The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) announces today the official launch of the vLEI Hackathon – a global innovation challenge in digital organizational identity. This new initiative aims to catalyze innovation and promote cross-industry collaboration to develop novel applications for the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI).
The vLEI is a digital, trustworthy attestation of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) tied to the ISO-Standard 17442. This highly secure digital credential links an organization's identity with that of a natural person and the specific role they hold within the organization. By enabling peer-to-peer verification, the vLEI allows transactions, data, and credentials to be verified, trusted, and shared through peer-to-peer mechanisms without dependence on intermediaries or centralized platforms. This lays the foundation for the future of the digital economy – empowering legal entities everywhere with the confidence and freedom to trust and be trusted globally.
GLEIF invites developers, entrepreneurs, policy stakeholders, and innovators around the world to take part in the vLEI Hackathon and explore its potential across three key thematic areas:
- Digital Assets & Financial Infrastructure
- Industry, Commercial & Finance Processes & Operations
- Trade, Supply Chain Resilience, and SME Finance
Participating teams will develop and submit their solutions via the APIX Platform, where full details of the challenges are available. Following independent assessment by an international judging panel of experts, winners and runner-ups will be invited to present their solutions at exclusive in-person events this year in New York at Chainlink SmartCon, which brings governments, financial institutions, and blockchain projects together to discuss the technologies transforming global markets (3rd November), during the Hong Kong Fintech Week (7th November), and at GLEIF’s digital ORG ID Forum co-hosted with Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in Frankfurt am Main (2nd December).
The vLEI Hackathon enjoys the steadfast support of leading organizations, including Affinidi, Apix, Cardano Foundation, Chainlink, Cardano, EPA Asia, Esatus, the Finternet Lab, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, fts.money, GFTN Europe, Giesecke+Devrient, ICC Digital Standards Initiative, Key State Capital, Swift, Hong Kong PKI Forum, Vayana, Veriable.Trade and more. Additionally, the vLEI Hackathon will contribute to the further development of the ecosystem supported by Qualified vLEI Issuers (QVIs), including Certizen Technology, China Financial Certification Authority (CFCA), Finema, Global vLEI, Provenant, and TradeGo, which will also play central roles.
Alexandre Kech, CEO at GLEIF, comments: "The vLEI is a transformative leap forward in digital organizational identity, one that empowers organizations and individuals alike to operate with greater transparency and confidence across borders, infrastructures, and ecosystems. The vLEI Hackathon is our call to technology innovators everywhere to create innovative vLEI applications that will shape the future of digital trust. With our global partners, we are bringing together diverse expertise from a range of industries to explore and expand the use cases of the vLEI in real-world scenarios."
Fernando Vazquez, President, Capital Markets at Chainlink, comments: “We’re excited to collaborate with GLEIF for the vLEI Hackathon and bring verifiable identity credentials onchain, which is the key unlock institutions need to deploy compliant digital assets in production and at a global scale. With Chainlink Automated Compliance Engine and GLEIF vLEIs, developers can now, for the first time, build production-ready digital asset applications with institutional-grade identity and compliance from day one.”
Jonathan Ehrenfeld, Head of Strategy at Swift, comments: "With trust and interoperability at the core of financial services, initiatives like the vLEI Hackathon foster solutions that align with the evolving needs of digital finance and effectively build bridges between digital assets and established systems."
Prof. Co-Pierre Georg, Director of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, comments: "Our mission is to foster innovations in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Therefore, we're proud to support the important work of GLEIF with this Hackathon, which will bring some of the industry’s most creative and innovative minds to Frankfurt School.”
For more information on the vLEI Hackathon, please visit the GLEIF website here.
