karthik badugu@whereareyoukarthik

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has unlocked new opportunities for lending, trading, and yield generation, but it also exposes users to significant risks such as smart contract exploits, liquidity instability, and malicious actors. Our project, AI-Powered DeFi Risk Optimizer, leverages autonomous AI agents to monitor DeFi protocols in real-time, analyze historical data, and generate predictive risk scores. The system integrates with Qubic smart contracts and bridges to ecosystems like Solana and Ethereum, providing developers and users with a transparent dashboard of protocol health. Using LangChain, Vector DBs, and cloud-native infrastructure, the optimizer simulates edge cases, forecasts liquidity crunches, and delivers actionable recommendations. By combining AI reasoning with blockchain transparency, this solution strengthens trust in DeFi, accelerates safe adoption, and positions Qubic as a secure launchpad for next-generation financial innovation. Our hackathon prototype will focus on risk scoring and visualization, with future expansion into predictive analytics and automated compliance tools.

In this hybrid hackathon powered by Arc, developers will build the next generation of agentic commerce systems using Arc with USDC. Explore a world where AI agents and web services can pay for APIs, data, compute, and content in dynamic, usage-based ways, while Arc provides stablecoin-native settlement with predictable USDC fees and deterministic, sub-second finality. This hackathon is supported by Google & Google DeepMind, with a dedicated challenge and $40,000 in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) credits awarded for the best use of Gemini models and Google AI Studio. 📅 January 9 – 24, 2026 • Jan 9 – 23 (Online Phase) – Collaborate and build online with developers and AI innovators from around the world. All projects must be submitted by the end of the online phase on January 23rd. • Jan 23 (On‑site Build Day – San Francisco, CA) – Selected participants will be invited to an exclusive in‑person session to refine their projects and connect directly with mentors. • Jan 24 (On‑site Demos & Awards – San Francisco, CA) – Live pitching sessions to a panel of judges and ecosystem partners, followed by the official winner announcement. Get guidance from Arc and Circle experts through on-site support. 📍 On-site Venue (Jan 23–24): MindsDB SF AI Collective 3154 17th St, San Francisco, California, USA 🤝 Go solo or team up, it's your flow. 🏆Compete for $50,000 in USDC & GCP Credits. 📍 On-site participation is by invitation only. Travel and accommodation expenses will not be covered. 🧑🏻‍💻 Secure your spot now - sign up before the Kick-Off Stream!

⏱️ You’ve got 48 hours - create, build, and launch! 🌟 Get direct access to Qubic, mentors, and ecosystem support. 💰 Compete for your share of $44,550 in prizes across two tracks. 🤝 Work solo or team up to design the next wave of blockchain innovation. 🧑‍💻 Sign up and start building on one of the world’s fastest decentralized networks..