Las Vegas is synonymous with excitement and thrills, but for the 1,000 developers working away without sleep or rest for 24 hours in the Money 20/20 Hackathon, there was no glamour.
That is, until the winners were announced on Sunday. Our Open API team was excited to witness and support great work despite the trying experience for the developers. In the end, two teams won prizes for shopping apps using MasterCard’s Simplify Commerce and MasterPass.
The team of five developed an app using Simplify Commerce, an Arduino board and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) that lets diners have a seamless payment experience at restaurants. The team also incorporated Touch ID from iOS to add a new level of authentication.
The enterchange solution does away with waiting for a server to bring you a check after a meal- charges, tipping and payment, is all done solo right at the table. Here’s how it works: at a restaurant after enjoying your meal, the check is sent directly to your phone. On the table, one of the toppers has an integrated circuitry and when you are ready to pay, all you have to do is tap your phone against it. Presto–receipt in phone and no waiting! The enterchange hack is particularly cool because of the team’s use of software and hardware. Most hacks are software only.
LoyaltyPass was the first team to win $5,000 in the overall competition.
Their project involved augmenting MasterPass and focused on helping consumers select the best payment card based on associated card benefits and points at the point of sale. Simply put: say you’re at a TJ Maxx store and ready to buy something. Using geolocation, this app will tell you that a TJX Rewards MasterCard is ideal for your purchase. Luckily, you just happen to have one in your wallet. With LoyaltyPass’ solution, the consumer is able within the MasterPass wallet experience, to choose the best card for a particular purchase with an applicable merchant.
Twenty-four hours, one thousand focused brains and a service-minded team of MasterCard experts to support. This is why we are so excited about engaging with the developer community and making sure our MasterCard APIs are available for use by all. Innovation happens everywhere and with our open APIs, developers can create and succeed, and we will all benefit