Rapper Pitbull wants blockchain developers to disrupt the music industry

Rap artist Pitbull has announced his latest venture will be an international blockchain coding competition set up to disrupt the music industry.

Pitbull, whose real name is Armando Perez, is a three-time Grammy award-winning artist and serial entrepreneur. He will be producing ‘Smackathon‘ alongside the eMerge Americas conference – an annual two-day tech event held in Miami Beach.

The news was first reported by CNBC, while Pitbull later confirmed his involvement on Twitter, stating: “It’s time for a major change in the music industry! Blockchain developers, we need your help to empower artists worldwide.”

The name Smackathon is a play on popular computer programming events called ‘hackathons’.

During Smackathon, participants will be using the Ethereum blockchain to search for new, innovative ways to tackle the music industry’s biggest challenges.

The challenges will range from determining better artist royalty agreements all the way through to curated playlists.

Smackathon started on April 24 2019 and will finish on May 25. Entrants will have this time period to develop a blockchain-based solution using Zeppelin’s open source smart contract platform.

The solutions will be judged until a group of finalists have been determined – they will then be flown to Miami to present their ideas to Mr Worldwide himself.

Reportedly, submissions will be judged on a range of criteria including originality, usefulness, comprehensiveness, design, and technology. Bonus points will be awarded to those who utilise the OpenZeppelin platform.

The winning team/individual will be chosen by a panel of four judges – including Pitbull – and take home a prize of $6,000. However, according to reports, if Mr Worldwide likes a project, he will be willing to invest on the spot.

Interested in reading more about the music industry, crypto, and blockchain? Discover more about rapper Lil’ Pump and how his merchandise store now accepts Bitcoin and Lightning Network payments.