COTI is one of the experienced projects in the cryptocurrency space and we had the chance to speak with Shahaf Bar-Geffen, the CEO.
The team is on the cusp of major developments, with the current priority being the V2 of the protocol, with a focus on delivering a privacy-focused Ethereum layer-two solution.
With bold plans to launch its mainnet by the end of 2024, Bar-Geffen also talks about the merits behind the decision to go this route, the fundamental challenges facing the industry, and how COTI plans to address them.
The main focus of COTI
In our most recent podcast episode, Shahf Bar-Geffen explained more about the recent progress of the project and also provided important clarification regarding the roadmap for the near future.
To start, he said the team’s current focus is on launching COTI V2 – a privacy-oriented Ethereum layer-2 blockchain. But why privacy?
Bar-Geffen identifies the root cause of the ongoing challenges facing blockchain-based technology, in general, but also for the internet itself.
“The best outcome of the Internet, and again, this is not just for blockchain, and the communication networks will be a decentralized network that can keep secrets, that can keep your data private.
So this is the case precisely what we are doing now with COTI. We’re doing that on top of an existing network, so we’re starting off very strong in terms of liquidity, and we’re doing it in one terribly unique technology that no one has ever used before.”
And right here it is crucial to clarify some important points. In light of recent events where institutions around the world are cracking down on anonymity-first solutions, we asked Bar-Geffen how COTI V2 is different.
He explained that the team is working on a feature known as “selective disclosure,” where the core principle is “confidentiality rather than anonymity.” This allows users to decide whether they want to show their transaction data and to whom exactly. Unlike Monero, COTI’s CEO explained that the method is very different.
He explained that transactions can be confidential as long as users want them to be, while regulators still have the ability to audit them if there is doubt about their nature.
This is fundamentally different from completely anonymous solutions where bad actors can transfer money and carry out various illegal activities such as money laundering, he said.
What is the Tech Stack Powering COTI V2?
COTI is the first blockchain-based project to integrate a technology called mangled circuits.
In essence, garbled circuitry provides on-chain privacy at a computing speed that is up to 1,000 times faster than other encryption systems, such as fully holomorphic encryption (FHE).
Bar-Geffen explained that its original purpose and structure was “not very useful to solve blockchain privacy issues due to performance issues.” But that all changed.
We had some researchers come from a company called Soda Labs, and we helped them fund practical research on how to actually use this on Blockchian. And they did it.
But that’s not all: Garbled Circuit technology can also handle transactions affecting a private state shared by multiple parties, potentially making it superior to ZK-based solutions.
According to a previous release:
It is also immune to single point-of-failure weaknesses exposed in TEE solutions. The result is a privacy-preserving on-chain solution that is both scalable and more secure than alternative solutions.”
The roadmap for the next months
reminded Shahaf Bar-Geffen That COTI introduced the concept for the V2 network earlier this year, followed by the distorted circuits on the blockchain.
He explained that the Developer Network has also recently become operational and more than 400 smart contracts have already been built on it. The network uses a technology called GC EVM (from Garbled Circuits), an extension of EVMs, allowing developers to code in Solidity with a few new parameters.
Essentially, developers can write smart contracts in Solidity, but determine what data should be confidential.
Additionally, COTI recently completed construction of the testnet, which should be deployed in the coming months and pave the way for a mainnet launch later this year.
“That should be fairly stable and will lead us to Mainnet in the fourth quarter of this year. So the idea is to have the mainnet, a privacy-oriented Ethereum layer-2.”
Enabling simpler KYC procedures, focusing on AI-related initiatives and building DeFi solutions will be some of the other key focuses in the coming months for COTI, the director added.
Watch the podcast above to learn more about what else COTI is working on, and the ABC Growth Fund.