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Decentralised ride-sharing startup Arcade City has scooped the winning prize of €20,000 (£15,300) at Europe's biggest open-industry blockchain competition, run by the German Tech Entrepreneurship Center.

Runners up prizes went to: CargoChain (international shipping on the blockchain - €15,000), Clipperz (IP protection - €10,000), plus the community prize for Helperbit (P2P donations - €5,000).

In total there were 12 startups on the competition shortlist, hailing from Ghana, Israel, Germany, Italy and the UK. They presented a diverse range of blockchain applications, including decentralised ride-sharing, event ticketing, P2P donations, a decentralised architecture office, international shipping, and land registry in the developing world. The award ceremony was held in Berlin on 17th May, supported by founding partners RWE and Globumbus

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Dr Carsten Stöcker, innovation programme manager, Blockchain Competence Team, RWE Innovation Hub, said: "The fourth industrial revolution will be built upon a Machine-to-Machine economy with autonomous vehicles, 3D printer, robots, drones and IoT.

"We believe that blockchains will be the 'lubricant' for asset sharing and secure transactions between both people and machines. Having a corporate blockchain strategy is a must for financial and non-financial players."

Globumbus founder and competition sponsor, Jens Hewald added, "I see a recognisable shift towards non-fintech solutions."

At the ceremony, attended by over 200 people from Berlin's startup ecosystem, keynote speaker, Trent McConaghy (founder of ascribe / BigchainDB) described Berlin as one of four blockchain capitals in the world, alongside San Francisco, New York, and London - citing the GTEC Award as evidence of the ever-strengthening interest in the technology.

Gold Award winner, Christopher David, founder of Arcade City, said, "We are very humbled to win first prize among so many awesome blockchain startups. The community is really evolving fast, and it's great to see Berlin playing such a big role. Arcade City will definitely be back to Berlin before long."

German Tech Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC) is the first private-sector, open campus for entrepreneurship in Europe, founded at ESMT in Berlin in 2015 by RWE, Henkel, ESMT, Globumbus

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