Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) enable efficient confidential smart contract execution on the Oasis Network. By leveraging TEEs, confidential ParaTimes — like Sapphire and Cipher — provide enormous flexibility to developers. Developers can build smart contracts that are fully confidential, fully public, or anywhere in between on that spectrum.

Sapphire is a groundbreaking advance for Solidity developers wanting to build privacy dApps. Now, it can also be used to add confidentiality to existing dApps on popular EVM networks as a privacy layer.

Smart contracts have the capacity to revolutionize the way we interact with the internet. Such simple programs hold much potential but are yet to find their killer application.

The blockchain space is looking to scale into Web3 with DApps and solutions ready for the next generation of the internet. However, there is a real issue around digital privacy that exists in blockchain with this move to Web3.

We recently launched Sapphire, on testnet, as a way to offer a large cohort of blockchain developers the opportunity to build confidential dApps. Confidential dApps are becoming a necessity in Web3 as people value data sovereignty highly in this day and age. With traditional blockchains, there is a blockchain privacy paradox where all user data is publicly stored, but Sapphire allows for dApps to be built that can make data confidential, while still executing smart contracts.

Personal and data privacy are emerging trends that have been propelled forward primarily due to the failings of Web2. Individuals are no longer happy to allow internet giants full and unrestricted access to their data and are looking for new ways to secure it.

The technology behind NFTs is incredibly under-explored, and their potential has barely been found. The hype and mainstream explosion of these blockchain assets hindered their innovation greatly. The pinnacle of this NFT cycle was skyrocketing prices of art-based digital assets and celebrity endorsements — a poor foundation for what can be a powerful component of Web3.

The Oasis Network has purposefully engineered itself to accomplish goals that propel blockchain technology into a Web3 future where it can be robust, powerful, and begin to solve real-world problems.

As part of our growing network architecture, we are excited to announce Sapphire, the first confidential EVM-compatible ParaTime, is now live on Testnet.

Confidential NFTs on the Oasis Network represent a more functional way to use NFTs. Rather than just high-res artwork on the blockchain, confidential NFTs are data-backed and open up a massive world of opportunities in Web3.