Content pfp
Content
@
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
A cryptographic "discipline" ladder. We drew this after losing two pilot partners by being overzealous researchers. (1 / N)
1 reply
2 recasts
7 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
The @seismic team is full of privacy maxis. As such, whenever a pilot partner joined our first cohort, we'd go crazy on their codebase. HIDE IT ALL was our gut reaction for every protocol.
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
"You should hide X to create this mystery, Y to ensure zero leakage, and obviously Z because users don't want that information out there." "We can use attribute-based encryption to do this, a kernel function to do this, and fully homomorphic encryption to do this."
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
Theory people loved this system. Our actual customers on the other hand? Dropped us on multiple occasions.
1 reply
0 recast
5 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
I don't blame them. Dapp UX after Seismic integration was horrendous. Bloated client distro packages. Dependency hell for every upgrade. 15s+ tx construction time (longer than mainnet block times).
1 reply
0 recast
4 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
What were we doing wrong? We were undisciplined. Whenever someone asked us for a mechanic, we never took the time to understand exactly what data they needed to blind and why.
1 reply
0 recast
4 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
We liked math and engineering. Not product. It was easier for us to say "blind it all" instead of taking the time to actually understand product goals.
1 reply
0 recast
5 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
What we thought a hard question looked like: "How do we prevent any PPT adversaries from learning this action taker's identity?" What a hard question actually looked like: "Why do we care about shielding the identity?"
1 reply
0 recast
5 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
Often times, the answer to the real questions was that we shouldn't care. Turns out that shielding is unnecessary for 90% of all the mechanics we implemented. Why hide a game character's [location, inventory, spells, identity] when [location] provides the same strategic depth?
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
When we realized this, our mindset shifted from hiding as much as possible, to hiding as little as possible. We instituted the discipline ladder to enforce this learning. It goes from the least complex (keep var public) to the most complex (partially homomorphic encryption).
1 reply
0 recast
3 reactions
Lyron Co Ting Keh pfp
Lyron Co Ting Keh
@lyronctk
Now, whenever we work with a new partner, we're strict about starting at the bottom rung. Prior to going up a rung, we take a hard look at the problem. Are we sure this addition is critical to the end user experience? Are we sure we can't use any prev rungs in a creative way?
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions