Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 12 March 2019 – Loyens & Loeff will continue on as legal partner to Odyssey (formerly Blockchaingers) for the next two years. Odyssey, by DutchChain, is the world’s most extensive open blockchain innovation programme. The Odyssey Hackathon, the world’s largest blockchain & AI Hackathon, will take place on 12-14 April 2019, in Groningen (the Netherlands). Loyens & Loeff will put together a team of Legal Jedi to offer legal and tax support to the participating teams during the Hackathon.

Investing in Legal & Tech

Bram Linnartz, Managing Partner of Loyens & Loeff: “New developments, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), have an impact on the way we and our clients work. That’s why investing in Legal & Tech is one of our firm’s priorities. Our partnership with Odyssey ties in perfectly with that ambition. The Odyssey Hackathon gives us the opportunity to learn more about blockchain and AI-driven applications as we team up with other organisations. At the same time, it allows us to share our knowledge by streamlining solutions from a legal and tax perspective, thereby helping to address the challenges of modern society.”

Odyssey

Odyssey is an open innovation programme. To address complex 21st-century challenges the programme connects the innovative ideas of the participating teams with the governmental, corporate, and non-profit launching partners. Besides Loyens & Loeff, the 2019 edition of the Hackathon is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, APG, KLM, the Dutch Central Bank and many other prominent international and national partners. Using blockchain and AI-driven technology, 100 teams will be working on prototype solutions for social themes such as digital citizenship, nature conservation, crisis and disaster relief, biometric data communication, banking and cargo insurance.