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The Flare x Google Cloud Hackathon, held from March 7-9, showcased innovative ways to integrate blockchain technology with AI-powered applications while ensuring security and trust. Organized in collaboration with Blockchain at Berkeley, the event brought together students and researchers from top universities, including UC Berkeley, the University of Waterloo, and ETH Zurich.

Blockchain Meets AI: A Secure Computing Environment

Participants leveraged Google Cloud’s Confidential Space, a secure computing environment designed to prevent external interference and generate cryptographic attestations. These attestations confirm that AI computations are executed correctly and can be verified on the Flare blockchain.

This setup enables AI models to process sensitive data without exposing it to third parties, ensuring the results remain secure and trustworthy. Confidential Space uses AMD’s Secure Encrypted Virtualization platform, which protects computations from tampering and boosts confidence in the integrity of the process.

A Competitive Hackathon with Over 460 Participants

The hackathon attracted more than 460 participants competing across four tracks. Projects ranged from AI-driven financial applications to consensus learning solutions. The event highlighted how blockchain technology can enhance AI applications by offering transparency, security, and accountability.

2DeFi: AI-Powered Onboarding for DeFi

One standout project was 2DeFi, developed by two University of Waterloo students. This project won first place in the AI x DeFi track and second place in the RAG Knowledge track. 2DeFi simplifies onboarding for traditional finance users looking to enter the decentralized finance (DeFi) space on Flare.

With 2DeFi, users can upload screenshots of their Robinhood portfolios, which are analyzed by Google’s Gemini AI to assess risk tolerance. Based on the AI-generated profile, users receive tailored DeFi strategies, such as staking or liquidity provision. To further simplify the process, 2DeFi integrates Google login-based wallets, allowing users to interact with the Flare blockchain without managing private keys.

Flare AI Kit: Empowering Developers

The hackathon also marked the launch of the Flare AI Kit, an open-source software development kit (SDK) designed for building AI-powered blockchain applications. This tool allows developers to integrate AI models with the Flare blockchain while ensuring security and verifiability.

The Flare AI Kit is set to evolve further, with plans to bring it to the Google Cloud Marketplace as a production-ready solution. This initiative aims to make blockchain-based AI computations more transparent and secure, benefiting both developers and enterprises.

Key Takeaways

The Flare x Google Cloud Hackathon demonstrated the potential of combining blockchain with AI to create secure, trustworthy applications. Projects like 2DeFi and the Flare AI Kit highlight how these technologies can address challenges in decentralized finance and beyond. As blockchain and AI continue to converge, developers and enterprises have the opportunity to unlock new possibilities while maintaining transparency and security.

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