Blockchain technology is currently poised to be the next major disruptor in various industries, promising widespread impact. However, it faces a critical limitation: all on-chain data is public. To foster widespread adoption, there is an urgent necessity to implement robust data encryption and enable its practical utilization.

Enter Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE): an advanced encryption technique that allows for computations on encrypted data without the need for prior decryption. Fhenix is at the forefront of bringing FHE to the blockchain, establishing on-chain confidentiality as the new standard of excellence.

Our mission is to lead a new era in computing, where data privacy and security aren’t mere promises but are ingrained guarantees. We’re committed to simplifying the integration of FHE into the workflows of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) developers, making this transformation accessible to all.

A New Era of Encryption

Vast amounts of sensitive data now exist online due to the digital nature of the new world. At best, this requires businesses to adhere to strict data laws, and at worst leads to massive data exploits. Even the most advanced encryption techniques are insufficient, with exploits having impacted 422M users in 2022 alone.

This isn’t at any fault of encryption researchers – these techniques are extremely complex and advancements take years, if not decades. And a major weakness is that data must first be decrypted in order to be computed upon, before being reencrypted. This exposes the data to more attack vectors, contributing to exploits.

The superior method would be to keep data encrypted its entire journey. That is why it’s incredibly exciting and aspirational that Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) has now arrived. Research into FHE began in the 1970s, and recent advancements have finally made it possible.  

This has major implications for nearly every industry in existence. FHE can now be integrated into the blockchain, making that privacy and security is the status quo. It’s a naturally superior technology that benefits society as a whole, and the best part is that it’s easy for any EVM-based developer to implement through our fhEVM programing language.

The Three Phases of Progression

Bringing FHE to the blockchain means that all on-chain can have FHE built into it from the ground up. As the amount of on-chain data grows exponentially in the coming years and impacts every industry, it’s hard to understate the significance of this.

We are undergoing a true renaissance of how computing is done. This technology will have far-reaching societal implications on three levels:

• Phase 1: Security & Privacy

• Phase 2: New Applications

• Phase 3: The New Web

Phase 1 

This can be considered the low-hanging fruit, but already this has major implications for nearly every industry. By enabling computations on encrypted data, privacy is preserved while attack vectors are significantly reduced.

In the context of consumers, this means data privacy and security. For businesses, it means a reduced likelihood for data corruption and easier compliance with relevant laws. It also means reduced data security costs, and the ability to engage in private transactions on-chain. This is relevant for every Web2 or Web3 business.

Phase 2 

The next area of impact will be focused on the development of new applications. Some of these are already known and possible today, such as:

• Private voting

• Trustless gaming

• Payments

• Healthcare

• Anything else involving sensitive data

There are already 200,000 developers using Solidity. We believe this will rapidly increase, alongside other EVM languages, and our fhEVM enables any EVM-based developer to incorporate FHE technology into their work.

For example, it took a Web3 developer less than 24 hours to build out a fully private voting application on the Fhenix Devnet – something previously unimaginable.

Phase 3

The final tier is where things get really interesting, and we don’t quite have all the answers yet as to what may happen. Think of it like A.I. – yes, we know it will have an unimaginable global impact, but we don’t quite know exactly how as of yet. We do know that it will impact every industry and all other cutting-edge technologies.

Consider the following: blockchain is a naturally superior technology that suffers from inherent transparency. Regular encryption techniques are critical for data privacy and security but continue to suffer from exploits and may soon be cracked by quantum computing. Cloud computing requires data to be decrypted before being processed, leading to delays, increased costs, and security flaws. Fully Homomorphic Encryption is the end game for all of these.

It builds privacy into blockchain, is secure against quantum computing, and will improve data processing and data integrity for every industry that operates to some extent digital (which is all of them).

The best part is that it’s also extremely accessible While other cutting-edge spaces like A.I. and quantum computing require years of extensive research experience to work in, any EVM developer can implement FHE into their blockchain workflow through the easy use of the fhEVM.No technology this powerful has ever been available to so many
people at once, which is also why we believe that true
innovation will occur.

It’s a true renaissance of how we compute data, which will ultimately increase security and privacy in every industry. We believe this will reduce security costs, but it may also make data flow much more efficient due to not requiring decryption before computation. However, the true extent of where this takes us depends on how innovators decide to implement the technology.

Conclusion

In summary, encryption is important to nearly every industry in existence and yet significant advancements in the space are hard to come by. At long last, FHE has not only arrived, but arrived on the blockchain. This means that data can remain encrypted during its entire journey.

We see this moving society forward in three phases:

1. Direct benefits to consumers and institutions

2. The development of new confidential applications

3. True innovation and new use-cases that we cannot predict as of yet, given how cutting-edge this space is.

Our mission is to help usher in this new era of computing, making privacy and security the default for all. We hope to make data breaches a thing of the past, and to maintain confidentiality and data integrity for all.

We also recommend visiting our website at fhenix.io to learn more.