The Oasis Privacy Layer : A privacy Platform for Web3
Published: 2023-05-13 11:14:37

Sapphire revolutionizes the landscape for Solidity developers by offering ground-breaking advancements in building privacy-focused dApps. Not only does Sapphire empower developers to construct new privacy-enhanced applications, but it also serves as a powerful privacy layer that can seamlessly integrate with existing dApps on popular EVM networks, ensuring confidentiality and security across the board.
With the successful testnet launch of Sapphire in Q3, Oasis provided EVM developers with a familiar language to build confidential dApps, addressing the blockchain privacy paradox. Sapphire not only demonstrates the adaptability of the Oasis Network and its customizable ParaTime layer but also establishes a confidential EVM developer environment, showcasing the power and flexibility of our platform. Sapphire serves as the foundation for the Oasis Privacy Layer, extending its capabilities beyond a confidential EVM ParaTime. This privacy layer encompasses the entire Web3 ecosystem, offering privacy solutions for all EVM chains and dApps. By leveraging Oasis ' privacy technology, popular dApps on familiar EVM chains can seamlessly integrate privacy features without the need to migrate their entire application and user base to a different blockchain.
The Oasis Privacy Layer, powered by Sapphire, unlocks new possibilities for enhancing confidentiality and security within the Web3 space. It provides a seamless transition for developers and users, enabling them to harness the benefits of privacy without disrupting their existing infrastructure or requiring extensive changes. Embrace the Oasis Privacy Layer and experience a new era of privacy-enabled dApps across all EVM chains.
Let’s get to know more about Sapphire and how it makes these wonderful things possible.

## Sapphire

Built with a focus on builders, the Oasis Network embraces the essential tools of the Web3 ecosystem: Solidity, EVM, and the extensive array of community-developed resources for constructing resilient and trustworthy dApps on EVM-compatible chains. However, a crucial aspect is still absent. While smart contracts offer transparency and auditability for application logic and state, the inherent public nature of on-chain transactions and data prevents the inclusion of crucial components in many applications that require privacy and confidentiality.
Experience the transformative power of Sapphire as it eliminates these limitations through a captivating game! Enter the world of Wordleish, a thrilling blockchain-based game inspired by the viral sensation Wordle.
In Wordle (and Wordleish), your objective is to uncover the secret five-letter word by deducing it through iterative guesses. Colored tiles will provide feedback, indicating correct letters and their respective positions in the solution. However, Wordleish takes it a step further by introducing on-chain competition, allowing players to compete in solving these mind-bending puzzles. Each puzzle is securely stored within a smart contract, and the first player to crack each puzzle will forever be immortalized on the blockchain.
Embark on this thrilling journey with Wordleish and witness firsthand how Sapphire breaks through boundaries to enhance gaming experiences on the blockchain. Imagine attempting to build Wordleish on a traditional EVM network. Unfortunately, two significant limitations swiftly drain the excitement from the competition. Firstly, storing the puzzle solution in on-chain storage eliminates any notion of secrecy, as anyone can easily access the solution by querying the public storage of the contract. Secondly, due to the public nature of transactions, players submitting the correct answer face the risk of being "frontrun" by other participants.
Thankfully, Sapphire comes to the rescue by addressing both of these challenges through private smart contract state and encrypted transactions. This is precisely why Sapphire stands out as the ideal choice for Web3 builders aspiring to develop innovative dApps with enhanced privacy features. With Sapphire, the potential to create captivating and privacy-enabled experiences becomes a reality. However, what about the existing dApps that could significantly benefit from on-chain privacy? Consider applications that desire to facilitate secret ballots within their decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), host private NFT lotteries, or manage sensitive personal information through decentralized identity (Decentralized ID) systems.
Even in these scenarios, Sapphire remains the solution, all thanks to the Oasis Privacy Layer. This powerful framework enables seamless integration of on-chain privacy features, ensuring that existing dApps can leverage the benefits of enhanced privacy without compromising their functionality or security. Sapphire, in conjunction with the Oasis Privacy Layer, empowers developers to unlock a new realm of privacy-enabled capabilities within their dApps.

