The Construction and Planning Agency's "Street Doctor" team takes first place in the Quadratic Funding Award @ Presidential Hackathon

▲ The Construction and Planning Agency's Street Doctor team after winning first place in the Quadratic Funding Award @ Presidential Hackathon. (Image: Road Division, Construction and Planning Agency) To make its Street Doctor proposal more complete, bring in more digital technology, and help the associated pilot programmes proceed smoothly, the Construction and Planning Agency also entered the Quadratic Funding Award @ Presidential Hackathon held by the Taiwan Blockchain Enthusiasts Association, where it won the support of both the professional judges and the public and took first place. The agency explained that the Quadratic Funding Award @ Presidential Hackathon was held in the spirit of the 2022 Presidential Hackathon and its grounding in the national development blueprint, with the aim of distributing social resources more evenly. The competition used quadratic voting, which avoids the voting paradox, tactical abandonment, and vote allocation that ordinary public votes tend to produce, so that good projects also have a chance of support and development. Entrants also had to apply blockchain in a workable way within their proposals. The agency added that the Street Doctor team proposed a platform for public participation in street-improvement decisions. It uses the decentralised character of blockchain for identity verification, so that public resources are not distributed unevenly; once the street sections most in need of improvement are identified, blockchain's transparency and permanence let the public check the progress of any case at any time; and finally, considering blockchain's role in technology-assisted enforcement, it aims to move the public towards efficient self-governance and a shared commitment to lasting street safety. Teams had six minutes to present and then faced rapid questioning from the professional judges, after which the organisers opened a thirty-minute window for judges and the public to vote through the system. The whole process was open and transparent, in keeping with the spirit of blockchain. Street Doctor received the most votes. The agency said the team will now begin outreach and pilot work, gathering suggestions from the public, expert committee members, and relevant groups and adjusting as it goes, so the proposal addresses street problems more precisely — clearing obstacles to walking one by one, opening up the streets, letting people move freely, and contributing to Taiwan's sustainable development. Report: https://www.thehubnews.net/archives/147737