Fully homomorphic encryption and the dawn of a private internet (bozmen.io)

Article summary

The article discusses Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), a technology that enables computations on encrypted data without decrypting it first. FHE has the potential to provide a private internet, where data can be kept encrypted at all times, but it is still not practical for most applications due to its slow speed. However, FHE algorithms are getting faster, with an 8x improvement in speed every year. This could lead to a future where FHE is fast enough for applications like encrypted cloud computing and confidential blockchain smart contracts.

Main themes

• Fully Homomorphic Encryption
• Private Internet
• Encryption Speed
• Cloud Computing
• Data Privacy
• Security Tradeoffs

What commenters say

• Some commenters argue that FHE is too slow and expensive to be practical, and that its benefits may not outweigh its costs.
• Others believe that there is a market for FHE, particularly among individuals and organizations that value privacy and are willing to pay a premium for it.
• A few commenters note that self-hosting data can be a viable alternative to using FHE, as it allows individuals to maintain control over their data and avoid relying on cloud providers.
• Some argue that FHE is not necessary for most use cases, and that existing encryption methods like SSL/TLS are sufficient.
• Others point out that FHE has the potential to enable new use cases, such as confidential compute and encrypted machine learning, that are not possible with existing encryption methods.
• A few commenters express skepticism about the security benefits of FHE, arguing that it is not a silver bullet and that other security measures are still necessary.
• Some commenters note that the cost of FHE is not just a matter of latency, but also of computational overhead, and that this can be a significant barrier to adoption.