Mastercard Team Green Hat Hacker Wins 2nd Place & Most Entertaining Pitch at the 2023 NYC Hackathon

Innovative Solution Combines Open Banking, Carbon Offsetting, Tree Planting, and NFT Ownership

Highlights:

  • Green Hat Plant is a third-party web application that allows consumers to track spending habits, measure against carbon emission goals, round up marginal spending to offset carbon footprint, and plant trees to support planet restoration.

  • Utilizing Mastercard’s Open Banking, Carbon Calculator, and Priceless Planet APIs, consumers

  • Understand consumers end-to-end environmental impact by having full digital ownership of their own "NFTree" and viewing their forest within the Metaverse with a VR headset.

  • ​​​​​​​Users can view their customized tree with real-time data from the region and transform their tree into generative art powered by AI.

What was the Hackathon about? 

On April 27-28, 2023, the NYC Tech Hub held its first in-person Hackathon wherein 60+ Mastercard employees experimented with new technology and created new product ideas. The 2-day event focused on two tracks: (1) ESG sustainability and inspiring individuals and businesses to adopt more sustainable lifestyles, and (2) open banking and redefining the banking experience.

What is the solution?

The team’s winning solution, Green Hat Plant, is a third-party platform that automatically pulls consumer transaction information and enables users to easily round up marginal spending, donate to plant a tree, receive details about carbon emissions (CO2) generated by each purchase and select certain transactions to offset carbon footprint, tokenize a tree and access the NFT via a crypto wallet to customize the tree growth journey. 

How did the team develop the solution?

The team of six spent several hours researching and brainstorming new product solutions. They participated in a half-day ideation session with the product managers and Hackathon mentors to delve into the unmet needs of consumers and identify opportunities that can be served by Mastercard’s various API technology. Within 24 hours, the team developed, designed, and prototyped the Green Hat Plant solution.

After developing an initial design on Figma, the team created wireframes of an interactive, functional prototype, and software engineers programmed a website. The team also created a fun, lively TikTok post showing highlights of the team’s Hackathon experience. The team presented their solution in a 5-minute pitch to executive judges.

What did the team win?

The Green Hat Hacker team won 2nd place and a $1,500 reward; they also won Most Entertaining Pitch with an additional $250.