinars, attended by dozens of professionals in both the public and private sectors. We have discussed topics such as blockchain in logistics, blockchain in healthcare and life sciences, and crypto assets compliance and management.
2. EOS Open Office: This was a pilot initiative we organized for three months at the start of lockdown. The intention was to have a weekly virtual open office event for an hour and talk about different blockchain topics or our projects. It was attended by people in the ecosystem in Latin America, and we were able to meet with people from many backgrounds interested in the technology.
3. Local entity workshops: We have been working with a local entity in Costa Rica to deploy blockchain in government. As part of this initiative, we organized workshops for their teams to get a grasp on blockchain. This was one of the first efforts in the country’s public sector to explore blockchain technology.

Random News

EOSurf, February 2020 in Santa Teresa beach, CR.

1. EOSurf: Before COVID-19, we had the chance to organize our yearly EOSurf, a team-building event in which we take “our office” to the beach and encourage them to take surfing lessons and engage in yoga and meditation sessions. It was an amazing experience to co-ideate new projects and discuss the future of our team.
2. Internships: Our team grew with three highly-skilled interns from the Technological University of Costa Rica. As part of their graduation project, they were in charge of developing the next stage of Lifebank. Their effort has allowed us to present a newer version of this open-source project to the local blood bank we’re currently in conversations with. Angelo, Jean, and Justin, thank you for your hard work!
3. New website: We’re currently working on a new website. It now intends to reach enterprise users as part of our efforts to foster an enterprise blockchain community. More updates, soon!
4. New HQ office: We’re moving our HQ office from downtown San José to a new location in WeWork. Our team is excited to share this new office space and (hopefully, once the pandemic is over) learn new insights from other peers.
5. New small team member: One of our co-founders had a baby, so we can safely say the core team grew with this new little member!

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Takeaways

Thank you for reading our 2020 recap! This has been a challenging yet interesting year for us, and we hope to continue doing the best we can to further develop the EOIOS blockchain ecosystem in the region and the world. Let’s BUIDL a better 2021, together!

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Join the conversation: t.me/eoscr. Or join our EOS Open Office every Friday.

EOS Costa Rica operates since 2018. Our team develops blockchain-based solutions with great attention to detail in creating user-centered dapps for enterprise use.

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