We are Oasis Network - Ask us anything

[Nasreddin1205]

There was a huge debacle with tornado cash, I am guessing the larger aim here is privacy compliance to both adhere to regulations while also protecting and preserving the privacy of your userbase?

[1715015044]

1715015044

[1715015044]

1715015044

[1715015044]

1715015044

[willfullhodl]

I will like to know, which technology is Sapphire using to compute privacy ? How different is it from Secret Network's programmable privacy with TEE ?

Sapphire uses TEEs to compute privacy. The major difference from Secret Network would be that Sapphire is EVM compatible allowing for popular developer tools like Truffle, Hardhat, and MetaMask.

[DianaM]

How expensive will txs be on Sapphire vs Emerald?

https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrencies/comments/xqf5g1/comment/iqd9rna/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
This is ultimately up to the node operators who run nodes for Sapphire and Emerald.

They should be roughly the same as the Emerald network (99% cheaper than Ethereum)

[MeredithOasis]

Thanks for sharing this information about the latest development on Oasis Network. We all know, there are many blockchain networks these days. Why we should use Sapphire than other top blockchain networks? And What's the advantage of Sapphire over Emerald, Cipher, and Parcel?

Sapphire is the first confidential EVM-compatible Network. This means that it is the only network where developers can build Smart Contracts in Solidity which can hide aspects of state. This can added flexibility for developers will lead to many numerous performance benefits and improvements in the user experience when interacting with these dapps. Use cases can be seen in a variety of sectors like DeFi, Gaming, NFTs, Decentralized Identity, and Social applications. Just as web2 was empowered by privacy protocols like HTTPS, we believe web3 will be propelled forward from these new functionalities.

The advantage to Sapphire over some Emerald, or Cipher, depends on what type of enviroment and features the developer is looking for. For solidity devs looking to incorporate confidentiality feature, Sapphire is the ideal ParaTime. I hope this helps!

[willfullhodl]

How does a confidential smart contract fundamentally differ from tools/coins such as Monero for example?

Monero and Zcash are “privacy coins,” concerned with facilitating anonymous and untraceable transactions. Instead, Oasis is focused on data privacy, supporting applications that need to process sensitive data. Privacy coins serve an important, but narrow purpose. Confidential paratimes can support a wide range of use cases beyond anonymous transactions.

There are some big differences compared to each of those, both in the overall architecture of the network and the security design. To start, let's first explore the overall architecture to highlight how confidentiality is being protected in the Oasis network architecture. On a high level, the Oasis network introduces a notion of ParaTimes which are their own blockchains sharing security with the consensus layer. The consensus layer itself is not confidential and does not support user-uploadable smart contracts. Its core function is to manage everything that is needed to support ParaTimes. In stark contrast, Monero and Zcash are privacy coins at the consensus layer and do not aim to support general confidential smart contracts.

[DianaM]

Can someone share me what is the difference between sapphire, emerald, ciper and parcel?

These are different offerings from Oasis that developers can use to build on Oasis' unique technology. Emerald, Cipher and Sapphire are ParaTimes on the Oasis Network that each offer different features for devlopers. Emerald is an EVM compatible environment, while Cipher and Sapphire both offer support for confidential smart contracts. Cipher supports Oasis wasm-based smart contracts, while Sapphire supports EVM. Parcel is a data governance platform also built by Oasis.

[willfullhodl]

Can I send 100 rose to a contract while hiding the fact that is was 100 rose? Meaning that the amount of rose my address has, and the amount of rose the contract has, and the amount of rose the transaction has are all hidden? I was testing a basic contract on testnet with a very simple deposit and withdraw function and the transaction/user/contract amounts were visible throughout.

Rose by default is entirely public on Sapphire. In order to do this you would need to create a wrapping contract which hides this transaction data.

[MeredithOasis]

What kind of project you think should be create on web3 first time? Thanks

When considering building with confidentiality, there are many web3 applications that are well-suited for Sapphire.. Here are just a few areas that have a strong need for privacy and confidentiality:

DeFi: Adding confidentiality to DeFi enables novel features that have been requested in the Web3 community for a long time. For example with a DEX on Sapphire, it’s possible to keep certain aspects of transactions private. You could conceal the slippage parameters set and make an MEV-resistant DEX since there would be no way for sandwich attacks to take place.

Gaming: There is a lot of value to be added to the Web3 gaming sector by incorporating confidentiality, as most popular Web2 games often have some private components. Due to the transparency that exist with current blockchain networks, it is impossible to have these confidential features on-chain.  To maintain transparency, and keep secrecy in gaming and games of chance, a lot of the game has to move to off-chain environments. This has trade-offs as once the confidential aspects are moved to off-chain environments, they lose the high integrity that blockchain offers. With Sapphire, Web3 games will not have to make these trade-offs as the data can be stored privately on-chain.

NFTs: Sapphire’s confidentiality features could help by enabling more sophisticated auction mechanisms to be deployed. This would make for a much less chaotic and more fair minting and auction mechanism for NFT sales. Oasis also offers Confidential NFTs on Sapphire, where NFTs can also ascribe ownership of data which only they have access to. These NFTs provide added functionality and use cases for NFTs towards a Web3 world.

