Arcium is a confidential computing network that empowers developers to build privacy-focused applications without compromising encrypted data. It uses powerful cryptography and a decentralized network architecture to encrypt the data.

Arcium ensures data privacy through multi-party computation and trusted execution environments to keep the data hidden. This ensures that no single node sees the full information.

The Arcium project is not a blockchain but a consensus layer built on Solana. It is designed with a chain-agnostic infrastructure, allowing it to interact with other blockchain protocols.

Real-world Application

Arcium’s confidential computing network can positively impact research and development in multiple industries.

Finance

The finance industry juggles vast amounts of sensitive data, which can cause immense damage to users if this data is breached. This reduces the ability to collaborate without rigorous risk assessment, fraud detection, and regulatory compliance. The DeFi space is also subject to such limitations, finding it difficult to share data, maintain privacy, and achieve regulatory compliance.

The Arcium network, capable of parallelized confidential computing of encrypted data, allows nodes to verify trustless data. This would allow finance projects to conduct identity compliance and verification while protecting the identity of its users.

The Multiparty computation feature would allow institutions and users to collaborate on projects in a trustless environment without rigorous assessment, reducing the cost of partnerships and collaborations.

Healthcare

Healthcare providers handle vast amounts of sensitive patient information, including medical records, diagnoses, treatments, etc. Research institutions within the healthcare sector collaborate with providers for patient data or other research institutions to design revolutionary treatment patterns.

In a bid to protect this data, developmental efforts can be hindered, and personalized treatment becomes difficult.

Using Arcium’s secure infrastructure focused on privacy protection, healthcare professionals can delve into encrypted records. This allows them to identify treatment patterns and advance personalized medication without infringing on the patient’s right to privacy.

This empowers participants and institutions in the healthcare industry to access valuable insight while safeguarding patients’ identities and privacy.

Governance

Government agencies generate massive amounts of data from legislation drafts, voting records, citizen feedback, financial transactions, etc. They also maintain classified information that could expose sensitive data in inter-government collaborations.

The Arcium project is designed to assist governmental agencies in balancing the need for privacy with transparency. It also protects sensitive data by encrypting it during collaborative computations and processing.

Using its trusted execution environment (TEE), Arcium allows compliance with regulatory standards while processing and extracting the needed insight. This would improve governmental decision-making, mitigating attempts to identify or witch-hunt participants in the governance process.

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain infrastructures involve a web of manufacturers, suppliers, logistics providers, and retailers. The data between these entities during deliveries can create privacy vulnerabilities for users.

This opens users to criminal relents that can trace their packages, contact information, and residential addresses. Arcium’s confidential computing allows users and logistics providers to exchange data securely.

Arcium utilizes smart contracts on its blockchain infrastructure. These contracts can automate supply chain processes while preserving privacy ensuring there is payment and delivery of services.

History of Arcium

Arcium was founded in 2022 by Yannik Schrade (CEO), Julian Deschler, Nicolas Schapeler, and Lukas Steiner. The team founded a zero-knowledge privacy protocol based on the Solana Blockchain, which they initially called Elusiv.

Arcium has secured $9 million in funding through two funding rounds. The first round, a seed round held on November 3rd, 2022, raised $3.50 million. The second round, a strategic round led by Greenfield Capital and closed on May 9, 2024, raised $5.50 million.

On May 8, 2024, Arcium launched its incentivized private testnet, the first major step in the project’s roadmap to mainnet.

Core Components of Arcium: Multiparty Execution Environments (MXEs), Multiparty computation (MPC), Fully homomorphic encryption, and more

Multiparty Execution Environments (MXEs)

Multiparty Execution Environments (MXEs) enable secure computation on encrypted data. MXEs allow multiple parties to collaborate on computations without revealing their inputs or outputs, ensuring confidentiality and integrity of the data.

The MXE allows developers and users to set the encryption schema based on the data’s sensitivity. The MXE then creates an encryption key shared with participating nodes handling the same user request.

This removes the need to decrypt the data and is cost-efficient since the process uses a single encryption schema.

Multiparty computation (MPC)

Multiparty computation (MPC) is a technique that allows multiple parties to program a function while keeping their inputs private jointly. It provides private execution environments to run sensitive computations that combine the benefits of many related technologies.

The protocol combines the Oblivious transfer-based protocol, fully homomorphic encryption, and Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). These protocols allow confidential data to be shared between nodes.

The protocol also allows the user to set the level of trust. Its trust modes include the honest majority protocol and the dishonest majority protocol. The project uses MPC to ensure only the final output of a computation is revealed, protecting the input data.

Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)

Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is a type of encryption that enables computations on encrypted data to produce an encrypted output. This means that any function can be applied to the encrypted data, and the result will be an encrypted output that can be decrypted to the original result.

This allows Arcium to provide services without accessing user data. The downside of FHE is the need for complex key management and distribution.

Zero-knowledge Proof (ZKP)

A zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) allows one party to prove the validity of a statement to another party without revealing any information about the statement. Its proof system consists of a prover, verifier, and challenge.

This allows Arcium users to publicly demonstrate knowledge or ownership of information without disclosing its details. It also increases a project’s security, as projects built with ZK-proof have a higher quantum score, meaning they resist attacks by quantum computers.

Arcium’s ZKP ensures that no party learns anything about the other parties’ inputs except the computation’s output, protecting the data.

Solana Integration

Solana is an open-source blockchain platform that allows users to build decentralized applications (dApps) and conduct transactions. Programs running on the Solana blockchain orchestrate and manage the state of the Arcium Network.

