Developers, entrepreneurs, students and merchants gathered July 31 to Aug. 2 at the Cash 3.0 Conference in Cebu City to demonstrate practical applications of Bitcoin Cash beyond trading and speculation. Organized by Tacloban City-based technology company Paytaca, the three-day event combined a conference, student hackathon and public bazaar at Robinsons Galleria Cebu to showcase its vision of Cash 3.0 — internet-native money that retains the peer-to-peer nature of physical cash with the global reach of digital payments.
Paytaca President and CEO Joemar Taganna and Chief Marketing Officer Aaron James Almadro led demonstrations of working products including the Paytaca NFC Card, Paytaca POS, payroll platform Wagey, freelancing marketplace WorkHippo, advertising platform PurelyPeer and Paytaca AI.
Speakers included Code Valley CEO Noel Lovisa, Bitcoin Cash advocate Gareth, contributor Saqib Noor and fintech lawyer Rafael Padilla, who discussed merchant adoption, artificial intelligence and the legal foundations of self-custody.
Students from across the Visayas competed in the Cash 3.0 Hackathon using CashScript, with University of Cebu-Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue emerging as overall champion, followed by ACLC College of Ormoc and University of Cebu Main Campus.
Winning projects included ProofPass by ACLC Ormoc for Best CashTokens Project, eSahod by University of San Jose-Recoletos for Best Use of CashScript, Pasada by STI College Ormoc for Best UI/UX, SmartClipCash by ACLC Tacloban for Best Merchant Solution and Hermes by UC Main for Most Promising Startup Idea. (Contributed photos)
