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ETH Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released the second article in his crypto obfuscation series, proposing a new design called Diamond iO
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released the second article in his crypto obfuscation series, introducing a new design called Diamond iO. This is an innovative attempt at indistinguishable obfuscation (iO) to make the execution of cryptographic programs more feasible.
What is Diamond iO?
Indistinguishable obfuscation is one of the most ambitious goals in the field of cryptography. Obfuscation technology converts a program into an encrypted version that still runs and produces the same output, while concealing its internal workings. Formal goal iO means: Given two obfuscated programs that do the same task, no one can tell the difference between them.
Buterin has previously described this process as "hiding code rather than data," which makes iO different from standard encryption and zero-knowledge proof. In his latest blog post, Buterin describes Diamond iO as a tool that allows users to interact with encrypted software while ensuring that the underlying logic, code and keys of the program remain confidential. Diamond iO will run inside a modified attribute-based encryption (ABE) scheme and be implemented based on fully homomorphic encryption (FHE).
Unlike historical assumptions about iO, Buterin's proposal could theoretically shorten the time required to run hidden program logic from the "cosmic level" to the "planetary level." Although there is still a long way to go before actual deployment, this is already a meaningful progress.
Promising prospects, but not yet practical
Buterin pointed out that combining Diamond iO with blockchain-which solves a gap that obfuscation technology cannot fill, which prevents programs from being copied to handle stateful operations like money-can enable applications such as fully private and collusion-resistant systems. Although theoretical breakthroughs have been made in recent years, the obstacles to practical application are still huge.
Buterin attributed the overhead to multi-layered constructs that stack primitives such as fully homomorphic encryption, functional encryption, and lattice-based tools. He pointed out that provably safe solutions are expected to operate for even longer than the lifetime of the universe. Diamond iO has narrowed this gap, but not completely eliminated it.
This design will lay the foundation for a variety of privacy-protected applications, including on-chain voting: the program can count votes and display the results without the need for a centralized counting agency. Buterin made it clear that he hopes researchers will continue to improve their security assumptions and computing performance before real-world deployments become feasible.
