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Comment by Robin_Message | Hacker News Reader

From the rules:

> Coinbase must be the sole bitcoin payment method included in the app.

So, is it a hackathon to make something cool with bitcoin, or to make something cool with Coinbase?

Anything anyone does to make bitcoin bigger, better, and more mainstream, will benefit Coinbase in the long run. So it might be a bit short-sighted to restrict this unless there is a really good reason.

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So they put 18k USD on the top 3 applicants that provide their closed source, coinbase only solution? They already got attention worth more than that by having us read the terms and coditions. Why not do something cool and respected. I have no problem with the coinbase API having to be used but the exclusiveness is so anti bitcoin spirit.

Consider the volatility of hackathon ROI for Coinbase. Ofcourse they want to strengthen the ecosystem of its company and good for them! Their goals are aligned with the general bitcoin ecosystem. Discovery and adoption of repeatable, scalable model of generating value with hackathons would be absolutely great for ecosystem, while benefiting Coinbase. Other companies would copy and imagine how hundreds of hackathons are held by many startups, all benefitting bitcoin ecosystem.

I assure you that this is a good thing in the long run, even if may be considered anti-bitcoin in spirit by some.

Nothing in the terms or rules state the app must be closed source. Additionally, competitors retain all rights to their application. The only thing Coinbase gets is media exposure.

I think it's to encourage adoption of their API offerings. However, there's nothing stopping a developer from abstracting their payment method so that they can implement a BitPay or bitcoind integration later.

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