We’re excited to announce the release of SecretPath, a trustless bridging protocol that enables EVM blockchains to communicate with Secret Network! SecretPath introduces a lightweight framework for secure message passing between blockchains, aiming to provide a critical missing piece in the tech stack of most web3 applications: confidential computation.
What is SecretPath?
SecretPath represents a technological advancement in cross-chain communication, facilitating non-malleable, trustless message passing between public compute chains and Secret Network. It leverages a blockchain-specific adaptation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, ensuring data remains encrypted throughout its journey, thereby not requiring SecretPath to store or directly compute over the data. Instead, it connects public blockchain applications to private Secret Network smart contracts using Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH) key agreement, enabling the execution of Secret contracts with the assurance of data confidentiality.
Special thanks to Fortress Labs for the initial design and testnet implementation of this protocol, and for their help in getting this up and running!
Relayers and Gateways
The structural foundation of SecretPath is composed of two key components: relayers and gateways.
Gateways are smart contracts that manage the intricacies of message transmission, including broadcasting, receiving, packaging, and verifying messages. They simplify developer interactions with SecretPath by offering essential functions such as signature operations and serialization/deserialization (serdes) processes. Furthermore, on Secret Network, gateways possess the unique ability to re-encrypt data, thus safeguarding end-to-end confidentiality.
Relayers play a pivotal role in observing and securely transmitting messages between chains. Designed with a focus on network liveness, relayers are configured to ensure data passage without access to decryption or signing capabilities, thereby preventing potential data security breaches or alterations.
For those interested in learning more about the differences between SecretPath and other interoperability solutions, check out our developer documentation.
Unlocking New Use-Cases for Web3
SecretPath is a powerful addition to Secret Network’s cross-chain messaging capabilities. Along with IBC and Axelar GMP, and eventually to be joined by additional bridging technologies like Wormhole and Union, it enables groundbreaking new use-cases for Web3 applications by providing access to confidential computation. This facilitates novel applications such as private voting for DAOs, secure random number generation, confidential data access control via NFTs, encrypted DeFi order books, sealed-bid auctions, and storing encrypted data.
Start Building
To start utilizing SecretPath in your EVM applications, check out our EVM developer toolkit. It includes documentation and tutorials for some basic use-cases, and a list of Secret gateway contracts showing the EVM blockchains that are currently supported. Nearly any EVM chain can be supported with SecretPath, so if you have a specific blockchain that you’d like to request, please contact our devrel team. We also encourage developers to check out our grants program to get funding for building with SecretPath, and to join our Discord and Telegram to get involved with our community. You can also contact our team directly if you have any questions about building on Secret.
Secret Network is committed to pushing the boundaries of blockchain. Join us on our mission to redefine what’s possible in Web3 with confidential computation!
Join in on the discussion on the Secret Network community channels!
