🧐 iExec overview
Reading time 🕒 8 mins
Let's start with the basics
and explore how iExec can help you build Privacy-preserving applications and securely manage sensitive data.
👨💻 Why build Privacy-preserving dApps with iExec
Imagine you're building a decentralized application (dApp) that needs to handle sensitive user data, for example:
You'll need a way to:
This is where iExec comes in! We provide tools to easily add privacy and monetization features into your dApp.
👷 How do we solve it?
Unlike traditional security solutions, iExec protects your data throughout its entire lifecycle, during storage, transfer, and even while being processed by applications.
This is made possible thanks to Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and Confidential Computing technologies.
Our technology allows users to control the ownership, confidentiality, and monetization of their data and digital assets within the Web3 ecosystem.
🔒 What are the three key elements?
iExec combines three fundamental elements that work together seamlessly:
1. Protect data with our devtool DataProtector
- Encrypt your sensitive data and store it securely on IPFS
- Only you control who can access it and when
- Perfect for private information like research data, business analytics, or personal records
2. Compute data with iExec apps (iApps) running in secure environment
- Special applications that can work with protected data
- Run in secure environments (called TEEs) that keep your data private
- Process data without exposing sensitive information
3. Set the rules with the blockchain layer
- Enables tokenization of data
- Regain ownership of your data
- Provides transparent governance rules for data access
By merging blockchain technology with confidential computing, we've pioneered DeCC (Decentralized Confidential Computing) to take privacy and security to the next level in Web3 ecosystems.
🧸 DeCC explained like you're 5
Imagine a secure room, like a private bank vault for data, where everything inside stays safe and private.
With a tool called DataProtector, your data becomes protected and can only be read and processed inside this secure room.
Special applications called iApps (applications built to run in secure environments) can enter the room to work with your data. You stay in control by setting access rules that only you can modify about who can access it and when.
🔍 Building your first Privacy-preserving dApp
Let's meet Bob and Alice to understand how iExec enables Privacy-preserving applications:
1. Meet Bob: the dApp developer 👨💻
Bob is building a decentralized application that leverages iExec's technology. His platform consists of:
- A user-friendly interface for users.
- A DataProtector SDK that's easy to integrate into any application.
- Thanks to DataProtector, end users can protect their data, manage access, and process it seamlessly.
2. Meet Alice: the dApp user 👩💼
When using Bob's platform, Alice can:
- Protect her data using the Bob's platform's DataProtector feature
- Maintain full control over who can access her protected data
- Authorize specific iExec Apps and persons like Bob to use her data in a secure environment
Depending on the dApp's use case, Alice could:
- Apply algorithms to her data and get results confidentially
- Share her data with other users privately (and get paid for it)
- Ask questions to AI models about her data and get answers confidentially
And many other use cases...
💡 Possible use cases
Finance
- Analyze sensitive financial data
- Process credit scores without exposing personal information
AI/ML
- Train models on private datasets
- Perform confidential predictions
Research
- Share and analyze research data securely
- Collaborate while protecting intellectual property
Business Analytics
- Process competitive market data
- Analyze business metrics confidentially
Gaming
- Protect player data and game assets
- Process in-game transactions securely
Healthcare
- Process patient records privately
- Run medical analyses while preserving patient confidentiality
In the next chapters, we'll follow Alice and Bob's journey step by step, starting with how Alice can protect her sensitive data and then how Bob can build and deploy a confidential app to process it.
🎯 Key takeaways
In this chapter, we covered the core concepts of iExec:
Privacy-preserving Solution: iExec provides tools to protect sensitive data throughout its entire lifecycle - storage, transfer, and processing
User Control: Data owners maintain full control over access, confidentiality, and monetization of their assets
iApps (iExec App): Special applications that can process protected data
Blockchain: Enables tokenization of data, regain ownership, and governance rules for data access
Wide Application: From AI to finance, enabling confidential data processing across various industries
Now that you understand the fundamentals, let's dive into protecting your first piece of data! With Alice!