DSU students earn first place at MIT Bitcoin Hackathon

April 27, 2026

A team of Dakota State University undergraduate students earned first place at the MIT Bitcoin Hackathon last week, competing against 47 projects from across the country.

DSU's team of Dijesh Shrestha, Shishir Poudel, and Sarad Gaihre developed BitLazarus, a Bitcoin-based marketplace designed to recover and restore access to inactive or "dead" torrent files. The platform allows users to post bitcoin rewards for missing data, creating financial incentives for others to securely reseed and restore files to the network.

Using Bitcoin's Lightning Network, the team built a system that enables instant, trust-minimized payments through hold invoices and collateral-backed transactions. This approach ensures contributors are compensated only after successfully delivering verified data, while protecting both parties through automated safeguards. Each successful transaction restores data to the network, extending the benefit beyond a single user.

Shrestha explored the idea initially, and after confirming interest from Poudel and Gaihre, secured funding to attend the event through The Beacom College of Computer & Cyber Sciences and began brainstorming their ideas. Once arriving in Boston, the trio gained a fourth team member at the competition - Shun Kasakura, a master's student at the Hult International Business College.

The MIT Bitcoin Hackathon is part of the annual MIT Bitcoin Expo and brings together student developers and innovators to build solutions using decentralized technologies. Projects were evaluated on technical execution, creativity, and potential real-world application.

"It was kind of interesting to have the hackathon side-by-side with the expo," said Gaihre. "There were a lot of very talented, very amazing people that were working on other blockchains."

Over the course of the hackathon, teams worked intensively to design, build, and present functional prototypes. The DSU team focused on addressing trust and verification challenges in decentralized systems, developing a working escrow model that uses cryptographic receipts, delivery verification, and automated resolution processes rather than relying on third-party intermediaries.

"It was a really difficult problem at first," said Gaihre. "We created a way for the payment to mathematically go through a two-way system of trust and agreement, so people didn't just rely on trust; they could rely on the system itself."

"It wasn't just an AI wrapper," said Poudel. "We touched some foundational concepts - torrent, blockchain, cryptography - and worked around that to build a system that is very unique and solved a real problem."

That ability to take a real-world problem and build a solution set the group up for success.

"During our presentation someone from the judge panel asked us, 'is this a real problem?'" said Shrestha. "Everyone answered 'yes," and it was in that moment we knew we were in a position to win."

This achievement highlights DSU's emphasis on applied learning in cybersecurity, software development, and emerging technologies. Participation in national competitions provides students with opportunities to test their skills in fast-paced, collaborative environments while engaging with peers and industry professionals.

"This recognition reflects our students' ability to apply technical knowledge to complex, real-world challenges," said Dr. Austin O'Brien, associate professor in The Beacom College of Cyber & Computer Sciences. "Their work demonstrates strong engineering fundamentals and a clear understanding of how emerging technologies can be applied in practical ways."

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