These on-chain programs handle the registration and configuration of Arcium nodes, computation processing, ordering, and scheduling. They also aid in DeFi activities like staking, slashing, payments, and rewards.

Arx Node

Arx nodes are the fundamental building blocks of the Arcium Network. They act as distributed computing service providers that collaborate on complex computational tasks. Individual nodes can participate in multiple computations simultaneously, forming clusters to enhance the network’s processing power.

During a computation, each Arx node holds a single encrypted data fragment. This fragmented approach ensures that no single node possesses the entire dataset. The nodes then collaboratively perform computations on their respective fragments using the MPC protocol.

This allows Arcium to maintain its data privacy capacity throughout the process. The Arcium Network leverages this collaboration to generate a cryptographically verifiable final output.

This output is also verifiable by any party involved without compromising the confidentiality of the input held by individual nodes.

Features of Arcium Ecosystem: Parallelized Confidential Computing, Configurable Setups, Secure Data Collaboration and Chain Agnostic

Parallelized Confidential Computing

Source: Arcium website

The Arcium Network allows developers to conduct large amounts of computation in the MXE clusters. These Clusters, comprised of multiple Arx nodes, function as the workhorses, executing computations designated by their associated MXEs.

The Arcium Network is stateless, which allows it to conduct multiple parallel computations. The only limiting factor is the hardware capacity of the weakest cluster node. The Arcium network is designed to be a black box capable of simultaneously executing computations of varying complexity and runtimes.

Configurable Setups

Source: Arcium website

The Arcium Network Multiparty Computation (MPC) offers highly customizable MXEs that allow developers to adjust specifications to their exact security needs and trust levels.

This reconfigurability extends to selecting nodes, choosing MPC schemes, and detailed execution protocols. This makes the Arcium Network adaptable to various applications. The flexibility ensures that the Arcium Network can be integrated into different blockchain ecosystems, enhancing its applicability and adoption.

Secure Data Collaboration

Source: Arcium website

The Arcium Network achieves secure data collaboration through its MXEs. This feature enables multiple parties to collaborate and build without revealing their inputs to each other.

This setup ensures that no party learns anything about the other parties’ inputs except for the computation’s output. In situations of distrust, this aids in maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of the data throughout the computation process.

Robust Data Security

Source: Arcium website

The Arcium network combines multiple data security protocols, such as ZKP and MPC. These protocols allow developers to protect the integrity and privacy of data in their applications or projects.

This also ensures the data’s integrity and confidentiality remain intact regardless of the computation process, eliminating single points of failure.

Chain-Agnostic

Source: Arcium website

The project chain-agnostic network feature allows the integration of the Arcium network into different blockchain ecosystems, enhancing its applicability and adoption.

The Network achieves this through its on-chain orchestration mechanism on the Solana blockchain. It allows the project to streamline the development of specific applications without the downside of fragmenting liquidity.

What is the Arcium Token?

Source: Arcium website

The native token of the Arcium project is designed to provide utilities such as delegation and staking. Delegation is necessary to activate Arx nodes on the network, allowing it to join up to 1,000 clusters.

While still under development, the token allows the network to resist centralization, detect cheaters, and resolve disputes.

Risk Analysis

Advantages

Arcium is a decentralized computing network designed to protect the confidentiality of blockchain applications. It provides a secure and trustless framework that allows developers and applications to run computations on encrypted data without revealing the information.

This enables multiple parties to collaborate on computations while keeping their inputs private, which is essential for various industries handling sensitive data.

The network combines advanced cryptographic techniques to ensure no single party can access the raw data or inputs during the computation process. Only the final output is revealed, maintaining data confidentiality and integrity.

Disadvantages

The techniques and technologies used in the project are complex, requiring a steeper learning curve to utilize fully. The technologies are also new, which raises questions about the project’s performance and capacity in the crypto space.

Challenges

Arcium is attempting to build a highly complex system that combines advanced cryptographic techniques. Implementing these technologies at scale while ensuring their compatibility is a tasking undertaking.

Another challenge is the regulatory uncertainty of the crypto space. As a project undergoing development, it has yet to prove its capacity to withstand the volatility of the crypto space, which can discourage conservative developers from participating in its ecosystem.

Competitive Analysis

The Arcium and Oasis projects utilize multi-party computation (MPC) to provide confidential data processing. But they provide different architectural services.

The Oasis network’s architecture utilizes SGX-enabled hardware and Themis nodes to conduct computations. The Arcium architecture leverages the MPC protocol and Arc nodes to secure its network.

The Oasis network uses a trusted execution environment (TEE) within SGX enclaves to secure data. This enclave acts as a secure vault, shielding data during computations. In a breach, the data can be made available to bad actors in the space.

The Arcium project secures user data by fragmenting it and sharing it with different nodes. This ensures that no single node can access the complete information throughout the computation process.

The parallelization architecture in Arcium’s network allows simultaneous execution of computations. This is supported by its stateless design. The Oasis network’s ability to communicate between nodes limits its capacity to achieve parallelization.

The Arcium network focuses on offering a transparent and secure environment for data processing. In contrast, the Oasis network targets cloud-based applications that deploy data within secure englaves.

How Can You Own Arcium Tokens?

Once the Arcium native token is launched in the Arcium ecosystem, users can follow a simple process to own it.

Setup a Wallet

One way to own Arcium tokens is to purchase them through an exchange. To do so, the user must create a Gate.io account, complete the KYC process, and add funds to the account to buy the token.

Utilize the Arcium Tokens

Once users have acquired Arcium tokens, they can explore the ecosystem by staking, building applications, and participating in governance.

Take action on Arcium

Learn more about the Arcium project on Gate.io.