The International Blockchain Olympiad (IBCOL) is the most rigorous blockchain competition in the world that promotes disciplined, multidisciplinary approach to building blockchain and distributed ledger applications. Most hackathons cannot deliver this, due to the lack of time to build full solutions and bias towards technology, thus continuation rarely occurs for projects because they were merely “cool” things to build. IBCOL provides a world-class competition for students that highlights the challenges of applying blockchain and distributed ledger technologies to real-world applications, that is with technical, business, and legal perspectives.