DeCC, Decentralized Confidential Computing, is a new Web3 technology which marries key blockchain features of transparency with traditional confidential computing. DeCC has already been adopted by 30 plus blockchain networks and that figure is growing exponentially.
The DeCC day is held on 17th September during Token2049 - to register click here.
In recent years, Web3 projects working in the area of data protection and confidential execution of smart contracts have often been labeled as “privacy coins” or “privacy chains” and thus bundled together with earlier generations of solutions focused solely on transactional privacy, like Monero or Zcash. This has caused confusion and misunderstanding of the capabilities of the technology.
DeCC projects provide the ability to create smart contracts with encrypted data onchain, far more powerful than simply sending a token privately.
Lisa Loud, executive director of Secret Network Foundation, has been spearheading the movement.
She explains:
“Transparency is fine for some applications, for others it’s a massive limitation. 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.”
The DeCC Alliance was born at ETHDenver in 2024. This coalition of blockchain networks seeks to educate the public on the powerful capabilities of DeCC - mature blockchain for enterprise.
The projects involved in the movement so far include (in alphabetical order):
Acurast, Aleo, Aleph Zero, Automata, Aztec, COTI, Fairblock, Fhenix, iExec, Inco, Integritee, Intmax, Marlin, Mind Network, Novapolis, 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.
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.
Looking ahead, 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 NFT.NYC, Consensus, EthCC, Futurist and are now planning for Token2049, DevCon, and others.
DeCC Alliance members are excited to embrace practical and easy privacy solutions by using existing technologies and innovating on the bleeding edge.
Gavin Thomas, co-founder of Obscuro Labs and contributor to TEN says:
“The work done by DeCC projects will set a new standard for Web3 applications and the TEN team are working tirelessly to bring this innovation to life. We are excited to see how it will empower developers and users alike."
DeCC addresses the need for centralized trust in today's interconnected world, from computational resources to data storage and its underlying infrastructure.
Alessandro De Carli, Co-Founder of Acurast, says:
“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 compute layer, DeCC and specifically in the case of Acurast, mobile phones are the solution to this.”
As a group, DeCC Alliance members know that one of the greatest challenges Web3 faces today is that of data privacy. Trust can not be based solely on transparency and projects utilizing DeCC are working on intertwining privacy into the blockchain as a solution to achieving the web3 vision.
In many current Web3 platforms, centralized control points that manage critical functions, such as who gets to access what data and how transactions are approved, are managed by centralized points.
IExec CEO Gilles Fedak says:
“Privacy-enhancing technologies like Intel SGX used for DeCC by iExec can allow users to maintain complete ownership of their data by encrypting it, giving them full control over how dApps can use it and how it can be monetized.”
Privacy is a polarizing topic in Web3. With total transparency being a highly valued ecosystem characteristic, anything related to privacy or data protection is often casually grouped together with any other privacy-adjacent project. The label of “privacy coin” is applied liberally.
Jernej Kos, Director of the Oasis Foundation, points out that haphazard categorizations are unhelpful, and distinguishing user-focused data protection networks, or “DeCC” networks, from the “privacy” currencies used for unilateral asset transfers, is important.
“Protocols like the Oasis Network play a key role in balancing productive privacy with selective transparency for a safer Web3,” he says.
Brizhatiuk Valerii, co-founder and chief product officer of Swisstronic, says:
“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, 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.”
Bruce Ahn, chief success officer of Partisia Blockchain Foundation summarizes the need for having a confidential computing layer in blockchains as “an inevitable evolution of public blockchain as a whole. Like the internet needed to evolve from http to https, blockchain will require privacy computation to provide security around your data. As a part of this evolution, education will be paramount and a collaboration such as DeCC is the key to the future growth of Web3.”