From Code to Crown: Winning an AI Hackathon with QBuild at RAISE 2025

From Code to Crown: Winning an AI Hackathon with QBuild at RAISE 2025

Paris, France – "No one said enjoying the prize of a hackathon was easy!" This truth rings profoundly from the heart of RAISE your HACK 2025, one of the world's largest AI hackathons, an event where the very definition of "easy" was redefined. Amidst the electrifying hum at the Carrousel du Louvre, a story of true mastery unfolded. In a challenge designed for the most audacious builders – the fiercely complex Qubic Track – Team Kairos didn't just compete; they proved they were the masters. They not only secured a commanding win in their specialized track but also captured the community's spirit, clinching the X Audience Choice Award. Their project, QBuild, is more than an application; it's a bold, functional leap towards revolutionizing secure Web3 development on the Qubic network, a testament to what's possible when brilliance meets grit in artificial intelligence hackathons.

This AI hackathon story demonstrates how global AI hackathons can serve as launchpads for innovative solutions, bringing together talented teams from around the world to tackle complex challenges. For those exploring AI hackathon ideas or wondering how AI hackathons work, the Kairos journey offers valuable insights into what it takes to succeed in competitive online AI hackathons.

The Path Less Traveled: How a Madrid Win Sparked a Parisian Triumph

Kairos's journey to victory at the World's Largest AI Hackathon wasn't their first rodeo – it was a natural progression. Their story actually began months earlier, in March 2025, with their initial dive into the Qubic ecosystem at a hackathon in Madrid. That first experience? A total game-changer. They didn't just snag second prize; they found a conviction: Kairos was meant to be a core part of Qubic. Their "Easy Connect" project, currently in Qubic's incubation program and set for commercial launch soon, was born from that. This foundational experience – building in the trenches, learning the ecosystem inside out – perfectly set the stage for their triumphant return.

"That's why, when we knew lablab.ai was organizing the largest AI hackathon in Europe at the Raise Summit 2025 in Paris, and that there was a Qubic track, we had no doubt that Kairos had to participate," they shared. That drive, combined with their deep knowledge of Qubic, propelled them to Paris with a single, laser-focused mission: build something truly impactful in this global AI hackathon.

Auditing Smarter, for Builders, by Builders: QBuild's Genesis

From day one, Team Kairos spotted a glaring pain point for Qubic developers: smart contract security. "Smart contract development on Qubic is particularly complex," they explained. "Most Web3 devs are used to Solidity on EVM, but Qubic's C++ and unique network mean a very steep learning curve." This complexity, even for seasoned pros, opens the door to more errors. The challenge was crystal clear: Qubic smart contracts desperately needed an easy, reliable way to find vulnerabilities before deployment, and truly simulate real attacks.

Kairos's vision for QBuild sprang from this very struggle: "the first security-first development tool designed for Qubic builders." It wouldn't just audit easily; it would automatically test for vulnerabilities with a single click. Their true "aha!" moment hit during the hackathon when the automatic test generation functionality just clicked. "When we realized that what we were building could actually be truly useful for any developer, even those experienced with Qubic," that's when they knew they were onto something huge. QBuild quickly and easily flags vulnerabilities, saving immense time and effort, and boosting the quality of new smart contracts on Qubic.

What makes Kairos most proud of QBuild? It’s not just finding bugs. "QBuild not only performs a vulnerability scan, but also generates a comprehensive report identifying all potentially vulnerable procedures and functions, explaining what these vulnerabilities are and suggesting modifications to avoid them," they proudly state. What truly sets it apart: "Qbuild automatically generates code to test each and every one of these vulnerabilities, using the identified values that can cause errors, and allows developers to launch a comprehensive battery of tests with a simple click." This ability to "try real-world attacks in seconds" is a game-changer for secure Web3 development.

Their biggest hurdle? Achieving that automatic, real-world test generation. They tackled it head-on by cleverly connecting QBuild to a Qubic test node, proving it could generate and verify attacks on both testnet and mainnet.

The Kairos Advantage: Built for High-Pressure Innovation

You know that feeling: bringing a team together for an intense hackathon. Chemistry and complementary skills are key. Kairos had a secret weapon: a perfectly cohesive core team, with diverse expertise, boosted by trusted collaborators who were a "perfect fit from the start." "Kairos was very well-rounded, with experience in strategy, business, product, marketing, technology, development, operations, and UX/UI design, both in corporate and entrepreneurial ecosystems." Their previous win at the first Qubic hackathon proved their ability to execute under pressure.

