Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years of age to participate in this contest.
• Participation is prohibited for residents of, or persons located in, countries or regions subject to comprehensive sanctions by the United States, including but not limited to: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
• By registering, you represent and warrant that you meet all eligibility requirements and that your participation does not violate any applicable laws or regulations.
• Employees, contractors, and immediate family members of PrivateBond and its affiliates are not eligible for prizes but may participate for non-prize purposes.

2. Submission Requirements

• Each submission must be a Docker image that conforms to the technical specification described in the contest documentation, including /encode, /decode, and /health HTTP endpoints on port 8080.
• The Docker image must start within 30 seconds, respond to requests within 10 seconds, and operate within an 8 GB memory limit.
• One submission per individual or team. Multiple submissions from the same person or coordinated group will result in disqualification of all associated entries.
• Submissions must not contain malicious code, including but not limited to: cryptocurrency miners, host system exploits, data exfiltration mechanisms, or denial-of-service payloads.

3. GitHub Repository Disclosure

• At registration, you must submit a keccak256 hash of your GitHub repository URL. This constitutes a cryptographic commitment to your source code repository.
• By registering, you consent to the disclosure of your actual repository URL under any of the following conditions: (a) a verified knockoff is recorded against your submission, (b) you win a prize (top 3), or (c) the contest concludes (all repositories are disclosed after judging).
• You are responsible for ensuring the repository URL you commit to is accurate and accessible at the time of disclosure.

4. Intellectual Property

• You retain full ownership of your submission, including all intellectual property rights in your watermarking algorithm and source code.
• By submitting, you grant PrivateBond a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to: (a) pull, run, and evaluate your Docker image for the purposes of the contest, (b) publish watermarked output images generated during evaluation, and (c) reference your submission and results in contest communications and marketing materials.
• You represent and warrant that your submission does not infringe on any third-party intellectual property rights.

5. Prize Distribution

• The prize pool is held in USDT on the Polygon network in a smart contract escrow. A 5% platform fee is deducted before distribution.
• Prizes are distributed as: 1st place 60%, 2nd place 25%, 3rd place 15% of the net pool.
• Only submissions with “active” status (not knocked off or disqualified) at the end of judging are eligible for prizes.
• Prizes are sent to the Polygon wallet address provided at registration. You are solely responsible for providing a correct and accessible wallet address.
• If fewer than 3 eligible entries remain, unclaimed prize portions roll into future PrivateBond contests.
• You are solely responsible for any tax obligations arising from prize winnings.

6. Disqualification

• PrivateBond reserves the right to disqualify any submission at its sole discretion for violations of these terms, including but not limited to:
• Failure to meet technical requirements (startup time, response time, memory limits).
• Submission of malicious or harmful Docker images.
• Multiple entries from the same individual or coordinated group.
• Visible watermarks or intentional image degradation.
• Use of trivially broken or no-op watermarking schemes.
• Attempts to manipulate the contest, leaderboard, or knockoff process.
• Disqualification decisions are final and not subject to appeal.

7. Limitation of Liability

• THE CONTEST AND ALL RELATED SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
• TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PRIVATEBOND AND ITS AFFILIATES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE CONTEST, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES.
• PRIVATEBOND'S TOTAL LIABILITY SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL PRIZE POOL AMOUNT.
• PrivateBond is not responsible for smart contract failures, network congestion, wallet errors, or other blockchain-related issues that may affect prize distribution.

8. Governing Law

These terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising from or relating to these terms or the contest shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware.

9. Amendments

PrivateBond reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated through the contest website and, where possible, via notification to registered participants. Continued participation after changes constitutes acceptance of the modified terms. If you do not agree with the changes, your sole remedy is to withdraw your submission before the evaluation period begins.