Encrypted Execution Environment (E3)
An Encrypted Execution Environment (E3) is a decentralized framework designed to allow secure computation over encrypted data from multiple sources. E3s ensure data privacy and computational integrity by combining three essential components:
- Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE): Enables computations directly on encrypted data without needing to decrypt it, maintaining security from start to finish.
- Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs): Allow verification of data and computations without revealing sensitive information, offering a way to validate accuracy while preserviing privacy.
- Distributed Threshold Cryptography (DTC): Distributes cryptographic keys across multiple nodes, eliminating single points of failure and enhancing the framework’s resilience against breaches.
Together, these components create a secure, verifiable framework for privacy-preserving computation.
When to Use E3
E3s are ideal for scenarios where you want to:
- Compute over sensitive data from multiple parties without taking custody of the plaintext data.
- Ensure compliance with data protection laws like GDPR or HIPAA.
- Reduce liability when interacting with sensitive data.
- Derive insights from otherwise inaccessible or sensitive datasets.
- Eliminate trust in any single party or hardware component.
Practical Use Cases
- Secret Ballots: Implement verifiable and private voting systems.
- Secure Data Analysis: Perform computations on private datasets without taking custody of raw data.
- Collaborative Research: Enable multiple organizations to securely aggregate and analyze data without mutual data sharing.
How E3 Works for Developers
As a developer, interacting with an E3 involves:
- Defining the computation logic (E3 Program).
- Configuring parameters for the execution environment.
- Submitting encrypted data inputs.
- Retrieving and verifying the computation results.
Each of these steps will be covered in detail in the following sections.