Overview
The infraBUIDL(AI) Program is designed to energize the Avalanche ecosystem by supporting projects that fuse artificial intelligence (“AI”) with decentralized infrastructure. Through robust funding and community engagement, the initiative encourages developers to create intelligent tooling, coin-operated agents (“COAs”), AI-driven launchpads, and other next-generation solutions that enhance usability, foster developer adoption, and help position the Avalanche network at the forefront of this emerging frontier in AI.
Objectives
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Advance AI + Crypto Convergence: Support groundbreaking AI solutions that streamline developer workflows, enhance user experiences, and optimize on-chain operations in ways that benefit the entire Avalanche ecosystem.
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Attract Top Talent & Innovators: Appeal to AI and machine learning (“ML”) researchers, developers, and startups by offering a conducive environment and resources for building advanced, intelligence-driven infrastructure that can adapt to evolving market conditions.
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Strengthen Ecosystem Growth: Foster projects that can improve adoption, reduce friction, and open up new use cases as the broader crypto landscape becomes increasingly integrated with intelligent systems—reflecting a general industry view that AI and crypto will mutually reinforce each other’s growth.
Target Audience
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AI/Web3 Developers & Researchers: Visionaries adept at ML, distributed systems, and building intelligent tools within decentralized environments.
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Agent & Automation Architects: Teams creating COAs and intelligent agents capable of dynamic on-chain decision-making, asset management, and protocol-level enhancements.
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Platform & Launchpad Innovators: Builders working on AI-driven launchpads, developer platforms, or code assistants, aiming to reduce complexity, shorten development cycles, and onboard new participants seamlessly.
Scope
infraBUIDL(AI) funds AI-focused infrastructure projects that reflect the growing synergy between AI and crypto, fostering a vibrant development landscape on Avalanche. Areas of interest include:
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AI-Augmented Developer Tooling & Launchpads: Platforms that intelligently guide decentralized application (“dApp”) creation, automate deployment tasks, and optimize resource allocation, making it easier for developers to innovate.
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Intelligent Agents & COAs: Autonomous entities that execute strategies, manage liquidity, perform analytics, or facilitate governance—elevating the sophistication of on-chain ecosystems.
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Predictive Insights & Decision Support: AI-driven analytics, recommendations, and pattern recognition tools that help users and developers navigate complex markets, discover opportunities, and respond to changing conditions.
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Workflow & Integration Enhancements: Solutions that integrate AI models and data pipelines seamlessly into Avalanche’s ecosystem, enabling more informed decision-making and fluid interactions between dApps, protocols, and users.
Funding Structure
infraBUIDL(AI) employs a mix of direct grants and retroactive funding tied to delivered milestones:
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Direct Grants: Upfront capital to establish development resources, secure specialized talent, and bootstrap initial research and development.
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Retroactive Milestone-Based Funding: Additional funds disbursed upon meeting pre-defined performance indicators—such as deploying AI-driven agents in production, surpassing adoption targets, or integrating with critical Avalanche tooling.
Grant Tiers:
Grant amounts will be determined on a case-by-case basis, considering factors such as:
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Project complexity and the effort required
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Strategic importance to the Avalanche ecosystem
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Level of innovation
Based on these criteria, funding amounts are generally structured as follows:
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Small-Scale Projects: up to $100,000
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Medium-Scale Projects: $100,000 - $250,000
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Large-Scale Projects: projects that request greater funding are encouraged to apply for consideration.
Application Process
Eligibility Criteria
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Alignment with Ecosystem Goals: Proposed projects must complement Avalanche’s infrastructure, targeting meaningful improvements to developer or user experiences using AI-driven capabilities.
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Technical Feasibility & Competence: Teams must have credible expertise in AI/ML, blockchain engineering, and building scalable systems, ensuring that their envisioned solution is practical and impactful.
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Market & Ecosystem Fit: Preference for proposals that anticipate industry trends and add long-term value to the Avalanche ecosystem, rather than pursuing short-lived hype.
Application Requirements
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Project Description & Use Cases: Explain how the solution leverages AI to enhance Avalanche’s capabilities and why it’s well-suited for emerging market conditions.
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Technical Roadmap & Milestones: Outline development stages, timelines, required resources, and key deliverables.
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Budget & KPIs: Present a clear financial plan and quantifiable targets (user adoption, performance gains, developer satisfaction metrics) that define success.
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Team Background: Demonstrate the team’s technical prowess and track record, ensuring they can deliver on their vision.
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Repositories & Achievements: Provide evidence of prior accomplishments in AI tooling, blockchain software, or related fields.
Submission: All applicants must submit a form through https://www.infrabuidl.com/.
Evaluation Process
Selection Committee
A panel composed of AI/ML experts, Avalanche Foundation representatives, experienced builders in the crypto space, and AIfred, an advanced AI agent specifically trained to evaluate applications, will assess proposals based on their potential to meaningfully advance the ecosystem.
Evaluation Criteria
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Innovation & Differentiation: The originality of the AI integration and its potential to stand out among emerging industry trends.
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Ecosystem Impact & Scalability: The capacity of the solution to grow with Avalanche, empower developers, and enhance long-term network utility.
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Team Reliability & Execution Capability: A strong team with the necessary experience to deliver results, adapt to feedback, and iterate quickly.
Monitoring & Reporting
Grantees must regularly report on:
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Progress Against Milestones: Detailing achieved deliverables, refined models, improved tooling, or agent deployments.
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User Feedback & Developer Engagement: Insights gathered from early adopters, community members, and ecosystem partners, guiding future iterations.
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On-Chain Metrics & Adoption Indicators: Evidence of tangible ecosystem improvements, such as increased usage of AI-assisted platforms, agent-run strategies, or analytics-driven decision-making.
A Final Report upon completion will summarize outcomes, lessons learned, and recommended next steps to inspire further growth and innovation.
Community Engagement & Promotion
The Avalanche Foundation will highlight the achievements of successful projects through official social channels, fostering open dialogues, AMAs, and workshops. This community-driven approach helps share best practices, encourage collaboration, and empower more builders to experiment with AI-enhanced Web3 infrastructure.
Legal, Compliance, & Restrictions
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Recipients are required to enter into standard Grant Agreements.
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Recipients will be required to provide necessary information and documentation to allow the Avalanche Foundation to conduct necessary background checks. This may include, but is not limited to, proof of identity, address verification, and other relevant details as required by applicable regulations.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions that include ANY of the following characteristics will not be approved:
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Gambling (including prediction markets), drugs, or firearm;
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Illicit trade, money laundering, or any criminal activity;
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“Virtual Asset Services,” including public token launches and holding/selling/issuing/exchanging virtual assets on behalf of others;
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Projects focused on using token as a financial instrument (including token distributions, creating a new token, making investments and generating returns, buyback or dividend features, exchange listings for $AVAX or other tokens, etc.);
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Any provision of funds (direct or indirect) to sanctioned persons or projects involving such persons, and any project team applying for funding shall have done its due diligence prior to making any application for funding and shall, at the request of the Avalanche Foundation provide copies or evidence of such due diligence having been undertaken and the outcome of that due diligence investigation;
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Requests for endorsement from the Avalanche Foundation; or
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Projects where any member of the team is based in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, or any other country or jurisdiction sanctioned by OFAC.
In addition, the following are not permitted in any projects that are funded by the Avalanche Foundation:
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Hateful Content - No racist, sexist, or otherwise hateful speech, no discrimination;
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Deceiving Users - Malicious content that could cause harm or unintended consequences to users;
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Falsification - Any type of hacking to falsify a contribution is prohibited. No encouraging or enabling Sybil attacks or other forms of malicious manipulation;
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Fraud & Impersonation - Claiming to be a brand or person you are not: the Grant owner must be directly affiliated with the project and the funds must go to the project and be used for the purposes stated in the Grant’s details;
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Quid Pro Quo & Bribery - The Grant may not have any form of quid pro quo that has financial value (a scenario in which a user gets some additional unique benefit/award in return for their donation);
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Advertising - Using Grants to showcase something you are selling, like a token sale or NFT drop;
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Grantees may not be subject to sanctions, and funding cannot be used in violation of any applicable law, rules, or regulations (for example, those addressing sanctions, financing of terrorism, and anti-money-laundering); and
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Grantees can be eliminated from consideration in the round if they are found to be encouraging or enabling Sybil attacks or other forms of malicious manipulation.
The Avalanche Foundation reserves the right to take such action as it considers appropriate in the event that any of the foregoing is breached (including but not limited to canceling any commitment to fund or the project being required to return amounts already funded).