Flare Hosts AI Hackathon at UC Berkeley with Google Cloud

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 5th, 2025, Chainwire

Flare will host a Verifiable AI Hackathon at UC Berkeley with Google Cloud. This event will explore how verifiable offchain compute can transform Web3 applications, particularly for data and compute intensive use cases such as AI. Participants will compete for a $100,000 prize pool.

Set to take place from March 7-9 at California Memorial Stadium, UC Berkeley, the Verifiable AI Hackathon will focus on verifiable AI performed offchain in Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). The event will equip developers with the tools to balance decentralization and performance in AI-powered blockchain solutions. The in-person hackathon will feature a $60,000 prize pool, while the virtual hackathon will offer $40,000 in prizes.

Apply to join the hackathon: https://hackathon.flare.network

One of the biggest hurdles in scaling blockchain applications for real-world use cases is the computational limitations of on-chain processing. Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) provide a breakthrough by offering hardware-secured environments where complex AI tasks can be processed offchain while maintaining onchain cryptographic guarantees.

The Verifiable AI Hackathon will highlight how integrating TEEs with Flare’s blockchain can overcome these challenges, paving the way for decentralized, high-performance applications. In collaboration with Blockchain at Berkeley, the event is expected to attract 500 participants competing across four specialized tracks: Social AI Agents, RAG Knowledge Systems, DeFAI (DeFi x AI), and Consensus Learning.

Developers will utilize Google Cloud’s Confidential Computing alongside Flare’s native decentralized data protocols. This fusion of AI and blockchain verification aims to inspire teams to develop innovative applications that blend cutting-edge AI capabilities with the trust guarantees of Flare.

The initiative builds upon Flare’s partnership with Google Cloud. In January 2024, Google Cloud became a Flare validator and data provider for Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO). As one of the 100 data providers for the FTSO, Google Cloud has played a key role in supplying critical time series data, maintaining 100% uptime since June 2024.

"Our ongoing collaboration with Google Cloud underscores our commitment to pioneering verifiable AI solutions. We are not just pushing boundaries but setting new standards in the intersection of blockchain and confidential computing."

— Hugo Philion, Co-Founder of Flare and CEO of Flare Labs

The hackathon will feature an in-person event at UC Berkeley and a virtual component hosted on DoraHacks, ensuring global access. Registration opens in early February, with a total prize pool of $100,000. Participants will compete in teams to develop applications demonstrating how TEEs can securely integrate rich data and complex computations into blockchain environments.

Blockchain at Berkeley will serve as a community partner, promoting the event to blockchain developers, students, and associations worldwide. The hackathon reinforces Flare’s leadership in advancing verifiable AI and offers a platform to showcase the real-world potential of decentralized AI applications. By integrating enterprise-grade secure computing, blockchain verification, and academic research, this event will drive the creation of production-ready decentralized applications.

"The collaboration among Flare, Google Cloud, and Blockchain at Berkeley is a testament to our shared vision. By integrating enterprise-grade confidential computing with blockchain verification systems and academic innovation, we are laying the groundwork for the next generation of decentralized AI applications."

— [Spokesperson, Blockchain at Berkeley]

Flare’s continued research and development in TEEs will play a critical role in its 2025 roadmap, with DeFi and AI at the forefront. By combining verifiable Web3 data with a Web2 user experience, Flare empowers developers to create high-quality applications across AI, DeFi, and real-world assets. The hackathon not only strengthens Flare and Google Cloud’s collaboration but will also accelerate the development of TEEs in blockchain.

About Flare

Flare, the blockchain for data, offers developers and users secure, decentralized access to high-integrity data from other chains and the internet.

Flare uniquely supports enshrined data protocols at the network layer, making it the only EVM-compatible Layer 1 optimized for decentralized data acquisition, including price and time-series data, blockchain event and state data, and Web2 API data.

By providing broad data access at scale and minimal cost, Flare delivers a full-stack solution for building the next generation of interoperable use cases.

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