Ship or Die at Accelerate 2025: You Can (and Should) Be encrypted

Arcium is set to revolutionize the Solana ecosystem with groundbreaking encrypted computing capabilities, paving the way for privacy-preserving applications and confidential DeFi. This game-changing technology promises to unlock new possibilities for institutional adoption and innovative use cases on Solana.

Summary

Yannik Schrade, co-founder and encrypted CEO of Arcium, presented at Accelerate 2025, introducing Arcium's encrypted computing solution for Solana. This technology addresses the issue of public visibility on the Solana blockchain by enabling privacy-preserving applications and confidential markets.

Arcium's encrypted computing network extension to Solana allows for encrypted shared state and computations without exposing underlying data. This opens up new possibilities for confidential DeFi, including dark pools and encrypted order books, while eliminating trust requirements and single points of failure.

The company has also expanded its reach by acquiring a major web2 competitor, accelerating the development of cryptography and encryption on Solana. This acquisition has enabled Arcium to facilitate end-to-end encrypted machine learning, with potential applications in healthcare, defense, and finance.

Arcium's technology is not limited to DeFi applications. It can be applied to various use cases, including encrypted intelligence for healthcare institutions, enabling secure data sharing and collaborative model training without compromising patient privacy.

Key Points:

Addressing Privacy on Solana

Arcium's encrypted computing solution tackles a fundamental issue on the Solana blockchain: the public visibility of all on-chain data. While transparency is often desirable, certain applications and users require privacy. Schrade argues that privacy is not just a political issue but a logical business decision that can enable more powerful applications and drive adoption.

By providing the infrastructure for privacy-preserving applications, Arcium aims to attract institutional players to Solana. This is particularly relevant for financial institutions, as more than 60% of daily US spot volume is traded in dark pools with built-in privacy features.

Encrypted Computing Network Extension

Arcium functions as an encrypted computing network extension to Solana, sitting alongside the blockchain and enabling encrypted shared state and computations. This allows programs on Solana to process encrypted data without ever exposing the underlying information.

The system is designed to be as efficient and high-throughput as possible while maintaining a trustless environment. Arcium's goal is to make encrypted computing accessible to every application on Solana, opening up a new design space for developers.

Confidential DeFi and Dark Pools

One of the primary applications enabled by Arcium is confidential DeFi. This includes privacy-preserving markets such as dark pools, encrypted order books, and private lending. In these systems, all trades and orders remain fully encrypted, with matching performed in a privacy-preserving manner using Arcium's technology.

A live demo of a fully encrypted order book is already available on the Solana devnet, showcasing the potential of this technology. By eliminating trust requirements and single points of failure, Arcium's solution offers a more secure and private environment for financial transactions.

Encrypted Machine Learning and AI

Following the acquisition of a major web2 competitor specializing in encrypted AI for healthcare, defense, and finance, Arcium has expanded its capabilities to include end-to-end encrypted machine learning. This allows for the encryption of sensitive data used to train models, the models themselves, and the inference process.

When combined with Solana programs, this technology enables new economic incentive models for providing data used in model creation. The encrypted nature of the entire process ensures that no inputs, outputs, underlying models, or training data are exposed.

Healthcare Applications and Encrypted Intelligence

Arcium is also venturing into the healthcare sector with its concept of "encrypted intelligence." By onboarding traditional healthcare institutions, Arcium aims to protect sensitive patient data while enabling collaborative model training and data analysis.

This approach allows hospitals and healthcare providers to share insights and improve predictions without ever exposing individual patient data. The encrypted collaboration between participants leads to a new form of shared encrypted intelligence, potentially revolutionizing medical research and patient care.

Facts + Figures

• More than 60% of daily US spot volume is traded in dark pools with built-in privacy features
• Arcium is currently in public testnet
• Arcium acquired its largest web2 competitor, which specialized in encrypted AI for healthcare, defense, and finance
• A demo of a fully encrypted order book is live on Solana devnet using the Arcium testnet
• Arcium's technology enables end-to-end encrypted machine learning, including encrypted data, models, and inference
• The company is working on onboarding traditional healthcare institutions to leverage encrypted intelligence
• Arcium's solution allows for configurable data visibility, ranging from fully encrypted to selectively shared

Top quotes

1. "We have to think about privacy in means of enabling new and more powerful applications instead of thinking about privacy as a purely political issue."
2. "You can think of Arcium as sort of an encrypted network extension to Solana, where Arcium is an encrypted computing providing stateless network that sits beside Solana, enabling encrypted shared state and encrypted computations."
3. "Our goal with Arcium is to enable every application to have encrypted computing and do so in the most efficient and high-throughput way possible while remaining as trustless as we can."
4. "What we are essentially doing is opening up a new design space."
5. "Using Arcium, we are able to protect this sensitive patient data and we're able to train models over that data without anyone ever having to share their data."

Questions Answered

What is Arcium and how does it work with Solana?

Arcium is an encrypted computing network extension that works alongside Solana to enable privacy-preserving applications. It allows for encrypted shared state and computations on the Solana blockchain, processing encrypted data without exposing the underlying information. This technology enables developers to create applications with built-in privacy features while maintaining the benefits of Solana's high-performance blockchain.

What types of applications can benefit from Arcium's encrypted computing?

Arcium's encrypted computing can benefit a wide range of applications, with confidential DeFi being a primary use case. This includes dark pools, encrypted order books, and private lending platforms. Additionally, Arcium's technology can be applied to encrypted machine learning, healthcare data sharing, and various other scenarios where data privacy is crucial. Essentially, any application that requires processing sensitive data while maintaining privacy can leverage Arcium's capabilities.

How does Arcium's technology impact the healthcare sector?

Arcium's encrypted intelligence technology has significant implications for the healthcare sector. It allows hospitals and healthcare institutions to collaborate on data analysis and model training without exposing sensitive patient information. This enables the creation of more accurate predictive models and insights while maintaining strict patient privacy. By facilitating secure data sharing and analysis, Arcium's technology has the potential to accelerate medical research and improve patient care outcomes.

What advantages does Arcium offer for institutional investors in the crypto space?

For institutional investors, Arcium provides a familiar environment similar to traditional dark pools, where a significant portion of US spot volume is traded. By enabling confidential markets and encrypted order books on Solana, Arcium makes it possible for these investors to participate in the crypto markets while maintaining the privacy they require. This could potentially drive increased institutional adoption of Solana and other cryptocurrencies.

How does Arcium's encrypted machine learning work?

Arcium's encrypted machine learning allows for end-to-end encryption of the entire machine learning process. This includes encrypting the sensitive data used for training, the models themselves, and the inference process. By keeping all aspects of the machine learning pipeline encrypted, Arcium ensures that no sensitive information is exposed at any point. This technology can be particularly useful in fields like healthcare, finance, and defense, where data privacy is paramount.