Transparency is a USP of blockchain technology that has serious repercussions as we explore the full scope and impact of web3 applicability. Making everything public messes with the trustless system in the long run. But how to delicately balance transparency and privacy? This is where smart privacy comes in. It is configurable so that you can have transparency when you need it and privacy when it matters.
Challenges
The very basic function of creating and operating a wallet invites scrutiny from strangers, as every transaction is a permanent, public financial record.
DeFi enthusiasts find their mood dampened and profit slashed with trades copied and front-run by MEV bots in real time. Large positions attract scammers, and even losses while liquidating can be exploited by sandwich attacks.
AI agents have made DeFAI the most happening narrative these days, but their autonomy is susceptible, even as they can broadcast their strategies to competitors because the agents are public by design.
DAO voting gets compromised as voting histories make participants liable to be influenced, resulting in biased governance.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, and as web3 adoption rises, the cost of interacting with fully transparent systems gets higher, ranging from unsavory experiences to crippling financial losses.
Solution
Privacy as a solution to the blockchain paradox has now become a competitive necessity. But does it need to be a binary choice? Oasis has been on a mission to revitalize web3 with customizable privacy because there can not be a one-size-fits-all scenario. So, as a developer, you can configure the level of confidentiality for the dApp and data as the context may demand. Critically for enterprises and regulated entities, smart privacy enables selective disclosure in a way that compliance and confidentiality can co-exist without compromising either.
As a privacy-preserving technique, a Trusted Execution Environment has no peer as it provides end-to-end encryption that is tamper-proof, remotely attested, and comes with reproducible builds.
The good news is that smart privacy is not a theory. Oasis has a production-ready confidential EVM in Sapphire that allows you to build on-chain dApps with smart contracts that are 100% confidential, 100% public, or anywhere in between. And, in case you already have an EVM-based dApp up and running, you can just add smart privacy to it in an easy plug-and-play fashion with the Oasis Privacy Layer.
The next logical question that arises from all this is whether smart privacy is limited only to traditional web3 or if it can have an impact in the fast-evolving cryptoAI space. As blockchain technology takes a quantum leap of transformation by aligning with AI, Oasis has developed the Runtime Off-chain Logic framework for verifiable and trustless AI dApps that are also privacy-first.
In conclusion, we are done with paying the price of surrendering privacy to transparency. Smart privacy effectively solves the problem and finds the middle ground between blockchain transparency and essential privacy protection for users. The next-gen web3 revolution is waiting to happen with all the tools at your disposal, so what is your Buidl?