A group of researchers from the University of Stanford, together with Visa Research, have created a mechanism to enhance the privacy in smart contracts from the second largest crypto blockchain in the market, Ethereum. The paper that was published about this new mechanism was originally posted on Stanford University’s Applied Cryptography Group’s site, Cryptoexchangeguide reports. According to the official paper, the team has developed “a fully-decentralized, confidential payment mechanism.” Dubbed as “Zether”, the mechanism is consistent with both Ethereum and other smart contract platforms. Reportedly, the new smart contract could be executed individually or by other smart contracts, that maintains encrypted account balances and would enable the deposit, transfer, and withdrawal of funds through cryptographic proofs. “The Zether contract will never transfer funds without first checking an appropriate burn or transfer proof, even if the request comes from another smart contract whose rules do not permit illegal transfers. This design decision ensures that the security of Zether only depends on itself and not on any outside smart contract. Even a maliciously written or insecure smart contract cannot cause Zether to misbehave,” the report specifies. The mechanism also has an extension that allows a sender to anonymously transact with either a single entity or a group which the sender chooses. This does not necessitate Ethereum smart contracts or any other public smart contract platform to change its underlying mechanism. |
