Back to all discussions

  •   about 1 month ago

Participants need clear answers on credits, privacy, security, and rules

Hi organizers,

After reading many of the discussion topics posted by other participants, I honestly believe that several concerns being raised are valid and deserve a clear public response.

This competition asks participants to build a real business in 90 days, with real users, real revenue, production evidence, AI execution logs, customer proof, and Google Cloud usage. That is an ambitious and exciting challenge. However, the current organization and support around the competition do not seem aligned with the level of seriousness expected from participants.

Several important issues remain unclear or insufficiently addressed:

* Access to Google AI / Gemini / developer tools
* The $100 Ultra credit process and overage problems
* Whether participants need to pay for subscriptions before receiving benefits
* Cloud credits and infrastructure support
* Privacy and confidentiality of submitted business ideas
* Security expectations for production systems
* Code integrity and IP protection
* Submission limits and rule interpretation
* Marketing/customer acquisition expense rules
* How production evidence and customer data should be submitted safely

The concern is not that participants do not want to work hard. On the contrary, many of us are ready to build serious products. The concern is that we are being asked to take business, legal, technical, financial, and privacy risks without receiving equally serious operational guidance from the competition.

If the goal is truly to help builders create real AI-powered businesses, participants need a clearer and more reliable foundation. At minimum, it would be helpful to have:

1. A centralized official FAQ answering the repeated questions from the discussion board
2. Clear instructions on credits, subscriptions, overages, and Google Cloud/Gemini access
3. A transparent policy on confidentiality, IP ownership, and how submitted business/customer data is protected
4. Security and privacy guidance for projects handling real users and real customer evidence
5. Clear rules for solo builders, revenue evidence, expenses, and production logs
6. A reliable support channel with response timelines

This is especially important because the competition is not just asking for a demo or prototype. It is asking for real businesses operating in production. That requires trust, clarity, and responsible infrastructure from the organizers too.

Many participants are motivated, but the current uncertainty creates unnecessary friction and risk. Please provide a clear public update addressing these concerns so participants can focus on building instead of guessing.

Thank you.

  • 9 comments

  •   •   about 1 month ago

    Support. When production level businesses are expected, clarity on credits, IP, and security is critical.

  •   •   about 1 month ago

    +1

  •   •   about 1 month ago

    +1

  •   •   about 1 month ago

    +1

  • Manager   •   about 1 month ago

    Thank you for your questions and motivation for this hackathon! We are working on an FAQ based on these real questions and aim to post next week. I'll try to cover your topics below:
    Please use the getting started resources available through Google Cloud (https://cloud.google.com/free) and note there is a $0/m Antigravity subscription available here: https://antigravity.google/. We will share additional resource packages in the coming weeks.

    All Submissions remain the intellectual property of the individuals or organizations that developed them. Judges adhere to confidentiality and nondisclosure of project submissions. Please only share the Private repos with testing@devpost.com and judging@hacker.fund to ensure sufficient protections during the judging process. Within the submission form it will note which items are public facing (title, About project, video etc) and which are just for judges (Additional Info tab including expenses, uploads, etc.)

    In regards to customer PII the hackathon contest is designed to compliantly handle PII. As for the request process during judging or throughout any of your submission contents, any names you are not able to share, feel free to cross them out or similarly anonymize. On the submission form there is an optional question to add a URL to a publicly posted testimonial by a customer or user.

    We will work on providing some example evidence types and add more helper text to the project submission form.

    We are scanning this discussion tab and the specific discord channels. Appologies for the delayed responses as we try to speed things up here.

  •   •   28 days ago

    +1

  •   •   22 days ago

    The prize is good the credits to use for free is a joke .

  •   •   15 days ago

    So I still dont know how we access to the 300$ credit to use to develop our projects. Im using Anti gravity and gemini API, I have used them before with this google account so, now what?

  • Manager   •   4 days ago

    Hello all! Please use the getting started resources available through Google Cloud (https://cloud.google.com/free) and note there is a $0/m Antigravity subscription available here: https://antigravity.google/.

    A limited number of Google Ultra Plan coupons (3 months free) are available for builders who are actively building, registered for the hackathon, and will struggle to afford to continue without help. You may apply for them here (https://forms.gle/fim2oukB7hq6zZnk8). Applications will undergo a review, including identity verification.

    Best of luck

Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.