Participating in this year's vLEI Hackathon? Support is available to help you build the future of digital organizational identity.
Author: Kent Bull
Date: 2025-07-30
Views:
It has been said that "the best way to predict the future is to create it." This is why the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) has launched the vLEI Hackathon, a global innovation challenge inviting developers, entrepreneurs, and digital trust stakeholders to build solutions using the verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) that will shape the future of digital trust at the organizational level.
As with any new technology, there is much to learn. The good news is that GLEIF offers all vLEI Hackathon participants extensive support, providing you with the necessary resources and infrastructure to succeed, allowing you to focus on creating.
Get Up to Speed with Resources and Training
Self-Paced Training
The first place to start is with our self-paced training materials in the GLEIF-IT/vlei-trainings Github repository. These trainings are targeted at both beginner and intermediate levels and aim to take you from knowing nothing about the vLEI and its supporting protocols to being able to write wallet software and verifiers.
If you have any questions or get stuck during the self-paced training, you can attend the live training sessions, schedule a one-on-one consultation, or join the Web Of Trust KERI community Discord server: discord.gg/YEyTH5TfuB.
Live Training Sessions
As mentioned above, GLEIF's vLEI Technical Team is hosting dedicated live training sessions to cover the beginner and intermediate level content from the self-paced vLEI trainings. Sessions are based on demand and cover two different time zones:
Morning slot: Monday 7:00 AM MDT / 15:00 CEST – 8:30 AM MDT / 16:30 CEST
Evening slot: Monday 7:00 PM MDT / 9:00 AM HKT – 8:30 PM MDT / 10:30 AM HKT
One-on-One Consultations
For any unanswered or additional vLEI technical questions above and beyond the self-paced and live training sessions, you can book a one-on-one consultation during the office hour slots offered by the vLEI Technical Team. Available slots are below:
North America & Europe (Hosted by Kent Bull): Book your slot here
Wednesdays, 9:00–10:00 AM MDT
Thursdays, 8:00–8:30 AM & 9:00–10:00 AM MDT
Fridays, 9:00–10:00 AM MDT
Asia-Pacific (Hosted by Esteban Garcia): Book your 1:1 slot here
Tuesday to Friday, 7:30–9:00 AM HKT
KERI Community Discord Server
We also encourage all participants to connect to the developer community Discord via the Web Of Trust KERI Discord invite link: discord.gg/YEyTH5TfuB
Leverage the vLEI Infrastructure
In addition to the training and support resources, you can also leverage existing deployed infrastructure – including the GLEIF Testnet and the partner Qualified vLEI Issuer (QVI) wallet software – to get up and running and accelerate your team's efforts:
Available Test Infrastructure
The GLEIF Testnet includes a set of infrastructure intended to support the KERIA and Signify style agent and lightweight wallet infrastructure. The witnesses may also be used in heavyweight wallets such as the KERI Foundation Wallet.
This infrastructure includes a pool of five witnesses, a KERIA server, an instance of the vLEI Reporting API verifier (Sally), a demonstration webhook called by the verifier, and an ACDC Schema server hosting the vLEI ACDC schemas. See the table below for a listing of components, and the diagram that follows for a visual representation of how everything is set up.
Sample Workflow Code
The qvi-software repository in the qvi-workflow directory includes four samples, provided as Bash scripts and SignifyTS wallets where applicable. These samples show how to construct a significant portion of the GLEIF vLEI ecosystem, including QVIs, legal entities, and the associated credentials. It also shows how to present those credentials to a verifier – the vLEI Reporting API (Sally). Additionally, the “qvi-workflow/sig_ts_wallets” directory includes a sample headless wallet implementation that can be used to instrument the entire workflow and serve as a basis for your own wallet or software implementation.
However, it is essential to note that while it is appropriate for proof of concepts, not all code is suitable for production use, and should handle errors, cancellations, and retries gracefully.
Partner QVI Wallets
Global vLEI is providing their development wallet at dev-portal.vlei.dev as an option for teams that neither need nor want to develop their own wallet software. You can download the documentation guide from the APIX listing by searching “vlei” in the “APIs” section of the APIX catalog, as shown below.
a) Downloading the Global vLEI Wallet App documentation
Enter the text ‘vlei’ into the search box and select the “APIs” option in the Directory box.
Then click on the “Global vLEI Dev Wallet App” tile in the search results that show up.
Scroll down to the “API Documentation” header and click on the link to the PDF.
How To Get Involved
We’re excited to have you and your team participate in this year’s vLEI Hackathon. Registration is now open via the APIX Platform and will run until August 29, 2025. Finalists will be shortlisted on 7 September.
If you would like to comment on a blog post, please identify yourself with your first and last name. Your name will appear next to your comment. Email addresses will not be published. Please note that by accessing or contributing to the discussion board you agree to abide by the terms of the GLEIF Blogging Policy, so please read them carefully.
Kent Bull is the vLEI Technical Operations Software Developer at GLEIF. A seasoned software engineer with deep expertise in decentralized identity, Kent is a committed advocate for the vLEI and KERI ecosystems.
His passion lies in reimagining commerce and community, building a future where trust and connection are restored through digital, decentralized tools like the vLEI. With experience across both corporate and startup environments, he brings insight into the challenges of adoption and the excitement of innovation. He’s also a firm believer in the value of disciplined, incremental progress toward a more secure, identity-centric future.
Outside of work, Kent is an accomplished pianist and long-distance runner.
