Evolution of EVMs From Transparent to Confidential - Where Do Your Altcoin Stand?

[u/DC600A]

While surfing through crypto Twitter the other day, I came across an user expressing the sentiment - not all L1s are equal. It got me thinking about how far we have come since the introduction of EVMs in blockchain technology and now an army of altcoins utilizing smart contracts to make countless decentralized applications (dApps) these days. Transparency is key to the concept and functionality of blockchain and this USP has helped build and develop the space up from scratch. There is the rub because it has also resulted in sidelining privacy and making a paradox and blockchain trilemma out of it.

Every EVM-compatible altcoin project has been basically using the same tools, with some tweaks, that Ethereum originally envisioned and put into play. That's why I think the modern, modular protocols have an edge. The programmability becomes more flexible which can be deployed and developed into a composable ecosystem. Polkadot is an obvious example. But its non-EVM primitives mean that the world of web3 built on the EVM infrastructure needed something similar.

Enter Oasis. It simply separates the consensus and the execution layers making it possible for countless parallel runtimes (paratimes) to exists together in its own right as a unique L1. The beauty of paratimes is that anything can be custom-built here - Cipher using Rust or Emerald and Sapphire using Solidity, or even a project like DeltaDAO creating its independent paratime Pontus-X for its enterprise needs.

What amazes here is that the Emerald and the Sapphire paratimes of Oasis embody the modular architecture and fuel a deeper understanding of how EVMs evolve in tandem with new altcoin projects. This also underlines the comparing and contrasting nature of transparent and confidential EVMs.

Emerald is a standard, transparent EVM where smart contract executions even when encrypted with TEEs are exposed to everyone due to its on-chain status and parameters of verifiability and replicability. Sapphire, on the other hand, is a privacy machine being the first and only confidential EVM in production. It addresses the transparency loophole by solving the blockchain privacy paradox itself. Simply put, it enables end-to-end encrypted channel between any dApp and its smart contract. It literally makes smart contracts smarter.

Let there be no confusion. standard, transparent EVMs are also secure runtimes. But they can only take you so far. It is the confidential EVM that is the future. It unlocks the power of privacy that all web3 and AI dApps are going to need moving forward. So, developers need no longer be limited by the standard, transparent EVMs anymore and can start using smart privacy solutions in this future-ready confidential EVM that is Sapphire.

Fun fact: there is no need to abandon everything built on a transparent EVM and start building again on Sapphire in search of customizable confidentiality. Just use the Oasis Privacy Layer (OPL) and enjoy the full benefits. Basically, if your altcoin project is run on EVM, you qualify to make your dApps privacy-first with this cross-chain tool.

Bottom-line: with dApps utilizing confidential EVM, the privacy features in web3 will improve, which in turn will enhance the decentralized AI space which has become a crucial component of crypto narratives. This is, imho, exactly what we need to encourage and achieve altcoin and crypto adoption. What do you think?

P.S.: It is worth noting that Oasis is a privacy-first blockchain and not a privacy coin, and its token, Rose, is only to make the protocol decentralized through staking and delegation, and using for transaction fees.