After weeks of contests across the globe, PayPal and Braintree have awarded their $100k prize to a team from Tel Aviv who created an app called AirHop.
The finals took place at PayPal HQ in Silicon Valley where 14 teams of developers from across the globe took part. Competitors were tasked with building an application that incorporated PayPal, Braintree or Venmo APIs.
The winning team from Tel Aviv, with two hackers Shai Mishali and Pavel Kaminsky, created AirHop – a collaborative consumption application for consumers to share carrier or wi-fi access. The app enables a mobile phone with no connectivity to “hop” on to another person’s device (running the service) to make a phone call or send a text in exchange for a PayPal-enabled payment.
The winners said: “Everyone has faced a situation without connectivity, and it often happens at the worst time, like personal emergencies or disasters. AirHop creates an opt-in community that solves the no connectivity issue and possibly even saves lives in the most extreme situations. Without BattleHack we would have never had the chance to do something so bold. It was an incredible experience.”
