The Evolution Of Privacy-Preserving Smart Contract

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INTRODUCTION

Smart contracts can basically be defined as an automatic, self executing and self operating mechanism that carries out or execute contracts when certain programmed terms and conditions are met, the privacy preserving smart contracts as the name implies is a type of smart contract or an advancement which was created and implemented into the blockchain technology so as to address concerns and issues of data privacy, security, and confidentiality.

Basically, the way the smart contract was created and operates with the blockchain technology's advanced features like transparency and immutable and tamper proof record keeping, is however susceptible and prone to a lack of privacy, security and confidentiality of all its trandactional data and information.

Today, in this post of mine I am going to be explaining and discussing some of the significant steps that marked and represented innovative changes and the revolution of the privacy preserving smart contract, one mechanism, tool and algorithm after the other.

• INTRODUCTION OF THE PUBLIC KEYS

I would say that the creation and introduction of the public key cryptography represents or marks the first major and significant step in the evolution of the privacy preserving smart contract in blockchian networks, seeing as the public key cryptography basically laid the foundation for secure communication and transaction processing on all blockchain networks.

How did it do this? you may wonder well the public key cryptography ensures secure communication by allowing users to encrypt their messages, transactions and data with the use of a public key, after encryption this data and transaction can only be decrypted by a corresponding private key and the person who holds and owns the key.

Therefore, this method of operation basically ensures and preserves privacy by making sure that only the recipient or authorized parties who have been given or have access to the decryption key which is the corresponding private key can decrypt and have access to the information, the introduction of the publickey cryptography is just the first step in attaining an adequate privacy preserving smart contract.

• INTRODUCTION OF ZERO KNOWLEDGE PROOFS

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Again, the second step in the evolution of the privacy preserving smart contract in the blockchain network as I have chosen it to be discussed in this post of mine is the introduction and development of the zero knowledge proofs, this is basically a mechanism that allows one party to prove to another party that they know and have access to a particular value without having to reveal any information about the value itself.

The zero knowledge proof cryptographic mechanism was first conceptualized or introduced in the 1980s, I can't say the particular date for certain, however though it was only started to be applied and implemented into blockchain technology very recently, with the development of the zero knowledge proof, smart contracts that ensure privacy is preserved by verifying transactions or conditions without revealing the underlying data.

• DEVELOPMENT OF LAYER 2 SOLUTIONS

The development and creation of layer 2 solutions is the next step in the evolution of the privacy preserving smart contract, the layer 2 solution basically refers to certain protocols, algorithms or technologies which was built on top of existing protocols, algorithms and technologies of blockchain networks for the purpose of improving the network's scalability, privacy, and overall functionality.

The privacy preserving smart contract can be said to be a blockchain network technology or protocol therefore, the it can have layer 2 solutions, one of which is basically known as "rollups", how it works is that it combines and compile multiple transactions into a single one transaction and then this aggregated transactions are processed off chain by doing so, it enhances privacy by reducing the exposure of transaction details on the public ledger.

• INTRODUCTION OF TRUSTED EXECUTION ENVIRONMENTS

The last step in the evolution of the privacy preserving smart contract in blockchain networks, is basically the introduction of Trusted Execution Environments, this is a concept that represent a hardware based approach to privacy preserving smart contracts, this simply means that the trusted execution environments that are secure areas that data can be processed in isolation or private and as a result ensuring its security and confidentiality.

Additionally, the trusted execution environments are able to and have the ability and power to ensure that codes and data are protected from compromise, hacking or any other form of unauthorized or malicious access, they are basically able to manage and process sensitive data and information without exposing it to the systems or parties in the blockchain network.

Furthermore, the creation and introduction of trusted execution environments involved the combination of the security protocols of hardware and how it offers isolation together with the transparency and immutability of the blockchain technology and its networks or systems.

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CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this post of mine discussed and explained at random four out of many, the significant steps in the evolution of the privacy preserving smart contract in the blockchain network, I hope while reading this post of mine you paid attention and was able to learn something new, and in case you didn't just know that the privacy preserving smart contracts possess layer 2 solutions one of which is "rollups".