We had a problem. We were hosting the Palmer Trinity High School AI Buildathon on February 8, 2026, with 75+ students building AI-powered tools in a single day. We wanted to give every participant a verifiable digital badge. But the existing badge platforms were either too expensive, too clunky, or too locked down.

So we did what any self-respecting buildathon organizer would do: we built our own.

The Most Meta Demo Possible

Badge Kit (badge.purplehorizons.io) was born during the very event it was designed to serve. While students were building AI tools for their schools and communities, we were building the system that would recognize their achievements. By the end of the day, every participant walked away with a verified digital credential, issued by a platform that did not exist that morning.

That is the whole point of a buildathon. You do not just talk about building things. You build them.

What Badge Kit Actually Does

Badge Kit is a full digital credentialing platform built on the OpenBadges 3.0 standard, the open specification maintained by 1EdTech that makes badges verifiable, portable, and interoperable across platforms.

Here is what it includes:

• OpenBadges 3.0 Compliance: Every badge issued is a verifiable credential that recipients can share on LinkedIn, add to digital portfolios, or verify independently.
• AI-Generated Badge Art: Each badge gets a unique, AI-generated background, so no two badges look exactly the same.
• Verification System: Anyone can verify a badge is authentic through our public verification endpoint.
• Automated Email Delivery: Recipients get their badges delivered straight to their inbox with instructions for sharing.
• Analytics and Reports: Issuers get full visibility into badge distribution, claims, and engagement.
• Bulk Issuance: Upload a CSV, and Badge Kit handles the rest. We issued 75+ badges in minutes at Palmer Trinity.

Why OpenBadges 3.0 Matters

The OpenBadges 3.0 standard is a significant upgrade from previous versions. It aligns with the W3C Verifiable Credentials specification, which means badges issued through Badge Kit are not just images with metadata attached. They are cryptographically verifiable credentials that carry real weight.

For educators and organizations, this matters because digital credentials are becoming the standard for recognizing skills and achievements. A badge from Badge Kit is not a participation trophy. It is a portable, verifiable proof of what someone accomplished.

Built for Buildathons, Ready for More

We built Badge Kit to solve our own problem, but the use cases go far beyond buildathons:

• Schools and universities recognizing student achievements, course completions, or extracurricular participation
• Companies credentialing internal training, certifications, or hackathon results
• Conferences and events giving attendees verifiable proof of participation
• Nonprofits and community organizations tracking volunteer milestones

If you need to issue digital credentials and you do not want to pay enterprise pricing for a simple workflow, Badge Kit is built for you.

The Buildathon Connection

Badge Kit is a direct product of our Buildathon as a Service offering (/services/buildathon). We organize intensive, one-day build events where teams go from idea to working prototype. The Palmer Trinity event (read the full story: /blog/how-75-high-school-students-built-ai-tools-in-one-day) proved that students, professionals, and anyone with a problem to solve can build real software in a compressed timeframe.

Badge Kit is proof of that thesis. We needed it, we built it, and now it is a product.

Want to See What Your Team Can Build in a Day?

Whether you are a school looking to inspire students, a company running an internal innovation sprint, or an organization that wants to credential achievements, we can help. Our buildathons produce real tools (like Badge Kit) and our badge system makes sure every participant walks away with something to show for it.

Book a call to learn more: https://calendar.app.google/x5LaZZDAu1Y1HzkH7