By combining blockchain and TEE, iExec offers a confidential AI platform that empowers developers to build AI applications with data privacy, ownership, and monetization by design.
From driving advancements in surgery to revolutionizing financial systems, artificial intelligence is reshaping the world at lightning speed. By 2026, analysts forecast that 80% of companies will benefit from AI’s transformative potential across multiple sectors.
Yet, the AI space is not all sunshine and rainbows. The thing about AI is that it’s as good as the data we feed into it, and most AI applications need massive amounts of sensitive data. Sensitive data becomes particularly vulnerable during AI model training, especially while actively processed. Moreover, centralizing large amounts of personal data to train high-quality AI models threatens individual privacy.
Thankfully, this privacy paradox isn’t without a solution. Innovations like confidential AI, built on the foundation of decentralized confidential computing (DeCC), offer a secure way for users to own and monetize their data while solving privacy and collaboration challenges.
Build, own and monetize in Web3
iExec is an all-in-one platform for building, owning and monetizing digital assets in Web3. All kinds of digital assets that may be owned and carry a value, including e-mail addresses, computing power and even entire applications, can be processed on iExec. The platform empowers developers to create and monetize decentralized applications (DApps) that give users full control over their data. Users can unlock the true value of their digital assets on the platform. For example, they can securely share their data with applications while monetizing their contributions in native RLC tokens.
Source: iExec
At the core of iExec’s approach is its confidential computing framework, which integrates Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) with blockchain to ensure privacy-preserving data processing. The framework was established through iExec’s 2018 collaboration with Intel, leveraging their expertise to secure sensitive data while it is in use. iExec research DNA allowed them to be the first protocol combining blockchain with confidential computing technology. Using Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX), a TEE variant, the technology safeguards data by securing cryptographic keys within a hardware enclave, which is inaccessible even to administrators and allows only authorized code to decrypt it within a genuine Intel SGX secure enclave.
iExec’s value proposition has a natural synergy with AI. Users can retain ownership of data while it’s in use to train a model or being used by an application/agent. The platform empowers users to monetize data in such situations as well. A wide range of digital assets, including data, models, inference, training, and results, are available for monetization on iExec—thanks to its confidential computing infrastructure.
To add a layer of trust to AI pipelines, the iExec Platform enforces governance rules that are recorded on the blockchain, ensuring transparency and verifiability. Decentralized governance is critical in sectors requiring high levels of privacy and security, such as real-world assets (RWA), decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 social finance (SoFi).
Source: iExec
AI simplified: Scaling across diverse Web3 verticals
iExec's impact extends to industries like healthcare, where it was featured in Intel's 2024 AI Inference Catalogue for its role in confidential data processing for epilepsy evaluations. Additionally, the platform is part of the DeCC Alliance, a coalition of 30+ projects promoting decentralized confidential computing, and is at the forefront of the DeCC movement to incorporate advanced encryption technologies, including zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and Multi-Party Computation (MPC).
iExec is proud to be featured in @intel's AI Inference Software & Solutions Catalogue!
— iExec RLC - Official (@iEx_ec) December 7, 2024
A privacy-preserving AI healthcare use case combining blockchain and Intel TDX TEEs for confidential computing. ⬇️
As part of the Intel Partner Ecosystem, iExec $RLC is paving the way in… pic.twitter.com/ZIoXHCPid2
In the coming weeks, iExec will launch a TDX worker pool testbed, fostering experimentation with real-world use cases while refining security standards. The platform will put a TDX worker pool in the hands of select builders to enable experimentation with real use cases. Along with the support of confidential GPUs, this will contribute to iExec’s plans to expand its technologies into AI agents and industries like DePIN, DeCC, SoFI, DeFi and RWA to become a critical enabler in securely scaling AI innovation.
Decentralized confidential computing and privacy-first AI are empowering Web3 developers to shape a more secure digital future. As innovation and cooperation combine with technological progress, privacy and data ownership will become essential cornerstones of the next era.
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