## Working of Oasis Privacy Layer

In Oasis’s exploration of the potential of Sapphire, Oasis witnessed how innovative applications like Wordleish can be built using its privacy features. However, what about existing dApps operating on different networks? How can they access the benefits of on-chain privacy? This is where the Oasis Privacy Layer comes into play, serving as a gateway for dApps on various EVM chains to leverage Sapphire's privacy capabilities.
To grasp how the Oasis Privacy Layer facilitates this accessibility, let's delve into another example involving the integration of a privacy feature into existing dApps. Consider a scenario where a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is hosted on a different EVM network, and there is a desire to introduce "secret ballot" proposals. The objective is to maintain a trustless on-chain voting mechanism while allowing votes to be submitted confidentially, with only the final outcome revealed. To achieve this, the first step involves deploying a secret ballot smart contract on the EVM-compatible Sapphire runtime. Next, the DAO contract on the home chain initiates the voting process by sending a message to the secret ballot contract through a message-passing bridge. DAO members can then submit their votes in secrecy, utilizing encrypted messages. Once the voting period concludes, the final result is reported back to the DAO on the home chain via the bridge, ensuring transparency and maintaining the privacy of individual votes throughout the process.
It is important to note that transactions conducted on Sapphire necessitate the payment of gas fees using Oasis 's native token, ROSE. To enhance user convenience, a gas relayer can be employed to transmit users' signed messages to Sapphire, eliminating the requirement for end users to acquire ROSE for gas payment. This streamlined process is accomplished with just a single additional click from the user, authorizing payment to the gas relayer in ETH, USDT, or any other designated currency.

## The Significance of a Privacy Layer: Unlocking Enhanced Confidentiality

The evolution of the blockchain ecosystem has reached a critical juncture. While Bitcoin initially revolutionized the financial landscape with its decentralized, transparent, and user-centric approach, there are still notable shortcomings within the technology. One significant area of concern is the lack of privacy inherent in blockchain networks. People are understandably hesitant to expose their sensitive data, such as credit scores, health information, and personal identifiable data, on a transparent and public network. To address this issue, Oasis is committed to scaling blockchain for Web3 and providing robust, configurable, and functional privacy solutions. Oasis’s goal is to make blockchain an integral and trustworthy part of the Web3 ecosystem while ensuring individuals' privacy is safeguarded.
The Oasis Privacy Layer is a crucial step forward in fulfilling Oasis’s mission. By developing Sapphire, Oasis have empowered Solidity developers with the tools to incorporate privacy and build confidential dApps for Web3. Additionally, Oasis have created the Oasis Privacy Layer to enable existing established dApps on other chains to leverage Sapphire's unique privacy capabilities without compromising their current achievements. With the Oasis Privacy Layer, Oasis aim to bridge the gap and offer privacy-enhancing features to both new and existing blockchain projects, providing individuals with the confidence that their privacy is protected in the Web3 era. 
The Oasis Network differentiates itself by not aiming to become just another isolated Layer 1 blockchain that further fragments the ecosystem and establishes its own set of standards. Instead, Oasis’s objective is to collaborate with existing blockchain infrastructure and empower developers to elevate it to new heights. Oasis recognize that Solidity developers, EVM chains, and prominent dApps are encountering limitations in the Web3 space due to the absence of privacy. With the introduction of the Oasis Privacy Layer, Oasis are paving the way for a progressive future, addressing the privacy challenges and unlocking opportunities for advancement in the ecosystem.

## Why delay, let’s start the dive

If you are thrilled to start experiencing these unmatched features offered by Sapphire by Oasis Protocol, you are welcome to visit the following article for more details.

https://oasisprotocol.org//blog/the-oasis-privacy-layer-powered-by-sapphire