Zama Developer Program Mainnet Season 2: Confidential Finance Is The Next Frontier

Onchain finance is no longer a niche experiment. Tokenized real-world assets have surpassed $27B. Stablecoin volumes now rival Visa. Major institutions are moving from watching to deploying.

But there's a structural gap: on a public blockchain, everything is visible to everyone. For DeFi to serve institutional capital, for RWA to work at scale, for compliant onchain finance to exist — confidentiality isn't optional. It's the missing layer.

FHE solves this at the protocol level. Season 1 showed what developers can build with it. Season 2 goes deeper into the use cases that matter most: onchain finance, RWA, compliance-native applications, and the tooling that makes all of it easier to build.

What's New in Season 2

The Builder and Bounty tracks continue from Season 1. This season's Bounty challenge is new: building AI agent skills for FHE. We're also launching the Bootcamp Track for developers entering FHE for the first time, and a dedicated APAC track through our OpenBuild partnership.

Starting this season, all rewards will be distributed in confidential USD (cUSDT), built on ERC-7984 and powered by the Zama Protocol.

Total reward: 15,000+ cUSDT

Submission deadline: May 10, 2026 (23:59 AOE)

Builder Track

Build real-world use cases with the Zama Protocol.

Build a confidential dApp with smart contract and frontend, clear documentation, and a 3-minute video pitch. Deploy on Sepolia testnet or Ethereum mainnet.

Reward: 7,000 cUSDT — 7 winners, 1,000 cUSDT each

Submit your app↗

Bounty Track

Create templates and resources for the developer ecosystem.

This season's challenge: build AI agent skills for the Zama Protocol. AI coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf are how developers increasingly write code — but they have no built-in knowledge of FHE. Your job is to change that.

Create a production-ready SKILL.md that enables AI agents to accurately write, test, and deploy confidential smart contracts using FHEVM. Cover the full development workflow: encrypted types, FHE operations, access control, input proofs, decryption patterns, frontend integration, testing, and common anti-patterns. Submit your skill files along with a 3-minute demo video showing an AI agent building a working FHEVM application from a natural language prompt.

Judged on accuracy, completeness, agent effectiveness, code quality, and error prevention.

Reward: 3,000 cUSDT — 1st: 1,500 / 2nd: 1,000 / 3rd: 500 cUSDT

(Distribution may be adjusted based on submission quality)

Submit your bounty solution↗

Special Bounty Track × OpenBuild

A dedicated track for the APAC community.

Same format as the Builder Track: confidential dApp with smart contract and frontend, documentation, and a 3-minute video pitch. Deploy on Sepolia testnet or Ethereum mainnet.

Reward: 5,000 cUSDT — 5 winners, 1,000 cUSDT each

Deadline: May 10, 2026 (23:59 AOE)

Check out the bounty↗

Developer Bootcamp

Go from zero to building confidential dApps with FHEVM.

A 4-week cohort-based program led by a Zama-certified developer. Built for Solidity developers with no prior FHE or cryptography background. Cohort size is limited.

Prerequisites: Solidity experience required.

Reward: No monetary prize — participants receive a completion certificate and hands-on FHE development skills.

Apply to join the cohort↗

Season 2 starts now. Ready to build?‍

Start here↗