Inspiration

We wanted to use the literally UNLIMITTED MEGA POWER of the BLOCKCHAIN to play sick beats over Spotify.

What it does

JukeBlox is a virtual jukebox for parties using a custom cryptocurrency. Party patrons are able to use our Ethereum token, Jukebucks, to queue up their favorite song to their Spotify playlist.

How we built it

We split into two groups, two handling smart contract implementation and one handling front-end web development. Using the online Solidity IDE, Remix, we programmed smart contracts that bring to life our ERC20-compliant token, the JukeBuck, and processes song requests. This communicates with our web server designed to talk between the user, the blockchain and Spotify.

Challenges we ran into

The smart contract team had no prior experience designing Ethereum-based programs, which was a fun and rewarding learning experience. We had difficulties implementing the communication protocols between the blockchain and the web server.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our group was particularly proud of the practical knowledge we gained about blockchain technology and Ethereum. The testing and debugging using a local blockchain gave us detailed experience manipulating transactions and smart contracts. We are also very proud of our creation of a custom Ether coin, affectionately called JukeBucks, to facilitate transactions between the host and guests.

What we learned

Our group had only limited experience using blockchain technology, so our goal was to learn as much as possible about the power and capabilities of the Ethereum network. We first learned the basics of Solidity, the language used to write smart contracts. Our group also learned to use a locally deployed blockchain to greatly streamline the testing of the contracts. Overall, we came away with significantly more knowledge about this challenging but fascinating technology.

What's next for JukeBlox

When the original idea for JukeBlox was conceived, we envisioned a system as simple as Venmo. With this crude prototype created in 24 hours, JukeBlox lacks several features to achieve this user-friendly vision. However, we have constructed a strong foundation. Our engineers will be working around the clock to streamline the user experience, possibly by abstracting away from the more esoteric properties of interacting with smart contracts. Once this is achieved, the possibilities are limitless. We foresee JukeBlox to be a major disruptor in the jukebox industry, a multi-thousand dollar international commercial juggernaut.