Hassan Maishera
A key challenge in the blockchain space is achieving data richness and complex computation while maintaining verifiability. Blockchains are designed for deterministic execution and decentralized consensus but lack native support for large-scale parallel processing, particularly high-performance AI workloads.
The Flare x Google Cloud hackathon, held in collaboration with Blockchain at Berkeley from March 7-9, focused on this issue. The event brought together student developers and researchers from UC Berkeley, UWaterloo, and ETH Zurich to explore how blockchains can support AI-driven computation without sacrificing verifiability.
In a press release shared with Cryptowisser, Flare revealed that participants utilized Google Cloud Confidential Space, a secure enclave using Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) that provides hardware-enforced confidentiality while generating cryptographic attestations.
These attestations are verifiable on the Flare blockchain, ensuring that computations were executed correctly and without external interference. The enshrined data protocols on Flare, Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO), and Flare Data Connector (FDC) are uniquely suited to ensure AI data provenance and integrity verification.
Furthermore, over 460 participants participated in the hackathon across four tracks, resulting in verifiable AI solutions spanning AI x DeFi (DeFAI) to Consensus Learning. All projects utilized Confidential Space instances running on the AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) platform with virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) attestations. These attestations served as cryptographic proof that computations occurred within an isolated and tamper-proof environment.
While commenting on the hackathon, Rene Kolga, Product Manager, Google Cloud, said,
”We're thrilled to see developers using our Confidential Space secure enclaves to build trusted AI solutions. Projects like 2DeFi and the Flare AI Kit's launch are exciting steps towards a future where AI and blockchain ensure data integrity and computational assurance."
2DeFi: Seamless TradFi to DeFi Transition with AI
A key standout project was 2DeFi, developed by Alex and Hitarth, two students from the University of Waterloo. Their project won 1st place in the AI x DeFi (DeFAI) track and 2nd place in the RAG Knowledge track.
The project tackled the challenge of bridging TradFi users into DeFi on Flare using Google Gemini AI. 2DeFi allowed users to upload screenshots of their Robinhood portfolios, which were analyzed by Gemini 2.0 to assess their risk tolerance. The AI-generated risk profile was then mapped to an automated DeFi strategy, incorporating staking and liquidity provision on Flare.
To boost user experience and onboarding, 2DeFi integrated embedded wallets that enabled Google login-based wallet creation on Flare, eliminating the complexities of traditional Web3 onboarding.
Flare AI Kit: Empowering Verifiable AI Agents on Blockchain
According to Flare, the hackathon marked the official launch of Flare AI Kit, an open-source SDK for building verifiable AI Agents on Flare using Google Cloud Confidential Space.
The hackathon submissions leveraged Flare AI Kit, showcasing its potential as a foundation framework for AI-powered blockchain applications. Designed to simplify AI integration while ensuring verifiability, provenance, and AI safety, Flare AI Kit provides developers with secure, attestable AI execution environments and a robust security framework.
The team pointed out that this hackathon was just the beginning. As developers and researchers continue to explore the intersection of AI and blockchain, Flare AI Kit will evolve to become a powerful, production-ready framework for verifiable AI applications. With ongoing improvements to its functionality, usability, and integrations, the goal is to refine Flare AI Kit into a turnkey solution and bring it to the Google Cloud Marketplace, where it can serve as a standalone, production-ready solution for enterprises and developers alike.
Flare AI Kit seeks to redefine how verifiable AI applications are built, deployed, and trusted by bridging Confidential Space TEE, AI, and the Flare blockchain.
