Special: Blockchain beyond finance — virtual event live at 11:00 · Thu 3 Sep

Kaupr is a partner of Blockathon Stockholm, and we have produced three virtual pre-events ahead of it. The last one goes out live today at 11:00 CET, and the two earlier sessions are available to watch in full.

The reason we are giving the week this much space is the one the organisers built the event around: eight problem areas, only two of them finance. What gets built onchain outside finance still goes largely uncovered in the Nordics.

The build itself starts Monday. Hack days at Netlight on 7 and 8 September, demo day midweek, and jury deliberations and the prize ceremony on Friday 11 September — the same day AI Institutet holds its AI x Blockchain Summit in Stockholm.

— Morten

📅 Kaupr Event — Blockathon Stockholm: Pre-event 3 | Thursday 3 September, 11:00–12:30 CET

The first two sessions were about why. This one is also about what: the challenges teams will work on, what the days in Stockholm actually look like, and what it takes to arrive ready.

Part 3 of three virtual pre-events Kaupr produces with FirstBlock ahead of Blockathon Stockholm, 7–11 September. Free, hosted and moderated by Morten Myrstad and Melissa Persson.

👉 Watch live — recordings from pre-events 1 and 2 are on the same page

Fati Hakim — FirstBlock

Founder of FirstBlock and the driving force behind Blockathon Stockholm, with more than twelve years in blockchain strategy and technology. She started the event because she believes the Nordic conversation about blockchain has been defined too narrowly by finance, and that the applications that matter most are still unbuilt.

Hani Baloch — Blockchain Sweden

Ambassador for Blockchain Sweden, part of the Kaupr team, and has been building Blockathon Stockholm with FirstBlock. She shares her thinking on the hackathon and on onchain impact.

Hani Raisi Halilovic — AI Institutet

Founder of AI Institutet and with us for the third time. She organises the AI x Blockchain Summit in Stockholm on Friday 11 September, closing out the blockathon week — which is what she brings to today's conversation.

Anna Cederholm — AWS

On the jury, and representing the company behind the prize: AWS is putting up USD 10,000 in credits for one winning team to keep building after the hackathon.

Gunnar Risting — Netlight

Startup Business Lead and Advisor at Netlight in Stockholm. He shares insight into a problem statement from the World Food Programme. Netlight is also hosting the first two days of the hackathon — the Hack Days — at its offices in the city.

Donnie Lygonis — KTH Innovation

Innovation Strategist at KTH Innovation, founder of Entrepreneurs Without Borders and Mellanmål Inc, and a six-time TEDx speaker.

Aidin Ziapour — Sullis

Chief Product Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sullis, working out of Dubai on AI-native innovation in digital solutions. He walks through how teams can use the Sullis platform during the hackathon — worth following for anyone curious about what a platform like this can do.

Melissa Persson — co-host

Joining host and moderator Morten Myrstad. She brings operational experience from the Nordic exchange and crypto-asset industry, most recently from bitcoin mining — working where surplus energy, mining and AI workloads meet, turning Sweden's wasted energy into productive compute.

Eight problem areas, and only two of them are finance

Blockathon Stockholm has defined eight problem areas for the four build days, and only two sit in finance. That split is the reason Kaupr and FirstBlock entered the partnership: blockchain in the Nordics is discussed first as finance and cryptocurrency, while what gets built outside that goes largely uncovered. Fati Hakim tried two years ago to get Nordic media to cover the field more broadly and got nowhere — as she puts it, mention blockchain in the Nordics and people hear scams.

Why it matters: The event has chosen impact as its theme, which Hakim frames not as sustainability but as effect on future generations — a responsibility she places on the developers who build as much as on the organisers.

Watch: Blockchain hackathon Stockholm 2026: building beyond crypto — Kaupr TV

🏆 One winning team receives USD 10,000 in Amazon Web Services credits to keep building after the hackathon.

At FIRSTBLOCK-ATHON next week you take on real challenges from organisations across a range of industries, supported by experienced mentors and judged by an expert panel. Developer, designer, strategist, student, founder, or someone with a strong idea — this is the chance to build something with real impact.

👉 Apply for FIRSTBLOCK-ATHON

Everything around Blockathon Stockholm — the jury, the partners, the venues, the recordings — is collected in Onchain Build.

👉 Read Onchain Build · Join the Onchain Community and its Blockathon Stockholm channel

📈 Onchain Growth — New models, new builders

Onchain Growth is our weekly briefing on the industry building onchain finance in the Nordics and Baltics — the companies, the people and the deals, from first build to market leadership. It lands every Tuesday, and it is a separate subscription from this one.

This week: Stenseth on agents. Jepsis wins again. A Danish fund launches. Blockathon.

👉 Read this week's edition

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Today's edition was a special. Kaupr Daily is back to its usual format tomorrow morning.

Wishing you a great Thursday — and welcome back then.

Best regards Morten Myrstad Founder & Editor