"Our day-to-day work revolves around developing products and services," they explain, "where each team member contributes from their area of expertise. This has been an advantage... as we form a cohesive group of experienced people who know how to work perfectly as a team, which makes it easier to tackle these types of demanding challenges in such a short period of time." The Kairos team includes Jorge Ordovás (CEO), Jesús Lanzarote (CTO), Rafa Montaño (UXD), Max García (Blockchain Full Stack) and Alberto García (Blockchain SRE and Product Manager).

Their hackathon experience taught them a crucial lesson beyond just coding: it’s not enough to just design, develop, and deliver a functional solution. To truly stand out, "taking maximum care of the user experience, creating a brand identity and a storytelling that captures attention from the very beginning and maintains the interest of the entire audience... are key." This holistic approach clearly paid off, not only with the Qubic Track win but also with the coveted X Audience Choice Award.

QBuild's Technical Marvel: Under the Hood

QBuild is a fully functional platform for quickly and easily auditing any Qubic smart contract. It automatically identifies vulnerabilities and generates a complete set of tests to verify them. Core features include automated analysis for syntax and logic vulnerabilities, detailed audit reports with fixes, seamless integration with a Qubic test node, and the power to perform real exploit testing.

The platform uses a dedicated Qubic test node for controlled deployment and execution. Kairos leveraged the Qubic TypeScript library, reverse-engineered QForge's frontend for key functionalities, and used the Qubic CLI and RPC interface for low-level network interaction. For intelligent vulnerability analysis, QBuild integrates advanced large language models, including LLaMA 3.3 70B Versatile via the Groq API, to identify issues and generate detailed, actionable audit reports. The platform’s robust, production-grade stack includes an Angular frontend (Vristo UI kit, Tailwind CSS) and a .NET 8.0 backend hosted on AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, S3, CloudFront, PostgreSQL).

From Hackathon Win to Real-World Impact: The Road Ahead

Winning both the Qubic Track and the X Audience Choice Award is a massive validation for Team Kairos. It proves their vision for QBuild aligns with a genuine need in the Qubic ecosystem and resonates with the broader developer community. The prize is not just a payout, but a direct pathway to continued development.

"With the experience and execution capacity we have already demonstrated, our goal is to continue developing QBuild within the Qubic incubation program," they state. "Consolidating our position as one of the leading teams for creating new tools and solutions that will attract more users, developers, and services to this network." They've already started discussions with the Qubic Ecosystem team, familiar with the incubation process, to outline next steps. This means crafting a comprehensive proposal for funding, to be analyzed and voted on by a committee, then ultimately decided by the Qubic community. As they humorously note, "And that's just the beginning... No one said enjoying the prize of a hackathon was easy!"

Kairos, as a "Web3 Builder Company," focuses on designing, developing, and launching scalable digital products that meet real market needs. Born from the merger of Nevtrace (Blockchain and Web3 lab) and Loiband (tech development and consultancy), Kairos brings over a decade of real-world experience developing projects in Blockchain and Web3. Their long-term vision for QBuild is to evolve it into a complete development suite for secure, real-world-ready smart contract development, aiming to be the link between the real world and the on-chain ecosystem. Their intense professional life, dedicated to developing products and services, mirrors their hackathon success.

The Future is Decentralized and Intelligent: Qubic's Role

For Kairos, Qubic is more than just another blockchain. They call it "one of the most disruptive blockchain networks with the greatest potential we've ever seen (and we've been in the blockchain space for over a decade, even before Ethereum emerged!)". Qubic's unique "Useful Proof of Work" (uPoW) mechanism, directly contributing to training the first decentralized Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), is a key differentiator. Its architecture, with nodes running directly on hardware, offers unparalleled performance, boasting a certified record of 15.5 million transactions per second in 2025. Kairos envisions Qubic leading the intersection of decentralized computing and artificial intelligence, leveraging its ability to run on-demand workloads and share computing power with AGI training.

