From the Lecture Hall
to the Real World

IC3 bridges the gap between academic rigor and practical application. We drive the research, hackathons, and global events shaping the frontier of blockchain and AI.

New: Crypto x AI Survey Paper

About Us

We are a consortium of academic researchers across 13 universities focused on foundational research in blockchain systems. Our goal is to take concepts from the whiteboard and apply them in the real world.

With expertise spanning applied cryptography, consensus protocols, distributed systems, programming language theory, and game-theoretic mechanism design, our research has played an ongoing, pivotal role in shaping the blockchain industry as we know it.

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Featured Research

IC3 publishes research on blockchain, cryptography, decentralized systems, AI and more.

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Crypto x AI, AI x Crypto: A Survey

The intersection of crypto x AI is spawning papers, products, online posts, and companies. All the surrounding buzz, though, obscures what exactly has been done, what the opportunities and challenges are, and what open questions deserve attention. This survey paper asks what AI can do for blockchain-based technologies (broadly construed as “crypto”) (crypto x AI), and vice versa (AI x crypto). We systematize existing work, summarize key takeaways, highlight open research questions, and offer a perspective on pervasive industry misconceptions, concluding that AI and crypto are still in the very early stages of meaningful integration…

𝜋Creds: Privately Inferred Credentials

πCreds (Privately Inferred Credentials) are a new type of privacy-preserving verifiable credential that use trusted LLMs to generate certifications from authenticated data. Unlike traditional credential systems, which are complex and limited to structured data, πCreds can certify richer claims from unstructured information. The paper also identifies two new security risks—SCAE (misleading credentials from manipulated data) and ACPP (privacy leakage through malicious model selection). A prototype demonstrates credentials over financial, health, email, and software data, including verifying software properties without revealing source code…

The Economics of Proof-of-Useful-Work

This paper analyzes proof of useful work (PoUW) blockchains, where computation both secures the blockchain and produces valuable outputs such as AI inference. Using an economic model, the authors show that compute resources can be allocated among mining, useful work, or a combination of both (“duplex” work), leading to three possible equilibria: Bitconia (traditional PoW), Fortessia (duplex work fully replaces mining and improves security), and Duplexia (block rewards subsidize useful computation, lowering inference costs and increasing output). Contrary to common criticism, the study finds that PoUW does not make attacks cheaper; the cost of attacking the blockchain remains linked to block rewards. Moreover, in some settings, PoUW can generate additional socially beneficial computation while maintaining blockchain security…

Events & Hackathons

IC3 events connect people across the blockchain industry to share ideas, discuss innovations, and help shape the future of blockchain technology.

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IC3 Blockchain Camp 2026

June 1-7, 2026

The IC3 Blockchain Camp is one of our biggest events of the year, and the 2026 edition did not disappoint. Princeton University was the main venue for this year’s event.

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