Zama Developer Program Mainnet Season 5: Games That Couldn't Exist Before

Zama Developer Program Mainnet Season 5 is live.

With the holidays approaching, this season's Special Bounty is all about games.

The challenge is to build a confidential game that wouldn't be possible on a fully transparent blockchain, using the Zama Protocol to unlock new possibilities.

Season 5 challenge

Season 5 is dedicated to one Special Bounty track: Confidential Gaming.

Every submission is a game built on the Zama Protocol and deployed to Sepolia testnet, and rewards are distributed in confidential USD (cUSDT), built on ERC-7984 and powered by the Zama Protocol.

Onchain games have always had one problem: everything is public. Every hand, every bet, every move, every roll, and every winner is visible to anyone who looks. That limits how this category scales onchain. You cannot play poker when the hole cards are public, open a mystery box when the odds and the result are already on the explorer, or run a raffle where every entry and every winner is exposed by default.

This season challenges developers to build a game that only works because its state can stay encrypted, and that people actually want to play. FHE working is the entry ticket, not the goal: we are looking for games that are fun.

Ship a smart contract and frontend, deploy to Sepolia testnet, and demonstrate a game where confidentiality or verifiable fairness unlocks something that isn't possible today: hands that stay hidden until they are played, odds that are provable but results that are private, draws that anyone can verify and nobody can spy on.

Submit here‍

How to participate

Submission requirements

Smart contract and frontend
Clear documentation
3-minute video pitch (real-person pitch only; AI-generated video or voice will not be considered)
X post introducing the project

Judging Criteria

This bounty is judged on gameplay, confidentiality design, fairness, code quality, and how meaningfully confidentiality shapes the game. Specifically:

‍Gameplay and UX: Is the game fun and intuitive? Does it make working with encrypted state feel simple?‍
Confidentiality design: What stays encrypted, and does it matter? Would the game break if the state were public?‍
Fairness: Where the game involves chance, is randomness generated onchain and can players verify the outcome?‍
Functionality: Does the game work end-to-end on Sepolia? Can a full round be played and verified?‍
Demo quality: How effectively does the 3-minute video communicate the game?‍
Code quality: Is the code clean, well-tested, and documented?

Reward

5,000 cUSDT in total, distributed across up to 3 winners. 1st place: 2,500 cUSDT. 2nd place: 1,500 cUSDT. 3rd place: 1,000 cUSDT. Distribution may be adjusted based on the quality of submissions.

Applications close on December 14, 2026 (23:59 AOE).

Resources

Everything you need to start building:

Ready to build? Start here