<\/p>\n
Fhenix, a forthcoming layer-2 dedicated to bringing fully homomorphic encryption to smart contracts, will publicly launch its testnet early next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guy Itzhaki, Fhenix\u2019s CEO, told Blockworks in an interview the company had secured $7 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital and Collider Ventures. Other investors include Bode Capital, Robot Ventures, Bankless, HackVC, TaneLabs and Metaplanet, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE, is a specialized form of encryption that enables computations to be performed on encrypted data. This means multiple users can perform operations, interact with contracts, or collaborate on data while preserving privacy and preventing exposing sensitive information.<\/p>\n
Itzhaki notes that unlike other encryption technologies, including trusted execution environments, users do not have to decrypt the data to perform computation.<\/p>\n
Unlike zero-knowledge technology, where the data is moved off-chain and a prover can see the decrypted message, FHE computation can be achieved while the information is still encrypted. The output of computations will also be encrypted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cZero-knowledge is a great technology that has been adopted for scaling [\u2026] but there are limited user cases,\u201d Itzhaki said. \u201cWith FHE, it\u2019s really the first time that we can have data on-chain, encrypted, and being used as if it\u2019s non-encrypted for the sake of confidentiality.\u201d<\/p>\n
FHE has the ability to unlock a number of potential use cases. Itzhaki pointed to DAO voting tools, trustless games, and account abstraction as examples.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make account abstraction really easy because you can put private keys on a smart contract encrypted using FHE, then use it to sign transactions all over the place,\u201d Itzhaki said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fhenix will leverage fhEVM, an extension of the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), according to Itzhaki.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Developers] don\u2019t need to learn any new language, they can use Solidity and the same developer tools they are used to, there is an additional library that they have to decide what it is they actually want to encrypt,\u201d Itzhaki explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An earlier developer testnet launched in July was a proof-of-stake, layer-1 blockchain, but Itzhaki notes that the official testnet launch will be as an Ethereum layer-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe long-term goal is to be perceived as some kind of extension to Ethereum,\u201d Itzhaki said. \u201cWhether you\u2019re building your [layer-1] or your [layer-2], if you need to introduce encryption, you\u2019ll be able to, using Fhenix.\u201d<\/p>\n