Our Investment in Oasis Network: Privacy-preserving blockchain for the new data economy

Today, we are proud to announce the mainnet launch of the Oasis Network as an investor and a validator.

Two years ago, we met Professor Dawn Song at the UC Berkeley startup accelerator space — we were instantly awed by the cutting-edge cryptographic research the team was bringing to the blockchain industry. Since our investment in early 2018, Oasis Network has truly evolved to be the first scalable, privacy-enabled blockchain that can support private DeFi and Data Tokenization.

Until now, blockchains have lacked privacy — a prerequisite for truly managing and consuming sensitive data with decentralized technology. The explosion of personal information shared on the internet has made privacy one of the most critical concerns about the future of technology. And yet, due to the limitation of generalized development platforms with privacy-preserving features on a blockchain, we are limited to privacy coins today but no blossom of privacy-preserving applications in development.

This has changed today.

The Oasis Network offers a promising example of a privacy-preserving blockchain, that modularizes its architecture to enable a variety of use cases. By combining blockchain and secure computing, the Oasis Network enables dozens of new privacy-preserving features that can be natively built into applications.

The future of data tokenization and decentralized finance is already being built, with industry-leading teams like Stanford Medical, Fortune 500 firms, Nebula Genomics, the CryptoSafe Alliance, and more. Oasis’s powerful abstractions, enabling better user-oriented privacy for everything we do on the blockchain will introduce numerous exciting services that don’t have to make compromises on privacy anymore.

Here are a few highlights of the launch

• The Oasis Network Mainnet had a fully decentralized launch with over 70 independent validators.
• It is the first scalable, privacy-enabled blockchain that can support private DeFi and Data Tokenization
• The Network has a rapidly growing ecosystem of DeFi partners such as Chainlink, Balancer, and Meter, with many more coming in future weeks.
• A Grants & DevAccelerator program enabling over 20+ Wallets, APIs, Block Explorers, and critical network tools.
• Global community engagement led by over 100 Ambassadors focused on growing communities in over a dozen countries including China, France, Brazil, Turkey, India, Russia, Korea, Vietnam, and more.
• The largest university program in blockchain with over 25 universities and clubs from 5 continents actively running nodes and building on the Oasis Network.

How does Oasis Network work?

The network has a unique architecture that separates consensus operations from computing into two main layers: the Consensus Layer and ParaTime Layer. This design allows the Network to support many different parallel compute environments (aka ParaTimes) that can be customized for a broad set of use cases.

One of the Oasis Network’s core features is its support for confidential computing — a process where data is kept encrypted and private even while being processed by a node on the network. This feature is available today in Oasis Labs’ ParaTime. Applications built with the ParaTime can leverage confidential computing to protect data, while also getting the benefits of immutability and traceability of a blockchain.

To more easily leverage these unique features, Oasis Labs has also built a TypeScript SDK called Parcel that allows developers to automatically implement data ownership and access policies, consume data in a privacy-preserving environment, and unlock data that was previously too regulated or risky to use.

DeFi is booming, Oasis Network will further unlock its true potential

Oasis Network has the power to not only better secure user data, but also revolutionize the DeFi space. DeFi today is limited by high fees, speculative traders, and a lack of a reputation system or identity. Using both confidential compute as well as a lightweight, scalable design, the Oasis Network can enable lower fees, prevent front-running, and allow for the creation of identities with user-controlled data.

More importantly, by providing a privacy-preserving environment, Oasis Network unlocks opportunities for under-collateralized loans and private automated market makers. Allowing individuals to upload sensitive financial information without the worry of sharing it to public blockchain or centralized credit providers. This will bring more capital efficiency and customization to financial product offerings.

With Oasis Network’s unique ParaTime architecture, a broad range of financial services can be powered by blockchain for the first time.

Shifting the power of data back to an individual

The Oasis Network’s combination of confidential computing and blockchain enables a new paradigm called Tokenized Data. It is the combination of encrypted data capsules whose access can be controlled and enforced by a blockchain like the Oasis Network. This powerful duo of data capsule + policies means data can be shared and exchanged freely and openly without concern that it could be misused or mishandled.

With Tokenized Data, The Oasis Network will open up a safe protocol economy for everyone to earn from their data. It can support a new breed of privacy-preserving applications that respect a user’s data preferences by design and ensure each individual is fairly compensated for their data. They can earn rewards by staking their data with apps that want to analyze it or control how their most sensitive information is consumed by the services they use.

We are incredibly excited and honored to continue to work with the Oasis Foundation, pushing boundaries of adoption globally by lowering the barrier of entry for truly privacy-preserving web3 infrastructure.

You can learn more about the launch: here

How to stake and delegate: here

Oasis validators: here

Token Economics: here

Oasis Blockchain Explorer: here