Creating Privacy Around Blockchain Settlements

Creating Privacy Around Blockchain Settlements

Ledgers are the primary ways settlements are recorded. The first double bookkeeping ledger system was recorded in use as far back as the 1300s. It is still the de-facto system used today to record transactions between entities.

Fast forward to 2008. Satoshi Nakamoto (pseudonym) was frustrated with the corruption due to the lack of transparency and centralized control of the traditional system. He proposed a transparent distributed ledger system that was immutable as a system of recording transactions. Thus Bitcoin was born.

But with all new systems, there is always room for improvements.

As discussed in our previous articles, full transparency does not solve the problem of building trust. In fact, privacy is a requirement in any trust relationship. For example, nobody would trust a credit card provider that revealed every purchase cardholders made just by someone having their credit card number. In a traditional blockchain space, every transaction is written in a public ledger. It would only require matching a wallet address to a name to see the full history of their transactions.

How can you have a blockchain that privatizes transactions and has enough flexibility to analyze and compute the data? Through integrating a proven technology into a scalable and interoperable blockchain.

Developers can pick and choose which part of the data in the blockchain needs to be private and which can be public. All thanks to the Partisia Blockchain’s programmable MPC. A layer of governance can be enabled around the private data to allow for computation and access to select individuals. Those who access the data can also be audited transparently.

Now, even if someone has your credit card details, they will not be able to see your purchase history and your spending. If needed, a governance model can be created to ensure auditability and traceability to the system.

The importance is evident in our partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). We partnered with the ICRC to build out a program for distributing aid through blockchain. One of their key requirements was privacy of the aid recipients. As they are a very unique organization, one of their key principles is in confidentiality and bilateral dialogue. The ICRC mainly operates in conflict zones and lack of privacy can mean life or death.

ICRC was able to solve their key challenge of privatizing the transactions of the stable tokens in the ecosystem thanks to Partisia Blockchain’s MPC. As shown above, the deposit of the funds from ICRC is kept private. As a result, transfers between the users are anonymous. To learn more, please watch our video of the overview of the solution here.

As blockchains become more prevalent, the need for privacy will continue to grow and take center stage. Various projects are already being built with private settlements in mind. We continue to speak with many organizations who prioritize the need for privacy in a blockchain solution.

For additional insights on this use case, come and watch our Q&A session we did on this topic.

By creating a programming language that allows for developers to use MPC in a generic way, Partisia Blockchain Foundation has made the creation of applications that can harness the power of MPC for different use cases a possibility. Partisia has been at the forefront of providing private MPC solutions since 2008. And by layering this technology on top of an interoperable and scalable blockchain, Partisia Blockchain is now paving the way for anyone to create solutions that can balance privacy and transparency to build trust.

To learn more about different use cases or partner with us for solutions, please visit partisiablockchain.com, check out our Medium articlesdevelopment documentations or email me at bruce.ahn@partisiablockchain.com.

Bakyt Azimkanov Appointed to Lead Communications

Bakyt Azimkanov Appointed to Lead Communications

ZÜRICH, 12 April 2023. Partisia Blockchain Foundation proudly announces the appointment of Bakyt Azimkanov, an accomplished and award-winning professional, as the Head of Communications, effective immediately. This strategic hire supports the organization’s expansion plans and underscores its commitment to increasing its voice and raising its awareness worldwide.

A former Head of Communications at the Cardano Foundation, Bakyt joins the organization with decades of experience in strategic communications, integrated public relations campaigns, branding, and press outreach programs across blockchain, financial services, and technology.

In his new role, Bakyt will develop and oversee the implementation of a communications strategy to raise Partisia Blockchain Foundation’s profile and drive adoption of the fourth generation blockchain, which features unparalleled multiparty computation technology.

As a trusted counselor to the leadership team, Bakyt will provide expert advice on unified communications initiatives to increase awareness and share of voice. He will also advise on leadership positioning strategy, execution tactics, and implementation methodology.

Kurt Nielsen, President of Partisia Blockchain Foundation, expressed his excitement for the appointment, saying, “We are thrilled to enlist the rich expertise and visionary leadership of Bakyt, who boasts a remarkable array of proficiencies and extensive experience in steering value-driven purpose-led communications initiatives. We are confident that his unique skill set will be instrumental in bolstering the standing of Partisia Blockchain within the global blockchain arena. With unwavering conviction, we anticipate his invaluable contributions in advancing our ethos and perpetual metamorphic objectives.”

