Akave x Encode: How Builders Hacked the AI Data Stack
Real projects from real builders using Akave to power decentralized AI infrastructure.
The Encode AI Blueprints Hackathon challenged developers to rethink how data and infrastructure power AI. Over the course of a month, builders tackled core challenges around data provenance, attribution, and compute efficiency, with Filecoin as the foundation.
Builders delivered thoughtful, technically sharp projects, spanning agent marketplaces, AI-ready data pipelines, real-time applications, and more. Below, we’re highlighting a few standout builds that show what’s possible when you start moving AI data infrastructure on-chain.
The Akave Challenge
Akave invited builders to imagine new AI use cases powered by decentralized storage from the ground up. The focus: hot retrieval, privacy-preserving pipelines, and modular integrations that bring AI data on-chain, all built on a foundation of decentralized storage.
Participants were encouraged to build:
- Real-time storage and retrieval layers for agent-based systems
- Interoperable pipelines connecting compute to decentralized storage
- AI-native applications that utilize Akave's SDK and APIs for fast, verifiable storage
- Experimental tools for marketplaces, coordination, and monetization at the data layer
The creativity exceeded expectations, and the level of execution proved that decentralized storage can be more than a backend. It can be a foundational layer for innovation.
The Build Recap
The Akave track welcomed 27 builders who submitted 20 original projects, each exploring how decentralized infrastructure could support data pipeline. From real-time agent marketplaces to data validation tools and decentralized datasets, the overall quality and ambition of submissions was high.
We selected three standout projects that combined technical depth, usability, and creativity in ways that showed what’s truly possible when you build the AI data layer on-chain.
Winners:
The winners (who they are, what they built, and why they stood out)
Without further ado, the top 3 projects on Akave were:
🥇 1st Place: Franky Agents (Gabriel Antony Xaviour, Sam Felix, Marshal Mathews)
🥈 2nd Place: Decentralised Sign Language Translation For All (Aaron Vinod)
🥉 3rd Place: DataHive (Ademola Adebowale, Emmanuel Akanji)
🥉 3rd Place: DataHive
Builders: Ademola Adebowale, Emmanuel Akanji
DataHive is a token-incentivized data marketplace that connects AI researchers, companies, and individual data contributors. Users can buy AI-ready datasets or sell their own for token rewards, all backed by Akave’s decentralized storage.
It stood out as a strong implementation of a data marketplace on Akave, seamlessly integrating into our decentralized storage while allowing users to create their own buckets, move data in and out, and automatically stashing artifacts across our network.
🥈 2nd Place: Decentralized Sign Language Translation For All
Builder: Aaron Vinod
Decentralized Sign Language Translation For All utilized a vision model to validate the quality of training images, measuring blurriness and content relevance, to create a dynamic ASL interpretation tool.
The validated data is routed to a Data DAO on Filecoin, where contributors are rewarded for high-quality submissions, and stored on Akave for training and reward allocation.
This project stood out for its thoughtful use of decentralized storage, AI-driven validation, on-chain rewards, and real-world impact in accessibility and inclusion.
🥇 1st Place: Franky Agents
Builders: Gabriel Antony Xaviour, Sam Felix, Marshal Mathews
Franky Agents built a DePIN network which turns old mobile phones into monetizable AI nodes, combining decentralization, sustainability, and creativity.
In their stack, Akave powers secure storage for encrypted secrets, character data with fast retrieval, and full histories of AI agent conversations.
Users can participate in both sides of the marketplace, using their mobile devices as nodes and gaining ongoing revenue from an otherwise wasted asset, or uploading custom AI agents with low hosting costs.
With polished UX on both ends, the project stood out for its technical execution, thoughtful incentives, and alignment with Web3 principles of ownership and contribution.
Thank you to everyone who built with Akave during the Encode hackathon. We saw some truly creative, thoughtful, and practical applications of decentralized storage, from the winning teams to many other standout submissions. It’s clear that this community is full of builders focused on solving real problems, and we’re here for it.
Our Biggest Takeaway: The AI Blueprint is in the Build
The best projects didn’t just focus on what AI can do. They focused on how it gets built, how data flows, how agents coordinate, how ownership is enforced, and how infrastructure supports scale. What became clear is that the blueprint for decentralized AI isn’t something static or fully defined upfront. It’s iterative. It’s emergent. And it’s being shaped by the builders themselves. Through what they choose to prioritize, how they compose systems, and what problems they solve, developers are effectively defining best practices, patterns, and architecture in real time.
Here’s what we learned:
- Composable Storage and Compute Are the Foundation. When builders paired Akave with Lilypad, they created fast, decentralized systems like agent workflows, DAOs, and monetized data pipelines without relying on centralized services. Modularity helped them move faster.
- Developers Want UX Without Sacrificing Ownership. The strongest projects used programmable storage and access not just to protect data, but to power data marketplaces, reward contributors, and give users agency. By pairing ownership with intuitive UX, they made complex systems feel accessible and actionable.
- Real-World Use Cases Are Leading the Way. Teams built with purpose. They focused on education, sustainability, accessibility, and coordination, proving that decentralized infrastructure becomes valuable when it solves real problems.
The blueprint is evolving with every build, and we’re excited to keep building it together.
Stay connected and join the Akave community:
Telegram: t.me/Akavebuilders
Twitter/X: @AkaveNetwork
Docs: docs.akave.xyz
