What Every Blockchain Needs: Confidentiality

Back in February at ETHDenver 2024, Decentralised Confidential Computing (DeCC) emerged from a grassroots movement to become a new Web3 category through a coalition of more than twenty privacy-focused blockchain networks. After several weeks of open discussion, the group moved to a formal vote, in which the overwhelming consensus was to adopt the term DeCC as the broad category name for all projects that operate in the space.

DeCC projects take the concept of privacy to new levels. Previously, Web3 projects working in the area of data protection and confidential execution of smart contracts were often labeled as “privacy coins” or “privacy chains.”  This bundled these organizations into early generations of solutions focused solely on transactional privacy, like Monero or Zcash. However, DeCC projects provide the ability to create smart contracts with encrypted data, which is far more powerful than simply sending a token privately.

Lisa Loud, executive director of Secret Network Foundation, one of the founding projects, explains:

“Ethereum changed the world when it introduced the concept of smart contracts running on a blockchain. This made it possible to not only create decentralized payment systems like Bitcoin, but also decentralized computing applications. However, since that time, most blockchain technology has required all data to be fully transparent and public. While this is fine for some applications, it’s a massive limitation for others.

“DeCC solves this, unlocking new possibilities for Web3 by enabling smart contracts to utilize encrypted data, paving the way for mainstream adoption. Secret Network aims to provide DeCC to all of Web3,” she says.

“For the first time in Ethereum's history, we have practical and easy privacy solutions. No new languages for developers to learn. No new tooling required. The work done by DeCC projects will set a new standard for Web3 applications," said Gavin Thomas, co-founder of Obscuro Labs and contributor to TEN

"The TEN team, like the other DeCC projects, have worked tirelessly to bring this innovation to life, and we're excited to see how it will empower developers and users alike."

In another analogy, DeCC members compare Bitcoin to Ethereum. Bitcoin provides a ledger of token transfers, but Ethereum can provide that and far more through the use of smart contracts. DeCC is addressing the whole privacy issue.

Alessandro De Carli, Co-Founder of Acurast, says: “Centralized trust is ubiquitous in today's interconnected world, from computational resources to data storage and its underlying infrastructure. Large-scale data leaks and breaches have shed light on these implicit trust assumptions and highlighted the need to evolve toward a permissionless, confidential, and universally decentralized cloud future, powered by blockchains.

“One major challenge facing blockchains of today is the effectiveness and confidentiality of the execution layer, and DeCC is the solution to this,” says De Carli.

The projects involved in the movement so far include (in alphabetical order):

Acurast, Aleo, Aleph Zero, Anyone Protocol, Arcium, Automata, Aztec, COTI, Fairblock, Fhenix, iExec, Inco, Integritee, Intmax, Marlin, Mind Network, Oasis, Partisia Blockchain Foundation, Phala, Secret Network, Sunscreen, Swisstronik, TEN, Ternoa, and Zama. Additional projects are welcome to contact this organization and add their voices and resources to the effort.

IExec CEO Gilles Fedak adds, “In most platforms, data is processed out of reach of its owners. Those who truly own the data are not the ones who get to decide how it is protected, used, or who benefits from it. iExec Dev Tools use privacy-enhancing technologies like confidential computing to solve this problem, making it easy to leverage the power of DeCC without the complexity. iExec is proud to be a pivotal force in DeCC by allowing users to maintain complete ownership of their data, encrypting it end-to-end, and benefiting from the value their data creates.”

DeCC encompasses multiple types of encryption technologies and solutions aimed at improved data protection, secure and confidential calculations, and verifiable computing. Some of the technologies used by the companies in the field include TEE (Trusted Execution Environment), ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proofs), MPC (Multi-Party Computation), Garbled Circuits (GC) and FHE (Fully Homomorphic Encryption). Many DeCC projects share the overarching goal of making blockchains more suitable for conducting business by ensuring confidentiality and protection of sensitive or owned data. In contrast, most leading blockchain networks today are radically transparent, making mainstream adoption difficult to achieve.

Jernej Kos, Director of the Oasis Foundation, shares his perspective on why privacy is important to Web3 and how the Oasis Network plays a strategic role in reshaping a more privacy-centric digital future. “Decentralized Confidential Computing (DeCC) represents a significant evolution in blockchain technology, moving beyond mere transactional privacy to enable secure, confidential execution of smart contracts. Oasis Foundation is proud to be part of this pioneering coalition, as we believe DeCC will revolutionize data protection and computation in the Web3 space, allowing us to engineer more sophisticated smart contracts, expand to new use cases, and create better user experiences. This initiative underscores our commitment to advancing privacy technologies and fostering innovation that can drive mainstream adoption of blockchain solutions.” he says.

The DeCC Alliance plans to raise awareness of this technology through “DeCC Day” events at major blockchain conventions worldwide. They have already hosted events at Futurist, NFT.NYC, Consensus, EthCC, and are now planning for Token2049, DevCon, and others. DeCC Alliance projects are also working together to further develop their associated technologies through research and collaboration.

Mike Antonuk, Founder of Swisstronik, points to compelling cost reduction in DeCC:  “Most Web3 product builders find it hard and costly to keep up with the ever-changing, fragmented crypto regulations. Moreover, they’re forced to choose between user privacy & decentralization and compliance. App users also have a hard choice to make. They have to either rely on centralized parties and risk their personal data while passing identity checks, or stay in the gray area of the crypto industry, which is filled with fraudsters and numerous risks. Swisstronik solves this through DeCC, providing a set of tools that strike a balance between user privacy, regulatory compliance, and decentralization.”