Inspiration
Our group comes from UNC Charlotte, in April of 2019, we experienced a mass shooting on our campus. Our professor encouraged us to come to this competition, and build some sort of application involving blockchain, and we decided to do something that we felt would be important to trying to reduce firearm deaths. A better, more secure national register of firearms transactions.
What it does
When the gun is made, its model and serial number would be added to the block, along with its manufacturer and its selling price. Once its delivered to a gun shop, the shop is also added to the block. And then once a customer purchases the gun, that customer is added to the block. If the owner ever sells it to another person, they are labeled as the ‘previous owner’ while the buyer is labeled as the new ‘owner’. The blockchain will continue to be updated with every transaction.
How we built it
We built it mostly using python, creating a more traditional style blockchain, containing proof of work, informational blocks, using SHA-256, and using it to track transaction related information.
Challenges we ran into
Due to this being our first hackathon, we ended up having a pacing problem, and struggled at a few points with trying to get certain things done, such as figuring out the proper structure, communicating between each other properly, and continuing working on things after we were tired and mentally drained. Though, unfortunately, we were not able to get it done in the way we wished to, as we ran into large problems of not knowing certain things, and having debugging issues.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
This is our first hackathon, we are surprised that we managed to do as well as we did, and managed to enjoy our time as much as we did, even if we didn't get the project done in the way we wanted to.
What we learned
We learned how to create a blockchain system, as well as how to implement it in order to track and make use of important data relating to the firearm trade. We learned how to properly engage in and participate in a hackathon, and how to properly pace ourselves. This project also helped us become closer as a group, and regain some self-confidence that we had lost.
What's next
Ideally, we would spend more time improving upon this structure, and attempt to get it publicly implemented in governmental policy. This could be used to significantly cut down on illegal firearms trade, as well as make both the recipient and the seller of a firearm safer, and the United States safer overall, if such a system were properly implemented.
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