The New Use Cases Secret’s Privacy-Preserving Tech Unlocks
Secret’s tech is the ultimate blank canvas for innovative applications. With programmable privacy enabled by default, Secret is enhancing existing concepts created on blockchain in DeFi, NFT, and gaming. But more crucial than that, Secret offers developers an edge to innovate on real-world use cases.
We’ll cover a few of these use cases in this article, including:
#1 Decentralized finance (DeFi)
The blockchain space has seen a lot of innovation since the DeFi summer of 2020. However, public blockchains are still struggling with Miner Extractable Value (MEV) and anyone swapping through AMMs is vulnerable to front-running and sandwich attacks. More than $611 million has been collected via MEV since January 2020.
How Secret solves Miner Extractable Value (MEV)
Secret solves these problems by having an encrypted state and validators that know nothing about the transactions they are processing.
You’ll be able to use the standard DeFi primitives such as lending, borrowing, and providing liquidity in pools without revealing your liquidation targets, your position size, or your strategies.
The future DeFi landscape on Secret
Let’s now talk about what can be built on Secret that can’t be built on public-by-default blockchains.
We could have private credit scoring enabling you to borrow more with less collateral or even without.
Borrowing stablecoins against your assets and providing liquidity on an AMM on Secret or on a Cosmos chain through an IBC smart contract call, all privately, is creating new revenue opportunities.
Secret also can also make DAOs treasury assets and farming positions only visible to the DAO community.
Shade Protocol is launching an algorithmic stablecoin (SILK) pegged to a basket of currencies and commodities for maximum volatility shock absorption. Learn more about Shade here.
Dark pools
Large investors are using dark pools in traditional finance for huge transactions. They are then subject to front-running from High-Frequency Trading firms.
Private dark pools on Secret could lead to a massive amount of liquidity exchanged and finally provide the foundation for the institutions and big players to enter the DeFi space.
Want to know more about DeFi apps on Secret? Check out:
- SecretSwap: AMM — SecretSwap
- Sienna: AMM — Sienna
- Button Group: DEX Aggregator — Button Swap | btn.group
- Hydro.finance: Hybrid AMM — Introducing Hydro.Finance!
- Shade Protocol: Shade Protocol
#2 Art and digital media
Art and digital media are booming in the blockchain space thanks to NFTs. Secret is providing exciting and critical features for NFTs with privacy. We’ll not dive into the details, but if you'd like to learn more about Secret NFTs, check out The Infinite Horizon of Secret NFTs.
What Secret could bring to art and digital media
NFT 3D galleries are starting to pop up in the ecosystem. We could have a private version where the artist shows only some pieces to the public and have a VIP section only accessible if you own an NFT from that artist or with the password written in the private metadata of your NFT.
This protects the artist’s content and allows them to generate fair revenue streams by building a fan base. The artist could also release exclusive private content which is only to be seen by his NFT collections owners.
Another great feature is private bid auctions.
Fractionalized NFTs
Fractionalized Secret NFTs (currently in development) allow you to own a share of an expensive NFT privately and provide NFTs with a more liquid market and better price discovery.
What about owning a share of a luxury real estate that has been fractionalized and generates yield from vacation rent? Or do you prefer owning a share of a private island?
If you’d like to know more about NFTs on Secret and get your first one, check out:
#3 Gaming
One of the issues with blockchain gaming is having your NFT and assets public, which gives your opponents an edge. By leveraging private NFT metadata, Secret can disrupt the industry and give all players the same chance to win.
Secret gaming is also taking advantage of its private on-chain randomness number generation with Secret RNG which provides fair and private outcomes for gaming.
Secret Feature: Secret Oracles | Used in Gaming, NFTs & More!
Here are some of the functions made possible in gaming through Secret’s technology:
- Fully or partially hide your card deck in a PvP card game
- Private equipment and skills set for PvP session in your favorite action RPG
- Unlock special skills based on your NFT private metadata (only known by you)
- Fair randomness for online casinos or poker (with Secret RNG)
- Private betting markets
If you want to go deeper on Secret gaming differentiators, read this article:
Secret’s tech offers critical utility to anyone building or playing blockchain games.
Now, let’s take a look at what Secret could mean for your day-to-day applications.
#4 Data
Privacy is a human right and Secret is setting the landscape to take back the full control and ownership of our data. Privacy is critical for a better Web3.
Why are you not receiving any incentives when your data is monetized and exchanged on marketplaces you’re not aware of?
Cloud data storage
Jackal is building a decentralized Web3 hot/cold cloud storage system that follows the Amazon S3 standard, but with higher digital privacy and cyber security standards by bridging Secret and Filecoin. Jackal is based on a P2P node network which is a gateway to FileCoin and an IPFS node (acting as a cache layer), ensuring a smooth and private user experience.
