Flare collaborates with Google CloudDepth! Hosting 'AI Hackathon' at UC Berkeley, with a total prize pool exceeding $100,000

Flare is deepening its partnership with Google Cloud through its participation in the Verifiable AI Hackathon held at the University of California, Berkeley. Participants in this hackathon will compete for up to $100,000 in prize money and additional prizes provided by Google Cloud. The hackathon will explore how verifiable off-chain computing can change Web3 applications, particularly for data-intensive use cases such as AI. Participants will compete for a prize pool of $100,000 and additional prizes provided by Google Cloud. The Verifiable AI Hackathon will take place from March 7th to March 9th at the California Memorial Stadium at UC Berkeley, focusing on verifiable AI executed off-chain in a trusted execution environment (TEE). The event will provide developers with tools to balance decentralization and efficiency in AI-driven blockchain solutions. The on-site hackathon prize pool is $60,000, and the virtual hackathon prize pool is $40,000. To apply for the hackathon: Verifiable AI Hackathon (Verifiable AI Hackathon). We know that one of the biggest obstacles to extending blockchain applications to real-world use cases is the computational limits of on-chain processing. Trusted execution environments (TEEs) have made breakthroughs by providing hardware security environments in which complex AI tasks can be processed off-chain while maintaining on-chain encryption guarantees. The Verifiable AI Hackathon will focus on how to integrate TEE with Flare Blockchain to overcome these challenges and pave the way for decentralized, high-performance applications. The event, in conjunction with Blockchain at Berkeley, is expected to attract 500 participants across four specialized tracks: Social AI Agents, RAG Knowledge Systems, DeFAI (Decentralized Finance x AI), and Consensus Learning. Developers will use Google Cloud's confidential computing and Flare's native decentralized data protocol. This fusion of AI and blockchain verification is designed to inspire teams to develop innovative applications that combine cutting-edge AI capabilities with Flare's trust guarantees. This project is built on the productive partnership foundation between Google Cloud and Flare. In January 2024, Google Cloud became a Flare validator and data provider for the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO(). As one of the 100 data providers for FTSO, Google Cloud has played a critical role in providing key time series data and has maintained 100% uptime since June 2024. "Our continued collaboration with Google Cloud demonstrates our commitment to pioneering verifiable AI solutions. Together, we have not only broken boundaries but also set new standards at the intersection of blockchain and confidential computing," said Hugo Philion, co-founder and CEO of Flare Labs. This hackathon will solidify Flare's leadership position in driving verifiable AI and provide a platform to showcase the potential of decentralized AI applications. Through the integration of enterprise-class secure computing, blockchain verification, and academic research, the event will drive the creation of production-ready decentralized applications. "The collaboration between Flare, Google Cloud, and Blockchain at Berkeley demonstrates our shared vision of laying the foundation for the next generation of decentralized AI applications by combining enterprise-class confidential computing, blockchain verification systems, and academic innovation," said Megan Ho, co-chair of Blockchain at Berkeley. Flare's continued research and development in TEE will play a critical role in its 2025 roadmap, where decentralized finance and AI will play a significant role. By combining verifiable Web3 data with Web2 user experience, Flare allows developers to create high-quality applications across AI, decentralized finance, and real-world asset fields. This hackathon not only strengthens Flare's partnership with Google Cloud but also accelerates the development of TEE in blockchain. About Flare As a data blockchain, Flare provides developers and users with a secure and decentralized channel to obtain high-integrity data from other blockchains and the Internet. Flare uniquely supports embedded data protocols at the network layer, making it the only Layer1 EVM-compatible chain that optimizes for decentralized data access. By providing cost-effective and extensive data access, Flare offers a foundation for building the next generation of interoperable...