We’re excited to announce the integration of Secret’s Confidential Computing Layer with ZKsync Era , a trustless protocol that uses cryptographic validity proofs to provide scalable and low-cost transactions on Ethereum. Through this integration, Secret Network will provide the ZKsync Era ecosystem with decentralized confidential computing (DeCC) tooling, documentation, and support. This will unlock powerful new capabilities for ZKsync Era applications.
Incorporating DeCC enables features such as private voting for DAOs, encrypted storage for various applications, secure random number generation for games, confidential data linked to NFTs, sealed-bid auctions for NFTs and other assets, and encrypted order books for DeFi applications.
By integrating Secret’s Confidential Computing Layer with ZKsync Era, we’re unlocking new possibilities for the Elastic Chain.
What is ZKsync Era?
ZKsync Era is a Layer 2 ZK rollup , a trustless protocol that uses cryptographic validity proofs to provide scalable and low-cost transactions on Ethereum. In ZKsync Era, computation is performed off-chain and most data is stored off-chain as well. Transactions are bundled into batches before generating a validity proof. As all validity proofs are proven on Ethereum, users enjoy the same security warranties as in the L1.
ZKsync Era is made to look and feel like Ethereum, but with a higher throughput and lower fees. Just like on Ethereum, smart contracts are written in Solidity/Vyper and can be called using the same clients as in other EVM-compatible chains.
ZKsync Era’s main features include:
Security inherited from Ethereum, with zero reliance on 3rd parties.
Permissionless EVM-compatible smart contracts
Preserving key EVM features, such as smart contract composability
Standard Web3 API
State updates via transaction outputs (also known as state diffs) which provides significant cost savings over transaction inputs
Native account abstraction with improvements over EIP4337 (implemented in Ethereum and other rollups)
What is Decentralized Confidential Computing (DeCC)?
DeCC (Decentralized Confidential Computing) is a category of technology enabling blockchain applications to store and compute encrypted data, without having to reveal that data to the entire world. This unlocks powerful new use-cases for Web3, as most blockchain applications today are functionally limited by their requirement of all data being publicly viewable. This is in stark contrast to traditional “Web2” development, where encrypted databases and end-to-end encrypted data transfers are utilized in nearly every application.
DeCC encompasses various encryption technologies and solutions aimed at improved data protection, secure and confidential calculations, and verifiable computing. Key technologies include Trusted Execution Environments (TEE), Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), Multi-Party Computation (MPC), and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE).
In Secret Network’s case, the live network runs private contracts inside a trusted execution environment on the consensus path. Isolation raises the cost for a remote attacker or a curious host. It does not defeat a physical owner of an admitted machine, and attestation does not. A later draft, which is not community-ratified, takes that private work off validators onto a measured confidential virtual machine. Intel TDX is the intended shape, and AMD SEV-SNP is a later second family. Validators in that draft are ordinary Cosmos nodes: they do not run an enclave on the consensus path and they do not hold application keys. Two-of-two custody of wrapping keys in the draft is not multi-party computation. Secret’s Confidential Computing Layer lets other blockchains pass messages toward that private execution.
Start Utilizing DeCC on ZKsync Era
You can start building on ZKsync Era by checking out the developer documentation .
Next, check out Secret Network’s Confidential Computing Layer landing page to get an overview of how it works, and example use-cases for inspiration. From there you’ll find multiple links to our documentation, including the EVM developer toolkit . This page includes tutorials for applications you can build, and information on connecting your Cronos application to Secret. To get development help from the Cronos community, check out their Discord, and to get help from the Secret Network community, join our Discord or Telegram . Additionally, if you want to get in touch with the Secret Network team directly, you can email us or use this form.
Secret x ZKsync Era
We’re excited to work with the ZKsync Era ecosystem and provide dedicated support to their developer community. In addition to today’s announcement, we’re also discussing future collaborations such as joint hackathon bounties and grants, developer workshops, and in-person and virtual events. We’re looking forward to seeing some groundbreaking Secret x ZKsync Era dApps built.
This is yet another meaningful step on Secret’s path to bringing decentralized confidential computing (DeCC) to all of Web3!
Join in on the discussion on the Secret Network community channels: