Silent Protocol Explained: The Case For Privacy On-Chain
An overview of the current state of Privacy in crypto and its prospects; an overview of the architecture and operating principles of Silent Protocol
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Introduction
1. A Discussion on Privacy Adoption
2. Striking a Balance
3. Privacy as a Product
4. Privacy for the Web3 Badlands
5. Silent Protocol
6. The Silent Manifesto
7. A Holistic Approach
8. Application of EZEE
Closing Thoughts
Introduction
Privacy in the realm of Web3 remains highly debatable and vague, despite multiple proposed solutions. These include libertarian beliefs baked into Monero, transaction mixers like Tornado Case, and a convergence of pseudonymity with data-ownership solutions found in DID solutions and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs).
However, it is possible to somewhat distill two distinct verticals in the privacy space respective to Web3 that can be objectively discussed on usership, adoption and “normie” friendliness:
Private blockchain infrastructure
Centralized ledger technology as an upgrade to traditional databases
Private data
Self-custody of sensitive information
Responsibility of data ownership and sharing
An attempt to pull out essential arguments, perspectives and challenges within the privacy space will be made, and discussing how privacy solutions can be better incorporated into everyday usage.
1. A Discussion on Privacy Adoption
The most common rebuttal to privacy stans comes in the following:
“If you’re not doing anything wrong why do you care?”
It is a perfect strawman argument, and frankly, one that is hard to disarm. It comes off as powerful and cleverly shifts the Overton window to a default of little privacy. Removing the necessary question of whether institutions should have access in general.
Source: Zee Prime Capital, “Why Privacy Failed - ZK Part 2”
Often, when we look from the perspective of a libertarian, the notion of freedom and the ability to act without supervision and pre-judgment tends to be the main argument for singing the praises of privacy. However, some would say that this concept stems from the background of one's country's governance structure and cultural upbringing. For example, freedom of speech is mostly tolerated in the West, and hence privacy is somewhat of a higher-order good. On the other hand, a wrong move in the East (hint hint - we all know our favorite country of reference in this aspect) could directly affect your credit and social score, hindering your livelihood.
Another argument that carries significant weight in the Web3 world is the ability to maintain financial privacy. In traditional contexts, individuals already face challenges with wealth and status. However, in the context of Web3, which revolves around financial transactions such as trades, net worth, and on-chain activities, it becomes even more difficult for prominent or high net worth individuals to safeguard their financial standing. This is primarily due to the ambiguity surrounding cryptocurrency regulations.
The problem with the two points raised above is that they do not apply to the masses. Private infrastructure keeps their information veiled from the public, while people, for the most part, simply live their normal lives and do not engage in potentially condemning activities 99% of the time. How, then, should privacy solutions raise their standing among the needs of the masses in order to gain traction for larger adoption?
2. Striking a Balance
The privacy trilemma is a variation of the blockchain trilemma, focused on finding the sweet spot of how many privacy features and products can be innovated for a potential market fit.
In essence, the considerations are as follows:
Private and Composable systems
This enables the users of the system and/or application to define asset types and rules for transacting among whitelisted participants within the network
Private and Programmable systems
This enables the users of the system and/or application to interact directly with the programmes and environments stay isolated
Similar to traditional systems of Web2 applications and technology stacks where state maintenance is controlled centrally
Programmable and Composable systems
This enables open development and asset transaction types similar to existing web3 dApps
No privacy is enabled as states are global to all participants within the network
Considering that we are concerned about the adoption of privacy in the Web3 space, we will focus our attention on programmable and composable systems. This allows us to gradually explore pain points that can be universally agreed upon and how protocols can find their product-market fit. It also allows us to expand on the point of data ownership and ways to manage that data since we are not here to discuss centralized systems that own user data in the first place.
3. Privacy as a Product
Data is being shared across the digital space and has become a part of the business models of virtually all technology giants. There have been numerous attempts to use privacy as a baseline product to sell to users, such as VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and the Brave browser. However, a quick survey of non-technology professionals around you shows that they care more about the commercial usage of these services rather than the supposed privacy benefits they offer. Most people use VPNs to change their location and access different services (with Netflix being the most obvious and common), while the concept of data encryption is often overlooked. In fact, many people are not even aware of Brave as a browser option.
Moreover, the user's experience when using their favorite applications is enhanced by the fact that they do not own their own data. Data mining, hyper-personalization, and just-in-time recommendations are all part of what makes surfing the internet, e-commerce, and social media so addictive in the first place.
As a stark contrast to this, Web3 has enabled users to own everything that represents their digital footprint, from assets and transactions to data sharing and management. Backend engines that are usually responsible for curating information for the user are also not present in the majority of Web3 applications, which has also led to a very different, and typically deemed much worse, user experience.
Having said that, privacy adds even more layers of friction for users who are already struggling to grasp what we, as native blockchain users, deem as "normal UX". What angle, then, can privacy be appreciated by "normies" and not intrude further to create even worse user experiences in the ever-present struggle for public blockchain to gain mass adoption?
4. Privacy for the Web3 Badlands
Despite all the technological innovation that Web3 has brought to the frontier, the majority of people continue to associate this industry with the Wild West - ridden with traps and hacks by shady, anonymous hackers out to steal your money. However, privacy can attempt to solve some of these foundational concerns, whether it is in the realm of data protection or blocking out malicious actors in the network from accessing a user's information. At the very least, the community can agree that stopping any form of harmful actions and scams is a top priority in order to advance adoption further.
Hence, any good privacy product or feature should minimally address the following:
Minimize attack vectors in order to create a general sense of safety when a user interacts with applications on-chain
Controls that are aligned with creating a safe environment for exploration without malicious actors running rampant
Does not interfere with the freedom of interacting with new asset types or overtly dictate which applications a user can interact with
Must not worsen existing user experiences but instead drive users to be more comfortable with trying out new applications with a peace of mind
Background enabler that is easily adopted and integrated by existing ecosystem players to become a feature much more than a standalone product
It must be cheap to use and users should not be penalized for adopting a privacy-first approach
With a framework in place and value propositions stated clearly, we can finally begin to address the pain points originating in the Web3 space, better data management, user needs, and boundaries. This potential solution aims to create a safer environment for everyone already in or entering the space.
5. Silent Protocol
The vision of the team is to create a compliant and composable privacy infrastructure that can be integrated into existing public blockchains and dApps. This is achieved by proposing a middleware approach such that users can maintain existing experiences when using their favorite dApps, while having a more controlled space that is resistant to attack vectors. The goal at the end of the day is to not interfere with user decisions, but support them through privacy enablement and become a key enabler for greater adoption of ecosystem dApps.
6. The Silent Manifesto
The manifesto brings up a couple of salient points that we, as innovators in the Web3 space, must not forget in our pursuit of solutions. At times, we expound on the benefits of a public ledger built for honesty, but we tend to overlook the fact that transparency is, and always will be, a double-edged sword. It is a world where intents are laid bare for all to see and manipulate, where our unique identifiers reveal our actions. For the sake of adoption from the Web2 space, it needs to change, even if only slightly.
Privacy is not secrecy
It should be a choice made normal for all
It enables the user to selectively reveal information in the context of blockchain
It is about securing and protecting the date that is stored on-chain
There is a need for standardizing encryption on blockchain
Create an anonymous computational access layer accessible to normal users
Standardization enables affordable privacy features for all
Enables integration with existing applications
Secure infrastructure requires some rules that shuts out bad actors
Preserve the name of privacy for the good standing majority
Protect the integrity of a private environment
Make privacy a feature for a zero-trust network
Leverage technologies like zero-knowledge proofs
Service the good actors
Collectively protect data from misuse
We can see that this manifesto is very much in line with the baselines highlighted earlier on what a good privacy service would be if it were to serve Web3 users. It is also duly noted that even though some parts of this may not be as permissionless compared to the ideal Web3 standards, it is probably a necessary step towards adoption and reducing the anxiety of losing assets without a possible solution.
7. A Holistic Approach
As pointed out by the privacy trilemma, creating a private state while being able to share it with an external application that has different data sources is somewhat paradoxical. This, in itself, blocks the creation of interconnected and well-integrated systems and inherently serves as a major obstacle for applications and systems to adopt privacy-focused features and/or products. The proposed solution, therefore, goes beyond leveraging zero-knowledge proofs to create what Silent calls an Economical Zero Knowledge Execution Environment (EZEE) - which enables the facilitation of global state sharing through users privately posting state updates.
On Encryption
Avoidance of user data encryption
To build a framework that allows users to access aggregated state data and interact with smart contracts
Ensures user-friendliness as the privacy solution is baked into the user action lifecycle
Split up the dependencies between encryption and execution layers
End contracts do not need to depend on encrypted inputs to process computations
The encryption layer allow users to maintain a primary account and keep its state private
Allow users to create secondary addresses that are assigned to operate the target application in the execution layer
Secondary addresses maintain unencrypted account balances to interact with the target applications
On EZEE Signals
Signer ambiguous anonymous message passing protocol
Enables target applications to access temporary assets through secondary addresses anonymously
Anonymous asset transfer is triggered through EZEE signals between the encryption and execution layer through the creation of 2 private endpoints
Consolidate states of the secondary addresses back into the primary account post-compute
8. Application of EZEE
0dapps are at the heart of Silent Protocol, serving as the integration layer that enables users to interact with target applications. These 0dapps are deployed with the Silent SDK to encapsulate end applications within the execution layer so that secondary addresses can be created based on the 0dapp. Hence, users can aggregate their state back into Silent’s encryption layer (through EZEE Signals) after completing their transactions with their secondary address. This is the culmination of enabling privacy-preserving technology as a feature rather than a product, not hindering the way a user has been experiencing their on-chain application functionality.
Closing Thoughts
Privacy in the Web3 space will continue to expand, with different viewpoints resulting in new chains, products, and features that can be integrated more natively into the existing blockchain ecosystem. This is not to say that the adoption of privacy-preserving technologies is going to be simple, as the onus lies on existing blockchain applications to decide if such a service adds value to their propositions and if it will affect their user experience. In the end, innovation defines new trends that lead to mass adoption, but it’s entirely up to the masses whether such an experience means anything at all.
Protocols such as Silent have taken steps to continue pushing through the murky waters of the privacy trilemma, and not everything will be appreciated today. In due time, the masses will decide if this was nothing more than a dreamed-up problem or formulate a huge narrative shift that could impact the OG thinking of what Web3 as an industry needs to be in order to grow magnitudes larger.
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Account twitter silentdao not exist ! Please modify article ! thank you