Juanita Jaramillo Build CIL Market Bridge During Gimbalabs’ 12-Week Piece of Pie Hackathon

Juanita Jaramillo, wey be creator of Cardano Insights Lab, complete CIL Market Bridge during Gimbalabs’ 12-week Piece of Pie hackathon after she enter the program without development background.

Her first aim get small journalism side. Instead make she just dey interview developers about hackathon experience from outside, Jaramillo wan join the process by herself. That experiment produce one clear result: one application wey dey online, e dey work and dem don document am now for the Piece of Pie Yearbook.

CIL Market Bridge Dey Ask Whether Blockchain Really Needed

Dem develop CIL Market Bridge around one problem wey Jaramillo notice as she dey cover blockchain: sometimes na the technology go start the conversation before dem define the real problem well.

The application come turn that process upside down.

E dey guide users through questions about the problem wey dem wan solve, including who suppose trust who, whether information need independent verification, whether multiple parties dey involved, whether records suppose dey protected from one-sided change, and whether traceability really dey required.

The assessment fit even show say make person no use blockchain at all. If traditional database fit handle the problem well, blockchain no suppose be the default solution.

So CIL Market Bridge dey work as early decision-support tool, no be product wey go dey push users go one particular blockchain. E dey help put structure for the assessment wey suppose happen before decisions about networks, architecture or implementation.

Twelve Weeks Inside Gimbalabs’ Piece of Pie

Piece of Pie give Jaramillo 12 weeks to turn that concept into one working application while she dey experience the same development process wey she first want understand as journalist.

Gimbalabs structure Piece of Pie 2026 around building in public, make participants dey document consistent and verifiable progress. The program include 33,000 ADA across four tracks, and Cardano Foundation sponsor the 20,000 ADA Cardano Pie track for projects wey dey build on Cardano mainnet.

Jaramillo own account of the hackathon describe development process wey debugging shape, changing technical approaches, reducing scope and learning when planned feature don turn obstacle to ship the product.

The experience still change her position inside the story wey she first plan to cover.

Instead make she just dey observe finished demos and dey ask developers to explain how dem take build am, she gats work through deployment, user flow, payment integration and the final demo by herself. Dem postpone some features, dem replace some solutions and mistakes turn part of the development process.

“I joined Piece of Pie with the innocent intention of understanding what a hackathon was really like from the inside,” Jaramillo write after she complete the program.

“The small detail is that I ended up building an app.”

Her project finally reach the outcome wey required to pass experiment for only her computer. CIL Market Bridge go online, e work as application and dem include am for the Piece of Pie Yearbook.

Cardano Insights Lab Move From Analysis to Building

Cardano Insights Lab na independent observatory wey Jaramillo create around blockchain ecosystems, decentralized infrastructure, governance, digital trust and public-sector adoption.

Cardano na core area of its research, together with regulation, identity, payments, tokenization, DePIN and institutional adoption. Their work focus on making these topics clear for non-technical audience and to examine blockchain beyond market speculation and promotional narratives.

CIL Market Bridge extend that approach enter product.

The available material never show say the application itself dey operate on Cardano mainnet or say e participate for the dedicated Cardano Pie track. So make nobody describe am as Cardano dApp without extra technical confirmation.

Its connection to the Cardano ecosystem come through the development inside Gimbalabs’ Piece of Pie program and through Cardano Insights Lab own focus on Cardano and broader blockchain adoption.

After the hackathon, CIL Market Bridge get its own entry for the Piece of Pie Yearbook, including description, application and repository links, with Jaramillo identified as the builder.

Jaramillo enter Piece of Pie with intention to document wetin dey happen between idea and finished hackathon project. Twelve weeks later, Cardano Insights Lab get something wey e no get when she start: one working application wey turn their approach to blockchain adoption into process wey another user fit actually follow.

For Jaramillo, the result na the two things wey she originally dey find.

An app and a story.