The Zama FHE Master Plan

Zama has made significant strides in advancing Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), raising $73 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with support from prominent figures in the blockchain industry. This funding will propel Zama's mission to make end-to-end encryption ubiquitous across the internet by addressing the limitations of FHE, which was once seen as impractical due to its complexity and cost. Zama has developed a suite of open-source FHE libraries and solutions, enabling developers to create encrypted applications without needing expertise in cryptography. The company has significantly improved the performance of its FHE scheme, enabling its application in confidential blockchain and AI use cases, and is working on dedicated hardware accelerators to further enhance scalability. Zama's fhEVM solution allows for confidential smart contracts on EVM-compatible chains, addressing privacy issues in blockchain transactions. This has led to collaborations with projects like Fhenix, Shiba Inu, and Inco, aiming to enhance privacy in various blockchain applications. Looking ahead, Zama plans to expand FHE's accessibility and speed, eventually applying it to cloud applications and creating an entirely encrypted internet via an "HTTPZ" protocol.