With the unveiling of COTI’s new COTI V2 upgrade, the stage is set for a groundbreaking discussion on the importance of privacy in today’s blockchain landscape. Shahaf Bar-Geffen, the CEO of COTI, leads the charge in addressing this critical issue head-on. Bar-Geffen’s insights illuminate the urgent need for privacy-enhancing solutions, positioning COTI at the forefront of this transformative movement. Leveraging innovative technologies like garbled circuits, COTI V2 pioneers a new era where privacy and efficiency coexist harmoniously. 

With the new COTI V2 upgrade you’ve moved to Ethereum and Layer 2, why do you think privacy is a major concern today?

The reality, in fact, is that blockchains are so public by default that their innate transparency could actually slow their adoption. People may not use blockchain if they fear that doing so will expose their sensitive information online, such as salaries, medical bills, payment history, and everything around it. And all information on the blockchain is publicly available, which eliminates any type of on-chain privacy. I think that in the future, any dApp, any application that will not have privacy in it, will not succeed.

The two big things that have been in development in blockchain in the last ten years are scalability and privacy. And now it’s all about privacy. For us, it is a huge opportunity to be at the forefront of it. We utilise a unique combination of well-established privacy-preserving technologies – garbled circuits. 

COTI’s upgrade, COTI V2, is able to perform powerful computations on encrypted information without leaking any sensitive information about that transaction to the public. So, garbled circuits are more scalable than anything else out there, thanks to their lightweight computation and storage. And we’ll be there in a few months with our network.

What about ZKs? Are they good alternatives to other privacy solutions?

We have been testing ZK. The big problem with it is that it’s very limited; for instance, you can’t do ZK with multi-party computing. For example, you can’t do DEX with ZK. At the same time, a computation can be encrypted with garbled circuits.

How will the Dencun upgrade enhance the operability of COTI V2?

This upgrade is very useful for us because it enhances transactional data per block, and it provides a significant boost to transactional latency while also significantly reducing transaction fees. It was also introduced while we were building the network, so we can already build around it without needing to change what we do to fit with this upgrade.

What challenges do you anticipate in integrating COTI V2 with upcoming Ethereum upgrades, and how do you plan to address them?

Actually, we don’t anticipate challenges. As for the Ethereum, COTI V2 will natively be equipped to take advantage of all the future Ethereum upgrades as they roll out. And I don’t expect any major challenge in this regard.

How does COTI V2 differentiate itself from other Layer 2 solutions?

So, essentially, we are different from other layer 2s because we offer confidential computing. We offer privacy. In other Layer 2s, everything is publicly available, and all the sensitive data is out there. So, I think this will not work in the future. I think everybody will need to protect sensitive data. 

So, the first thing that some protocols do is Trusted Execution Environment, which is very expensive, and you can’t run it on most devices. But it also fails. All of these solutions have been hacked in the past. Then, there are ZK-SNARKS, which are also very slow and computationally heavy. Next, there is Multi-Party Computing, MPC, which you can actually use on multi-party apps and run on any device. It’s secure, but it’s very slow. Then, there is an upcoming technology that a lot of people are talking about, FHE, Fully Homomorphic Encryption. You can build multi-party apps on it, and it’s very secure. But, in its current stage, it’s slow and expensive, and there’s a problem with running it on many devices. 

I believe that what we use is the best technology out there; garbled circuits compute about a thousand times faster than our competitors. It requires 250x less storage than solutions like FHE, for instance. And the latency is about 1000x faster in terms of latency.

Also, we use decentralised sequencers to build our Layer 2, which is obviously more decentralised and secure. So, this is the comparison and why I think our solution is very strong.

How does COTI V2 ensure compliance with regulatory requirements while maintaining user privacy?

Essentially, we are mimicking how commerce operates within Web 2.0 and traditional systems in terms of privacy protection while maintaining a good stand with AML and counter-terrorism financing regulation. 

What measures are in place to ensure a smooth transition for COTI token holders during the COTI V2 migration and token swap?

COTI V2 tokens will be available around Q4 when we release the Mainnet. COTI V1 tokens are already available, and many people hold them. So, when we have V2 tokens out there, it will be very easy to migrate. For safety reasons, no smart contracts will be used there to avoid any possible hack. We will offer the swap through an app that is already available called COTI Treasury. 

Right now, we are offering 40 million COTI tokens, which is about $10 million, to the people who have just started participating in an airdrop campaign. If you just go to COTI’s website, you’ll probably see it in the Treasury app, and you’ll get nice rewards for participating in this campaign. 

What partnerships or collaborations has COTI established to reach its goals within the blockchain space?

Since 2017, we have already had a very well-established business structure of partners, integrations, and listings to boost our network. COTI token is already listed on all the top exchanges, such as Binance, Coinbase, Kucoin, Kraken, and more. You can also find it on Revolut, Binance Pay, and other financial apps.

We also have a very strong partnership with a company called Soda Labs. They are experts in the field of secure multi-party computing, particularly garbled circuits. So, a lot of research and building has been done with them. 

We have some DeFi partners, confidential transactions for payments, stablecoins, and real-world assets, including new wallets. We are also working on solutions for AI, like confidential machine learning and on-chain sensitive data management. For instance, you can do new and exciting things like federated learning, so we’ll have some AI partners as well.

Looking ahead, what are the key milestones and developments on the roadmap for COTI V2 in the coming year? How do they align with broader trends in the blockchain industry?

So, in Q1, the first milestone was achieved in February, when we demonstrated the integration of the MPC protocol on COTI V2 and made an online demo of it. And just now, we’ve released the whitepaper, which I encourage people to read.

COTI V2 white paper is here!Your guide to the fastest and lightest confidentiality L2 on @ethereum, this white paper describes the revolutionary breakthrough in blockchain encryption and our innovative implementation of decentralized sequencers https://t.co/G3BapUUGCN1/12 pic.twitter.com/6pQG1qDBzu

— COTI Foundation (@COTInetwork) April 2, 2024

Next is the developer network release in Q2. This is when we’ll announce our grants program. Q3 is Testnet, and Q4 is Mainnet, and then the COTI V2 migration process. It’s a very ambitious timeline, but we’re on track. These milestones are strategically aligned with broader trends in the blockchain industry, such as confidential DeFi, decentralised identification, AI, and CBDCs. And we want to make sure that COTI is paving the way for the next wave of Web3 innovation and adoption.

What specific outcomes or results do you plan in the Paris Blockchain Week?

Paris Blockchain Week is a great event, and I will personally participate in a panel and some other events. It’s all about meeting current and future partners, forming these relationships and building these partnerships.

We may even have something to show in terms of the developer network in the event.

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