Before joining Partisia Blockchain Foundation, Bakyt held numerous senior leadership positions at major global organizations, including leading transformational programs at the Cardano Foundation. He led its positioning overhaul, ICAD-nominated brand refresh and built its brand, marketing, community management and communications functions.

Outside the blockchain industry, Bakyt previously led the global media relations and social media at EY (Ernst & Young), a professional services organization, focusing on strategy and transactions, namely mergers and acquisitions, divestments, and private equity, where he played a pivotal role in securing and maintaining a number one share of voice in the media. Bakyt is also one of the founding partners of Syyx, a Web3 full-suite marketing and communications boutique set up by former Cardano leaders.

Bakyt is a trained journalist with a Master of Arts degree in Business and Finance Journalism from City University (United Kingdom), a second Master of Arts degree in Media Studies and Communication from the University of Aarhus (Denmark), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Public Relations from the American University of Central Asia (Kyrgyz Republic).

Partisia Blockchain Foundation is honored to welcome Bakyt Azimkanov to its leadership team and looks forward to his contribution in elevating the company’s communications function to new heights.

About Partisia Blockchain Foundation: Partisia Blockchain Foundation brings unparalleled opportunities by empowering privacy-preserving, interoperable and sustainable innovation for fairness and transparency. It fuels the most secure and efficient networks to solve global problems. Distilled with more than 30 years of rigorous research, Partisia Blockchain future-proofs solutions, solves tomorrow’s challenges by powering fair, secure, distribution of benefits. While preserving privacy and confidentiality, it brings accountable, transparent and decentralized governance. Learn more: www.PartisiaBlockchain.com

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Preventing front running through privatized bids

Preventing front running through privatized bids

In a traditional asset trading platform, front running is defined as the illegal practice of placing a trade based on advanced non-public knowledge of an upcoming trade which can impact prices. As shown in the example below, a broker can take advantage of a situation when he or she gets a large order by one of their clients. Since they know this order will impact the price of the asset, they place their own personal order ahead of their client’s order. Then, they place the client order, raising the stock price. Once this is done they will sell their own shares to profit off their clients order.

Another term used often is insider trading, which is based on a very similar practice of using information only they have access to in order to gain an unfair advantage over others.

Figure 1: Traditional front running

In the Web3 space, everything is transparent and, ironically, revealing too much information can also create these situations. An example of this is front running on a decentralized exchange (dex) that you may have already heard of. This type of a front running is possible through the combination of having total transparency in the blockchain along with how Ethereum (and many other blockchains) prioritize transactions in a node’s mempool.

In this particular example, an attacker (usually a bot) scans the mempool to see a particular scenario that they can take advantage of. Scanning the mempool, they look for an opportunity to insert in a bid at a lower price but higher gas than another large bid already in the mempool.

Figure 2.1: Front run attacks in a dex

Once their bid completes, they wait for the larger order to go through, raising the price of the asset. Then they place a sell order at a higher price than the buy order he placed ahead of the larger order, and pockets the difference. All this is happening in a blink of an eye, making it impossible for any normal person to be able to recognize they are being taken advantage of.

Figure 2.2: Front run attacks in a dex

But what if we could make the orders private? This prevents the attacker from being able to read the auction details in the mempool, and making the bot unable to identify a situation to take advantage of.

Figure 3: Privatized auction data on the blockchain

Through multiparty computation (MPC), details can be kept private while still computing the winner. In the situation of this dex, the results of the prices are not revealed until the bids are completed, ensuring that attackers cannot gain any advantageous information ahead of time.

Figure 4: Full support of various analysis using hidden data

The team in Partisia has already provided solutions to solve this issue in multiple scenarios. From governments to OTC trading platforms, they have been trusted to run high stakes auctions in different levels and through enabling this technology on a blockchain, we are giving everyone the power to solve the problem of ensuring integrity in the bidding process.

Figure 5: Partners whom we helped solve for integrity in auctions

For additional insights on this use case, we recommend viewing our Q&A session on this topic.

By creating a programming language that allows for developers to use MPC in a generic way, Partisia Blockchain Foundation has made the creation of applications that can harness the power of MPC for different use cases a possibility. Partisia has been at the forefront of providing private MPC solutions since 2008. And by layering this technology on top of an interoperable and scalable blockchain, Partisia Blockchain is now paving the way for anyone to create solutions that can balance privacy and transparency to build trust.

To learn more about different use cases or partner with us for solutions, please visit partisiablockchain.com, check out our Medium articlesdevelopment documentations or email me at bruce.ahn@partisiablockchain.com