There are 7 proprietary innovations that deliver Partisia Blockchain’s complete Layer 1+2 Blockchain. In this blog we present the fifth innovative feature — MPC-as-a-Service — we call it Demeter.
For an overview of all of the 7 features see the Zeus blog. We present each of the 7 innovations with a unique post leading up to TGE on May 31, 2022.
The single most important contribution of the Partisia Blockchain project is to bring general privacy-preserving computation to blockchain and most notably Secure Multiparty Computation (MPC). MPC is a revolutionary technology that allows us to protect our data, not only when they are being stored or communicated, but also while they are being processed.
Using Secure Multiparty Computation, individuals and organizations can allow their private data to be used for a certain purpose, while retaining complete control over the data. One example is a new type of “data exchange” where the data owners remain in control of their data and where only the result of privacy-preserving computation is shared or exchanged. This allows citizens to participate in continuous assessment of healthcare treatment or for competing companies to share best practice for the greater good. Another example is financial markets, where private order books can be matched continuously and only matching trades executed. These are just two examples of services already developed and tested in real life — we believe that the Partisia Blockchain dApps ecosystem will reveal the true power of MPC-as-a-Service as a core part of WEB 3.0.
To be secure and efficient, MPC requires participation of multiple parties that share the computational work to be done. This avoids having to trust any single party, but also leads to practical challenges related to coordination of the computing parties and managing the communication with the data owners.
This is why the entire Partisia Blockchain is designed for secure and efficient orchestration of MPC-as-a-Service. The team behind the project has pioneered MPC and delivered commercial grade MPC since 2008. Partisia Blockchain is probably the most ambitious MPC platform and it comes with an extensive set of tools and a new set of MPC protocols called REAL. A core feature is efficient preprocessing that utilizes all the blockchain orchestration of many nodes to the fullest extent to speed up realtime use of MPC. We call this Demeter MPC-as-a-Service and claim that we set a new standard for how to conduct any type of privacy-preserving computations within and beyond the blockchain ecosystem.
For more details, please checkout the yellow paper, software documentation and the Medium blogs.
Please let us know what you think and stay tuned for the next blog post about the unified public and private smart contracts, called Apollo.
Thank you to everyone in our community for your support!
Partisia Blockchain Team
There are 7 proprietary innovations that deliver Partisia Blockchain’s complete Layer 1+2 Blockchain. In this blog we present the fourth innovative feature — the zero-knowledge layer — we call it Athena.
For an overview of all of the 7 features see the Zeus blog. We present each of the 7 innovations with a unique post leading up to TGE on May 31, 2022.
“The lack of confidentiality and privacy on blockchains is obvious and hampers their uptake and use”. This is the first line of the white paper and the starting point of the Partisia Blockchain as the project is all about bringing privacy to blockchain.
Current mainstream blockchain technology provides full transparency about transactions and a pseudonymized representation of the users. Adding privacy in terms of “private transactions” to this mainstream blockchain model is challenging as one cannot both have private transactions and be anonymous. Another often overlooked problem is the privacy problem around the data used prior to a transaction as opposed to the transaction itself. As an example, it may require the use of private data across hundreds of potential buyers and sellers to get to a single transaction. Providing privacy to this part is what has the potential to turn the current business model in the internet economy upside down and put the user back in control of their own data.
The Partisia Blockchain is designed to bring privacy to blockchain in a regulatory compliant and flexible way. The basic design choice is to build privacy on top of a transparent mainstream blockchain model. This allows us to design a highly efficient and scalable consensus and execution laid out in the Poseidon and Iris blog. Privacy-preserving computation is added as a service on top of the basic blockchain. From an application developer’s or designer’s point of view, this allows for any arbitrary mix of transparency and privacy. The privacy-preserving computation makes it even possible to add privacy to the extent needed — and you can even have complete privacy. As an example of this, consider a dApp with its own private transactions built on the Partisia Blockchain, this way any audit request can be done with privacy-preserving computation and the transactions can remain private in a regulatory compliant way.
The privacy-preserving computation is provided and operated exclusively by accredited ZK nodes in known jurisdictions. This further enables dApps to be regulatory compliant with data protection regulation like GDPR for two main reasons:
Hereby, Partisia Blockchain enable basic GDPR requirements like the “Right to privacy” (Data is kept private in all stages: at rest, in transit and process) and “Right to be forgotten” (Data is used ad hoc and the encrypted data used in zero-knowledge computations are deleted after use).
For more details, please checkout the yellow paper and software documentation.
Please let us know what you think and stay tuned for the next blog post about MPC-As-A-Service, called Demeter.
Thank you to everyone in our community for your support!
Partisia Blockchain Team
There are 7 proprietary innovations that deliver Partisia Blockchain’s complete Layer 1+2 Blockchain. In this blog we present the third innovative feature — the token bridge — we call it, Hermes.
For an overview of all of the 7 features see the Zeus blog. We present each of the 7 innovations with a unique post leading up to TGE on May 31, 2022.
The evolution and innovation around blockchain technologies has resulted in a variety of different blockchain networks with different strengths and weaknesses. This development will likely continue and interoperability and token bridges as the most prominent instrument, has become a major value creator in the blockchain ecosystem. Designing secure token bridges is, however, a significant challenge as values are moved out of the security model backing the involved tokens.
Partisia Blockchain has designed a new type of token bridge that addresses existing weaknesses. This is an important innovation as any use of Partisia Blockchain involves external coins, hence, token bridges are part of the very backbone of the blockchain network. We believe this is a superior foundation for a more solid token bridge.
The Partisia Blockchain token bridge model utilizes a number of cryptographic tools and basic economic principles. The core basic principle is a collateralized token transfer represented 1 to 1 across two independent blockchain networks, which basically mimics a double booking system that has proven its worth since the Medici Bank in the 14th century. The challenge is to simultaneously represent and work with states from two independent blockchains as efficiently and as securely as possible. The token bridge is illustrated and briefly described below.
The illustration captures the three main components of the token bridge around the two basic operations — depositing and withdrawing values.
The first part is the double bookkeeping principle within regularly expiring epochs: The process ensures that the information is persisted on both blockchains and establishes a straightforward auditability that is easily accessible by all users and node operators. Deposit and withdrawal is managed by a small set of independently selected Oracle nodes — the small Oracle — in expiring epochs as further described below.
The second part is the collateralized bridging within the regularly expiring epochs: The small Oracle consists of Oracle nodes with sufficiently available MPC tokens that function as locked collateral during an epoch. The epoch expires when the small Oracle runs out of MPC tokens as collateral. In the following epoch any holder of MPC tokens can stake to run a dispute in case of fraud.
The third part is a secure selection of small Oracles: An MPC based signature scheme operated by the large Oracle (i.e. all available baker nodes) ensures that the selection of the next small Oracle matches the security of the consensus model. The large Oracle is also responsible for delegating the job of mirroring the identity of the members of both the small and the large Oracle to the partner chain. With that in place, the double bookkeeping is securely established.
For more details, please checkout the yellow paper and software documentation.
Please let us know what you think and stay tuned for the next blog post about the zero-knowledge layer, called Athena.
Thank you to everyone in our community for your support!
Partisia Blockchain Team