Only the owner of the private key can access the content of his storage and Secret smart contract are used to encrypt/decrypt the content uploaded/downloaded by the owner.
For example, you could have a private vault for digital evidence in a justice case which could be only opened during hearings with the private key avoiding any prior tempering.
Web3 developers could use Jackal to build:
- Password Managing Service
- Website Hosting
- NFT Storage Solution
- Google Docs, Dropbox, and similar applications
Content marketplaces
By controlling the viewability and ownership of your data, you should be able to decide to sell, if you choose to, your data in marketplaces.
DataVault is being developed on Secret, introducing a decentralized privacy-preserving content management and data exchange. You will be able to download an encrypted dataset containing any type of content (video, music, software, picture, data proofs, …) and by purchasing the viewing key you will unlock its full content.
Marketplaces plugged to DataVault would generate revenue from sales for the governance stakers. They could vote to approve or delist dataset providers and provide dataset scoring. This economic model benefits the creators and users—not one centralized company.
Only share what is needed
And what about private Decentralized Identity? You should be able to connect to all your dApps with your unique DID and share only data that is needed by the app.
StarShell is a privacy-preserving, free, and open-source Web3 wallet built for the Secret Network and Cosmos Ecosystem. It protects your identity by limiting the types of information dApps can collect from your account.
With Secret as a base layer, you can see the impressive diversity of use cases that become possible.
If you want to learn more about Jackal, DataVault, and StarShell, check out:
#5 Payments and transactions
The core issue with public blockchains—when it comes to cryptocurrency payment—is the lack of transactional privacy. This creates a huge barrier to adoption. You should be able to spend your cryptocurrencies and stablecoins without revealing your wallet balances, and worst of all, your entire transaction history.
Does your favorite coffee shop have access to your bank account balance when you’re swiping your credit card? We should certainly expect that level of privacy as the minimum standard in this new financial wave of cryptocurrency.
Privacy in payments
A straightforward use case would be a payment platform leveraging Secret privacy to pay with cryptocurrency and preserving data, account balance for both the consumer and the business owner without trusting a centralized third party.
This is exactly what Silk Pay from Shade Protocol is aiming to provide. It’s introducing a new sender/receiver confirmation architecture using an escrow contract in the middle to ensure that the transfer is going to the intended address.
Read more about it here: GitHub — Silk Pay
Privacy in transfers and company expenses
Cross-border wire transfers are expensive, slow, and require paperwork. Alternatives by trusting a third party exist, but with a huge fee involved.
Why not use Secret for instant, private, and cheap transactions with no capped amount?
On the business-to-business side, Secret has already developed an invoicing application for requesting and sending money to business counterparties. This is only scratching the surface of what is possible to develop with Secret’s tech.
#6 Communication
The rise of the Internet has provided a seamless communication experience for billions of users. You’re maybe one of them, communicating on a daily basis with your family, friends, co-workers, and communities.
But with public-by-default blockchains, we would enable the same Web2 companies to again exploit user data by simply looking at the blockchain.
Your privacy-preserving communication tools
That’s why we need communication tools, like email, group chats, video calls, social media, and collaborative software with data protection and encryption at its core. We must take back control over our data when using online communication tools.
Alter is paving the way on Secret and has released its private & secure messaging application that includes email, messaging, and group chat. They plan to release an email bridge, voice calls, video conferencing, and calendar application in the future, with of course privacy at its core.
Alter’s goal is to become the most decentralized, flexible, and scalable communications platform for Web 3.0.
If you want to learn more about Alter:
Social media
Social media platforms and dating apps could use Secret and its built-in privacy to protect users and give them back control of their data and privacy.
This could also apply to decentralized music and video streaming. It’s better to be the only one knowing that you spent hours on cat videos and not your video streaming provider, no?
What will Web3 become?…
Your privacy was an afterthought in Web2 and we are repeating the same mistake in the early days of Web3. We have seen massive privacy and data breaches in the last few years (Cambridge Analytica, to name one).
Without privacy, Web3 will be a dangerous version of Web2 where your data and consumer behavior are public and available for big corporations to exploit, again…
Secret is providing the solution to take back control, preserve your right to manage your privacy, decide what data and with who you want to share it, and—in the long run—for cryptocurrency to go mainstream.
Secret is not only bringing privacy to existing blockchain applications but also providing the base layer for a better Web3. This is where we are seeing a lot of real use case applications putting back the user at the center of it all, preserving your right to privacy.
If you’d like to go deeper into Secret technology, follow this link: Secret Network
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