Staying updated in such a rapidly evolving space is a constant challenge, but Kairos embraces it. They're keenly aware of the vast unknown in Web3 and AI, constantly leveraging diverse information sources, active social media engagement (especially within the Qubic ecosystem), and AI tools for staying informed.

Advice from the Winners: Building in Web3/AI

For other developers looking to participate in hackathons or start building products and services in Web3/AI, Kairos offers valuable, hard-won advice: "We would emphasize the importance of each team member's individual skills, creating a group that covers all the necessary capabilities (business, product, technology, front-end and back-end development, design, communication, etc.) and its ability to coordinate efficiently at all times." It's also crucial to "prepare in advance, learning as much as possible about the technologies that will be used, to make the most efficient use of time during the hackathon." The Kairos team is a living example of this advice.

Follow the Journey

The Qubic Track victory at RAISE your HACK 2025 and the X Audience Choice Award are just the beginning for Team Kairos and QBuild. This AI hackathon success story demonstrates what's possible when talented teams participate in global AI hackathons with clear vision and execution.

You can learn about their upcoming news by following Kairos on X and Qbuild on X, as well as the account of its CEO and official Qubic ambassador on X and LinkedIn. Moreover, you can learn all about Kairos, their team members, and the solutions they build (and get early access to Easy Connect and Qbuild beta!) at https://kairos-tek.com. As Kairos says, "Stay tuned, because this is just the beginning... See you soon!"

Frequently Asked Questions About AI Hackathons

What is an AI hackathon?

An AI hackathon (also called an artificial intelligence hackathon) is a time-limited competitive event where developers, data scientists, and AI engineers collaborate to build innovative AI solutions. These events—whether online AI hackathons, virtual AI hackathons, or hybrid formats—bring together global teams to solve real-world problems using cutting-edge AI technologies.

How do AI hackathons work?

AI hackathons typically follow this structure:

1. Registration: Teams or individuals sign up for the event
2. Kickoff: Organizers present challenges, APIs, and resources
3. Development: Teams have 24-72 hours to build their solutions
4. Submission: Projects are submitted with demos and documentation
5. Judging: Expert judges evaluate projects on innovation, technical merit, and impact
6. Awards: Winners receive prizes, recognition, and sometimes job opportunities

Are AI hackathons free?

Most online AI hackathons and virtual AI hackathons are free to participate in. RAISE your HACK 2025, like many global AI hackathons, was free to join and provided access to cutting-edge AI tools and APIs.

Do AI hackathons pay?

Yes, many AI hackathons offer cash prizes, with prize pools ranging from a few thousand to over $100,000. RAISE your HACK 2025 featured a $150,000+ prize pool, demonstrating the value that global AI hackathons place on innovative solutions.

What do you win in AI hackathons?

Winners in AI hackathons typically receive cash prizes, access to acceleration programs, mentorship opportunities, and networking connections. Team Kairos won both the Qubic Track prize and the X Audience Choice Award, demonstrating how AI hackathons reward both technical excellence and community engagement.

Are AI hackathons worth it?

Absolutely. AI hackathons offer numerous benefits including skill development, portfolio building, networking opportunities, and access to cutting-edge tools. They're particularly valuable for those exploring AI hackathon ideas or looking to break into AI development.

Do I need experience for AI hackathons?

No prior experience is required for many AI hackathons for beginners. However, having a well-rounded team with diverse skills (like Kairos) can significantly improve your chances of success in competitive AI hackathons.

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Ready to join your next AI hackathon? Explore upcoming AI hackathons and discover how you can participate in global AI hackathons that match your interests and skill level.

Check out the full interview with the Kairos Team!

1. What initially drew you to participate in RAISE your HACK?

In March 2025 we had the opportunity to participate in the first hackathon organized by Qubic in the world, held at Madrid. In a long weekend we learned in detail how this network worked, spoke in person with some of the developers who created it, with the minds behind Qubic's vision, and with all the people who were part of the Ecosystem team working to promote the development of projects on the network.

And not only did we win second prize, but we also confirmed that Kairos wanted to be part of this ecosystem, developing our Easy Connect project through Qubic's incubation program. This solution, which we are currently developing, will be commercially launched soon.

That's why, when we knew that lablab.ai was organizing the largest AI hackathon in Europe at the Raise Summit 2025 event in Paris, and that there was a Qubic track, we had no doubt that Kairos had to participate.

2. What was the "aha!" moment or initial spark that led to the idea for your Qubic Track project, QBuild?

From the very beginning, we were clear that we would focus on solving one of the most important needs in the Qubic ecosystem: developing a solution that would make it easy for developers not only to audit their smart contracts easily, but also to automatically test for potential vulnerabilities with a single click.

This feature, which we introduced as an enhancement to Qbuild after we had already developed the AI-based auditing functionality, was our clear “aha!” moment of the hackathon, when we realized that what we were building could actually be truly useful for any developer, even those experienced with Qubic.

3. What was the biggest challenge you faced while building QBuild, and how did your team overcome it?

In reality, the development of a fully functional version of Qbuild, like the one we presented at the hackathon, has posed challenges in many areas, but if we have to highlight one, the most complex has been achieving automatic generation of a battery of tests on any smart contract automatically, and generating real transactions to verify in practice the conditions that can exploit these vulnerabilities.

During the hackathon we used a Qubic test node, but we could have connected Qbuild and generated real-world tests on smart contracts deployed to both the Qubic testnet and mainnet.

4. Can you describe the "vibe" or dynamics within your team during the intense hacking period? Would you join such a hackathon again? Have you ever participated in any other hackathon, and if so, how was this one different from the others?

One of the advantages of Kairos is that it's a team that knows each other perfectly. However, for the hackathon, we brought in two people who weren't part of this team, but with whom we'd previously worked, and we knew they would be a perfect fit from the start.

Furthermore, Kairos was not only very well-rounded, with experience in strategy, business and product development, marketing and communications, technology, development, operations, and UX/UI design, both in the corporate and entrepreneurial ecosystems, but had also already demonstrated its ability to execute under high pressure by winning second prize in the first Qubic hackathon.

5. Beyond the coding, what was the most valuable lesson you learned during RAISE your HACK?

Our experience in other hackathons has been very important in successfully tackling this one, understanding from the very beginning that designing, developing, and delivering a functional solution is important, but not enough to win a hackathon.

Other aspects, such as taking maximum care of the user experience, creating a brand identity and a storytelling that captures attention from the very beginning and maintains the interest of the entire audience (not just the judges) throughout the hackathon, are key to standing out from rival teams in a competition as tight as this one.

6. What does winning the Qubic Track prize (1st place!) mean to Team Kairos? What are you planning to do with the prize? Are you going to use it to further develop your project?

After winning our first hackathon, we entered the incubation program, allowing us to develop Easy Connect, a solution that allows anybody to quickly and easily integrate existing information on the Qubic network with any no-code platform, such as Make, Zapier, or n8n. It will be available soon.

With the experience and execution capacity we have already demonstrated, our goal is to continue developing Qbuild within the Qubic incubation program, consolidating our position as one of the leading teams for creating new tools and solutions that will attract more users, developers, and services to this network.

7. For those unfamiliar, can you briefly explain what QBuild is and the problem it solves within the Qubic ecosystem? 

Smart contract development on Qubic is particularly complex. Most Web3 developers are accustomed to programming in Solidity on compatible EVM networks, and when they first encounter smart contract programming in C++ on a network completely different from any blockchain that has ever existed, the learning curve is very steep.

Even experienced developers have to start from scratch, and therefore, the possibility of making mistakes is greater than on other networks.

Qbuild allows both novice and experienced developers to quickly and easily check the vulnerabilities of the smart contracts they develop with just a few clicks. This saves a huge amount of time and effort, facilitating a substantial increase in the quality of all new smart contracts on the Qubic network.

8. What unique aspects or features of QBuild are you most proud of? 

As we mentioned earlier, Qbuild not only performs a vulnerability scan, but also generates a comprehensive report identifying all potentially vulnerable procedures and functions, explaining what these vulnerabilities are and suggesting modifications to avoid them.

In addition, Qbuild automatically generates code to test each and every one of these vulnerabilities, using the identified values that can cause errors, and allows developers to launch a comprehensive battery of tests with a simple click.

This functionality is tremendously useful and represents a substantial advance compared to other auditing solutions, which remain theoretical.

9. What are the immediate next steps for QBuild? Do you plan to continue its development? 

We are beginning discussions with the Qubic Ecosystem team to outline the next steps in Qbuild's development, within the incubation program.

