In an era where billions of individuals engage in data sharing through social media and the broader internet, the challenges of maintaining data privacy have reached unprecedented levels.
Multiparty computation (MPC) technology emerges as a driving solution, facilitating secure collaboration and computation on encrypted data. It addresses the pressing issues surrounding the delicate equilibrium between safeguarding personal information and navigating the intricacies of our interconnected digital landscape.
As the internet transitions from Web2 to Web3, the scalability of MPC and zero-knowledge (ZK) technologies are gaining momentum, further empowered by Web3’s paradigm shift in reinstating data ownership back to the users.
Escalating data privacy concerns
Web2 created borderless opportunities for anyone to create content and socially interact with one another. From bite-sized videos to social media and personal blogging, digital content creation has become second nature. However, the flip side comes at the cost of user privacy.
The issue of data privacy breach gained heightened attention with the Facebook Cambridge Analytica incident, which involved the improper acquisition of personal data from over 87 million users for political purposes.
Similarly, Equifax, a consumer credit reporting agency, faced “the largest-ever settlement for a data breach” according to CNBC, paying up to $700 million following the compromise of personal data belonging to 143 million consumers. Other major corporations, including Google, Alibaba, Uber, have also grappled with data privacy breaches.
A solution without compromise
Learning upon the failures of serious data breaches, the next phase of the internet is ready to implement robust data privacy – this time without compromising on critical trade-offs.
“MPC can perform any computation on any private input. Or in other words, MPC is a completely distributed encrypted computer. This is very different from zero-knowledge proofs, where the limitation is that there are only two parties involved and that the result is binary i.e. whether a statement is true or false,” says Brian Gallagher, Co-Founder of Partisia Blockchain.
Known for its privacy-preserving computation, MPC technology has been extensively developed over 35 years to provide the ideal foundations for data privacy. It is a distributed cryptography framework that enables confidential computations on encrypted data, ensuring privacy without revealing sensitive information to participants. This seamlessly integrates privacy-preserving computations into the data economy while maintaining transparency and integrity.
With its myriad of ways to be used in apps, MPC finds powerful utilization in use cases such as voting. Applicable to auctions, elections, or trustless private voting, this innovative approach allows for transparent and verifiable results while safeguarding the confidentiality of participants.
Unlocking the full potential of data
Privacy-enhancing techniques are highly applicable to the financial sector. Research by Deloitte echoes how “these techniques have the potential to expand the range of feasible data-sharing opportunities in financial services, effectively allowing institutions to ‘see the whole elephant’ and unlock new value for themselves, their customers, regulators, and societies at large.”
Beyond finance and voting, MPC extends its benefits into the Web3 realm, seamlessly integrating decentralized data ownership with privacy-preserving technologies. This innovative synergy ensures a highly secure online environment while preserving individual data autonomy.
“Where Web 3.0 meets MPC, consumers can control their private data even though the same data is being used in more and more data-driven reality. While this empowers the end users to get a fair share of the generated values it also paves the way for the next generation of the internet. An internet that is moved from an information-centric model to a user-centric one – it’s as easy as MPC,” says Brian Gallagher, Co-Founder of Partisia Blockchain.
In the convergence of Web3 and MPC technologies, Partisia Blockchain’s integration with Metamask Snaps, developed by Consensys, signifies a step towards permissionless innovation for more than 100 million users.
The intricate and highly technical nature of MPC technology is streamlined through partnerships such as Polygon and Partisia Blockchain, easing the burden on developers to integrate MPC features into smart contract apps. This empowers developers to concentrate on delivering sophisticated privacy-respecting solutions, alleviating concerns about the intricate technical complexities associated with MPC implementation.
Reinstating trust in the digital world
The gradual shift towards a user-owned internet does not need to happen with the cost of giving up data privacy. The emergence of Web3 social platforms such as Parti not only bolsters user-owned content ownership but also unlocks up to 100 percent of revenue streams back to creators through peer-to-peer digital payments.
As businesses harness more out-of-the-box security solutions, prioritizing robust internet data privacy emerges as a fundamental cornerstone for the evolving internet. The integration of strong data privacy measures and Web3 frameworks establishes an upgraded internet where users regain trust with enhanced confidence, fortified by the unyielding principles of secure cryptography.
The Human & Machine podcast is dedicated to inform and demystify the crypto, DeFi, GameFi, NFTs, and blockchain industries for the average person.
Tlahui is a man in love with words and blockchain. His storytelling and passion to communicate led him to co-host The Human & Machine, a podcast and YouTube channel. Where he rightfully plays the role of an average-minded Human trying to understand and explain in layman terms, the lingo and complexities thrown at him by The Machine, his heartless, yet brilliant co-host.
Hikaru is a blockchain lover with a weakness for cooking. His outstanding understanding and experience in blockchain technologies, plus his unhuman work ethic have earned him the nickname of The Machine. In the show, he plays the role of a hybrid all-knowing robot that goes out of his way to explain blockchain concepts to The Human while trying not to lose faith in humanity.
Kenny Au, aka The Brain, is a #Web3.0 #FutureofWork #DistributedOrganizations Outerspace OG. His brain functions in spacetime. Plus his innate visions and strategies in Web 3.0 have developed him the nickname of The Brain.
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