DID: Decentralized identity can revolutionize the Web3 space as people’s identities can be used across the internet without fear of an invasion of their privacy.
Social: Social applications can benefit massively from Web3, but we have yet to see meaningful adoption. A lot of this is due to issues with building a truly decentralized Web3 social platform. Sapphire’s confidentiality can solve some of those problems. For example on current blockchain networks, users can not choose who can and cannot see their profile or content. With Sapphire and confidential smart contracts, it becomes possible as these smart contracts can keep certain aspects hidden depending on set parameters.

[DianaM]

Just wondering, how will gas work when everything is confidential??🤔

Currently, gas works the same as in a standard EVM. This means that gas usage is a potential side channel through which private data could leak, similar to traditional side channels based on timing or other resources. This means that developers need to be careful if they have smart contracts whose execution is dependent on the value of confidential data. Mitigation techniques are similar to that for timing side channels--e.g., constant time algorithms.

[MeredithOasis]

Hi guys, thanks for the AMA!

Is privacy on Sapphire optional? Which elements of the transaction are private? Last but not least, can someone clarify the difference between sapphire, emerald, ciper and parcel?

This is a great question, and one we get asked a lot.

Sapphire enables developers to build smart contracts that keep private aspects of state. Depending on which aspects a developer chooses to keep private, the contracts can be built to range the entire spectrum of confidentiality, from fully public to fully confidential. Sapphire is a potent new tool for Solidity developers and can greatly expand what kinds of Web3 DApps can be built.

The potential use cases for confidential DApps are still being discovered, and we are just scratching the surface. What is clear is there is a real need for confidentiality in Web3 technology. The current state of public blockchains, especially EVM chains where many developers build, does not lend itself to Web3.

With Sapphire, we are opening up a new world of possibilities for blockchain to scale to Web3, but we are doing it with the backing of Solidity developers. If you would like to be one of the first to build a confidential DApp in Solidity, head over to our Keep it Confidential Hackathon page here!

[willfullhodl]

How hard is it to port over a smart contract from Ethereum over to Oasis Network? Preferably on Sapphire once it hits mainnet.

It is extremely easy. Sapphire is almost entirely EVM compatible. Here is a step by step guide to deploy your smart contract on sapphire https://docs.oasis.io/dapp/sapphire/quickstart

[MeredithOasis]

Does smart contracts provide privacy by hiding the transaction address, amount and hash keys?

With Sapphire, the contract creator decides which aspects of state are confidential. Smart contracts on Sapphire can have anywhere from full confidentiality to none at all! Learn more at https://medium.com/oasis-protocol-project/get-to-know-sapphire-the-industry-first-confidential-evm-paratime-f26ee0327e74

[willfullhodl]

Can you illustrate with an example how privacy works? For example, will not ensuring privacy create a permission criteria? How can something be permissionless and yet confer confidentiality?

Node operators on Sapphire are required to run trusted hardware which acts as a black box so that even they can not see the confidential data. Other than that the network operates in the same permissionless as any other blockchain network

[MeredithOasis]

Can a submission for the hackathon be a "backend only" delivery (smart contracts with its corresponding API and documentation), or must it be a full dApp including frontend?

Yes, it can! Here are the requirements to participate in the Keep it Confidential Hackathon:

-Provide a short summary of your project, including a description of what it is and how you want to evolve it
-Provide a link to your code repository for judging and testing. Code must be open sourced.
-Provide smart contract deployment links
-Include a video (less than 5 minutes) that shows how your project works and why you built it. Videos must be uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo or a similar site and made public.

Learn more and join the hackathon today: https://oasisprotocol.org/hackathon

[willfullhodl]

There was a huge debacle with tornado cash, I am guessing the larger aim here is privacy compliance to both adhere to regulations while also protecting and preserving the privacy of your userbase?

Sapphire enables far more than just private transactions like tornado cash. Sapphire dapps can be entirely public or entirely confidential as well as the entire spectrum in between. By giving developers the choice of which aspects they wish to hide they can build dapps that best suit their respective needs. For example a dex could hide slippage parameters while keeping all trades entirely public they would be able to be MEV resistant but still entirely public. We expect that these are the type of use cases the majority of dapps built on sapphire will target

[patrickbateman4423]

How does the Sapphire ParaTime ‘talk to’ the EVM?

[vicxwrites]

The Oasis Network is based on Tendermint Core or on Cosmos SDK? What key differences the Oasis network has from the Cosmos (Atom) Network?

[zaila2016]

Is it possible to call a function of the contract without revealing my public address?

[Mscris27]

Is there a way to do a native eth_call without wrapping it into sapphire? wrap?
 What is my use case here: We have self-hosted the graph node that is performing read-only calls to contracts, so now is it failing with invalid call format: invalid packed call

[gerome10]

If in the case that we did Join the ambassador's program, what benefits and how will the ambassador's grow with the Oasis Network