Blind computation is a process where input data or variables are processed in absence of any direct human intervention. Computation is performed on private data by server without revealing anything about client's input data.
TL;DR
Blind computation is a cryptographic technique that allows a client to outsource a computation to a server without revealing the input or output of the computation to the server. It involves encryption, blinding, evaluation, and unblinding.It utilizes principles like multi-party computation, fully homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proofs to achieve privacy during computations.Blind computation offers several advantages to blockchain technology, including enhanced privacy, security, trustless environment, scalability, compliance, and reduced computational overhead.It has applications in various projects, including verifiable blind quantum computing, Nillion's blind computation network, and multi-client distributed blind quantum computation.
( This post was First Drafted November 2024, so please check the latest information before tuning up for any financial Decision - Team Techandtips123)
Imagine you are a chef in a restaurant, but you are not allowed to know the secret ingredients of a famous dish. However, you still need to prepare the dish perfectly. The head chef gives you specific instructions on how to prepare the dish. These instructions tell you what to do at each step (like mixing, cooking, or adding a certain amount of an ingredient) but without telling you what the ingredients are.
All the ingredients are given to you in sealed, labeled containers. The labels only tell you how much of the ingredient is inside (like "5 grams") but not what the ingredient actually is.
You follow the steps exactly as the head chef instructed. For example, if the instruction says "Add the content of container A to the bowl and mix for 5 minutes," you do it without knowing what’s in container A. You cook and prepare the dish without ever knowing what specific ingredients you used. You just follow the process. The dish comes out perfectly because you followed the instructions exactly, even though you never knew the actual ingredients.
In blind computation, specific algorithms or protocols act like the head chef’s instructions, guiding the process. The pre-measured ingredients are like encrypted data – you can work with it but can’t see the actual content. Following the steps in the recipe is like performing computations on encrypted data.
The steps are carried out without needing to decrypt the data. The final dish is the computed result. Just like you prepared the dish without knowing the ingredients, blind computation allows you to get results without knowing the input data. This method ensures privacy and security, as the data remains hidden (or "blind") during the computation process.
💡 Methodology
Blind computation is a cryptographic technique that allows a client to outsource a computation to a server without revealing the input or the output of the computation to the server. But How it Works
🔹 Client: The client possesses a secret input (X) and a function (f) to be computed on the input
🔸 Server: The server performs the computation on behalf of the client.
The methodology involves several steps:
Encryption: The client encrypts the input (X) using a public-key encryption scheme. This ensures that the input remains confidential and cannot be directly accessed by the server.Blinding: The client then blinds the encrypted input using a blinding factor (B). This additional layer of security makes the computation unintelligible to the server, further protecting the input data. Blinding involves transforming the encrypted input in such a way that only the client, who knows the blinding factor, can later reverse this transformation.Evaluation: The server receives the blinded input and performs the computation on it according to the provided function (f). The server processes the data without knowing the actual input or the function being applied, ensuring the client's privacy.Unblinding: The server sends the blinded output back to the client. The client unblinds the output using the blinding factor (B) to recover the result. This step involves reversing the blinding transformation applied earlier, enabling the client to obtain the final computation result without revealing any sensitive information to the server.
🔆 Principles Of Blind computation
Blind computation combines special security methods and ideas from quantum physics to keep data private during calculations. The main ideas are:
Multi-Party Computation (MPC): A method where multiple people work together to calculate a result without sharing their individual data with each other.Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE): A technique that allows calculations to be done on encrypted data, so the data stays secret throughout the process.Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP): A way for one person to prove something is true to another person without giving away any other details.Quantum Blind Computation: Uses principles from quantum physics, like entanglement and superposition, to keep data and calculations hidden from the server doing the computation.
🏵️ Advantage in Blockchain
The main blind computation features of enhancing security, privacy, and efficiency are some of the major advantages of blockchain. In fact, main features of blind computation techniques include Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Fully Homomorphic Encryption. Here are some of the primary advantages:
Enhanced Privacy: Blind computations ensure data processing without revealing the real data using techniques like ZKP and FHE. This maintains the privacy of sensitive information both during transactions and computations.Enhanced Security: By keeping the data encrypted and hidden during computations, this method also reduces the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access. This is important in protecting user information and ensuring trust in the blockchain network.Trustless Environment: Blind computation allows for the verification of computations without the need for mutual trust or third-party trust. This is in line with the very spirit of blockchain: decentralized and trustless, with transactions verifiable independently by participants.Scalability: Techniques like Multi-Party Computation (MPC) allow better efficiency and scalability in processing transactions and smart contracts. This can result in cost-effective and faster blockchain operations.Compliance and Confidentiality: Blind computation can help blockchain applications meet regulatory requirements for data privacy and same-level confidentiality. This is particularly crucial in sensitive sectors like finance, healthcare, and supply chain, for that matter.Reduced Computational Overheads: Quantum blind computation and other protocols may be able to reduce the computational overhead secure computations require, thereby making operations within blockchain leaner and less costly.
📀 Blind computation Projects And Applications
Verifiable Blind Quantum Computing with Trapped Ions and Single Photons
This project focuses on achieving verifiable blind quantum computing by using trapped ions and single photons. The process involves the client preparing quantum states and sending them to the server, which performs the computations without knowledge of the states.
The privacy of both the data and the computation process is maintained, and the results are verified through techniques like quantum state tomography and remote state preparation. This approach ensures that the server can compute the necessary operations without learning anything about the client's input or the outcome, thereby guaranteeing data confidentiality.
Nillion's Blind Computation Network
Nillion leverages a decentralized network architecture that integrates blockchain technology to facilitate blind computation. It employs privacy-enhancing technologies such as Multi-Party Computation (MPC), Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP).
The network is structured with a dual-layer architecture: the Coordination Layer and Petnet. The Coordination Layer manages the orchestration of computations, while Petnet handles the secure and private execution of these computations. This combination allows Nillion to perform computations in a manner that protects sensitive data, ensuring that neither the data itself nor the results of the computation are exposed to unauthorized parties.
Multi-client Distributed Blind Quantum Computation with the Qline Architecture
The Qline architecture facilitates blind quantum computations for multiple clients on a shared server. It ensures that each client's data and computations remain confidential even in a multi-client environment. By employing distributed quantum computing techniques, the Qline architecture manages and executes computations securely across different nodes.
This setup allows multiple users to leverage quantum computing resources without compromising the privacy of their individual computations. The distributed nature of the architecture enhances the robustness and scalability of the system, making it suitable for a wide range of applications where data privacy is critical.
🔼 Notable Projects
> Nillion
🔼 Data Credit
> ArXiv
> Wikipedia
> ScienceDirect
> Blog Nillion
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Blind computation enhances crypto and blockchain by ensuring secure data processing without exposing sensitive information. It strengthens privacy protections and trust in blockchain transactions, safeguarding against unauthorized access and data breaches.
We will definitely see a widespread and mainstream use of blind computation in Blockchain.
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** This post was First Drafted November 2024
#niliion #research #blindcomputing