The advantage is that we already know these steps perfectly; this is our second time, and we know what awaits us in the immediate future.

It's important that everyone reading this doesn't think that winning this hackathon means receiving a prize of up to $200,000 to enjoy with friends and family. It's not that simple, not at all.

Now we have to generate a comprehensive proposal to qualify for funding. This proposal will be presented to a committee, where it will be analyzed and a vote will be taken on whether it will advance to the next phase. The Qubic community will then decide whether Qbuild will receive the requested funding, justifying every cent of the proposal. And that's just the beginning...

No one said enjoying the prize of a hackathon was easy!

10. What is the long-term vision for QBuild? Do you see it evolving into a full-fledged product or service? 

Kairos is a startup born from the merger of the Blockchain and Web3 laboratory Nevtrace and the technological development and technology consultancy Loiband, both with more than a decade of real-world experience developing projects in multiple fields, especially those related to Blockchain and Web3.

This experience led us to create Kairos as a "Web3 Builder Company" focused on designing, developing, and launching scalable digital products at the right time to meet real market needs.

Our goal is to become the link between the real world and the on-chain ecosystem, understanding the needs of companies that want to take advantage of the benefits offered by Blockchain, and of on-chain projects that need to go beyond early adopters to develop solutions with a real impact on their business.

11. Beyond hackathons, what does Team Kairos (or its core members) primarily focus on? What kind of work are you passionate about? 

I'm afraid our professional life is very similar to that of the hackathon, sometimes even more pressured!

Our day-to-day work revolves around developing products and services, where each team member contributes from their area of expertise.

This has been an advantage in the hackathon, of course, as we form a cohesive group of experienced people who know how to work perfectly as a team, which makes it easier to tackle these types of demanding challenges in such a short period of time.

12. How do you stay updated with the latest in Web3 and AI? Any go-to resources or learning strategies? 

We're aware of the vast amount of things we don't know, and that trying to keep up with everything happening in Web3 and AI is an impossible challenge, no matter how much we dedicate our waking hours (and even dream about it often).

Our sources of information are very diverse, from social media (where the Qubic ecosystem has been a great help in learning and staying up-to-date with the latest developments) to using AI itself to stay on top of everything happening in the AI world, or subscribing to information sources that offer us reports and analyses that make it easier to stay up-to-date on topics that interest us most.

At Kairos, we're currently focusing our efforts on Qubic, as we consider it to be one of the most disruptive blockchain networks with the greatest potential we've ever seen (and we've been in the blockchain space for over a decade, even before Ethereum emerged!).

13. What advice would you give to other developers looking to participate in hackathons or start building in Web3/AI? 

If we had to give advice on how to win a prize at a hackathon or build products and services in Web3/AI, we would emphasize the importance of each team member's individual skills, creating a group that covers all the necessary capabilities (business, product, technology, front-end and back-end development, design, communication, etc.) and its ability to coordinate efficiently at all times.

It's also important to prepare in advance, learning as much as possible about the technologies that will be used, to make the most efficient use of time during the hackathon.

14. What do you envision for the future of decentralized computing and AI agents? Where does Qubic fit into that vision? 

Qubic's proposal is completely different from anything developed to date: evolving the traditional mining mechanism (PoW, Proof of Work) so that the computational effort serves as an end in itself: training the first decentralized Artificial General Intelligence, thanks to what is called uPoW (Useful Proof of Work).

Furthermore, Qubic's architecture, where nodes run directly on hardware, offers unparalleled performance, enabling millions of transactions per second (15.5 million to be exact, which is the certified record in 2025).

Considering that the Qubic network can run workloads on demand, sharing this computing power with the training of this AGI, the potential for this network to lead the intersection of decentralized computing and artificial intelligence is simply amazing.

15. Where can our community follow Team Kairos's (and QBuild's) journey next?

You can learn about the upcoming news by following Kairos (https://x.com/Kairos_Tek) and Qbuild (https://x.com/_qbuild_) accounts on X, as well as the account of its CEO and official Qubic ambassador on X (https://x.com/joobid) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgeordovas).

Moreover, you can learn all about Kairos, our team members, and the solutions we build (and get early access to Easy Connect and Qbuild beta!) at https://kairos-tek.com

Stay tuned, because this is just the beginning... See you soon!