Graz-based Blockchain Startup Contest 2016 announced five winners among participants of nearly 80 blockchain-centric startups from 29 countries.

According to reports by Erste Group, the contests’ main sponsor along with Steiermärkische Sparkasse, the demo day was held on November 28 that saw project presentation from the top 20 entries. The winners were selected by a jury of five blockchain experts on the basis of criteria timing, team, concept and business model, with a social impact being an additional important assessment point.

The winning teams received their awards that were transferred in either bitcoin or Ether to their cryptocurrency accounts, live on stage. Two winning teams London-based Etherisc that works on decentralized insurance solution based on blockchain and Singapore-based Status, which is an Ethereum browser for mobile phones combining messaging, payments and DApp; received EUR 5000 each that was transferred into Ether.

“As a bank, when we approach the blockchain issue, we do so from the vantage point of finding concrete responses to our clients’ needs and raising customer satisfaction with regard to the speed and availability of digital services,” Petia Niederländer, Head of Retail and Corporate Operations at Erste Group and a blockchain expert, said. “As one of the sponsors of the Blockchain Startup Contest, Erste Group is particularly pleased on the fact that all of the many interesting submissions for this competition have a similarly strong focus on the customer.”

Three runner-ups namely, Munich-based Bernstein, Austria-based Minebox and Italy-based Helperbit received EUR 1670 each, which was transferred in bitcoins.

“We were, of course, very excited to receive submissions from all over the world. But we are also particularly proud to see some very interesting ideas from the Austrian participants in the competition,” Thomas Zeinzinger, the founder of BlockchainHub Graz and one of the organizers of the Blockchain Startup Contest, said.