The new products are designed for ensuring the security and trustworthiness of data flows within blockchain networks
AntChain unveiled two new products at the Apsara Conference 2021. (Credit: Business Wire)
Ant Group said that its flagship technology brand AntChain has launched a new blockchain platform called FAIR and a blockchain-powered security chip T1.
Unveiled at the Apsara Conference 2021 in Hangzhou, China, the blockchain platform and the security chip are designed to ensure the security, as well as, the trustworthiness of data flows within blockchain networks, said the Chinese group.
The FAIR platform is said to integrate privacy-preserving computation (PPC) and blockchain technologies natively in a unified platform. This enables the platform to unlock the value of data flows through their entire lifecycle.
According to Ant Group, the platform is designed to address pain points in multi-party collaboration on data flows, which are becoming very common on the industrial internet.
FAIR replaces the conventional “PPC plus blockchain” dual-system architecture.
In its unified platform, PPC technology manages encrypted private data across various segregated data sets. On the other hand, blockchains offer a traceable, immutable foundation for trusted data flows.
Ant Group said that by natively integrating the two technologies, compatibility and efficiency can be strengthened greatly, while cutting down costs of deployment.
The FAIR blockchain platform uses three types of PPC technologies, which are multi-party computation (MPC), trusted execution environments (TEE), and federated learning (FL).
By utilising hardware innovations and close integration of software and hardware, the FAIR framework is 100 times more efficient than conventional solutions, said the Chinese group.
AntChain technical director Yan Ying said: “Data privacy protection is becoming an underlying requirement in the industry. AntChain believes that privacy-preserving computation should be a native capability for blockchain networks.
“The FAIR platform deeply integrates blockchain and PPC to further expand the capability of blockchain networks, allowing each node in a blockchain network to act as a node for privacy-preserving computing.”
The T1 security chip leverages Xuantie E803 high-performance processor IP from T-Head Semiconductor. The new chip will be deployed in AntChain’s hardware products, which include the all-in-one workstations.
The blockchain-powered security chip is capable of hosting a secure execution environment. Besides, it offers a range of security features such as data integrity verification and digital signatures to better ward off software as well as hardware attacks.