Seeding the Next Generation of TEEs: Outcomes from the Stakeholder Meeting

Poetic Technologies
November 9, 2024

On October 14, 2024, Poetic Technologies hosted a Stakeholder Meeting focused on “Seeding the Next Generation of Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs).” The meeting brought together a diverse group of innovators, developers, and industry leaders to discuss the future of open-source TEEs and outline collaborative steps for making this happen.

Speakers representing various organizations shared insights on the challenges and opportunities in TEE development.

You can watch the individual talks by distinguished speakers in the following links: Julio Linares (Poetic Technologies), Sylvain Bellemare (IC3), Shelven Zhou (Phala Network), Zheng Leong Chua (Automata Network), and Tanmay Goel (GMMS Labs/Koki’o).

Zheng Leong Chua from Automata Network highlighted the need for a layered approach to security and a community effort to identify and address issues. Sylvain Bellemare from IC3 highlighted the lack of an economic model for securing hardware against physical attacks. He suggested that this issue could be resolved through stronger collaboration between the blockchain community and hardware researchers, enabling them to work together to develop more secure chips. Dr. Shelven Zhou from Phala Network introduced their work on developing a decentralized TEE network. He proposed replacing the hardware-based root of trust with a decentralized, on-chain system. Julio Linares from Poetic Technologies outlined their efforts in tackling privacy challenges, which led to the creation of the Autonomous TEE Manifesto. Poetic Technologies emphasized the critical role of binary security and reproducible builds in their mission to develop an open-source TEE through collaborations with both academia and industry.

To sum things up, the discussion emphasized the importance of a multi-layered security approach and stronger collaboration between blockchain and hardware researchers to address hardware vulnerabilities. Key takeaways include the push for a decentralized TEE network, a shift towards an on-chain root of trust, and the need for reproducible builds and binary security in developing open-source TEEs.

The diversity of expertise—from cryptography and engineering to fundraising and education—shows the vast potential within this community to drive forward open-source TEEs. Participants from Phala Network, Flare, Automata Network, Reverie, Simple-Crypto (UC Louvain), Technical University of Munich, SpaceCoin.xyz, IC3, Nillion, t1 Protocol, and many others expressed collaboration in engineering, research, marketing, and funding.

Next Steps:

As we move forward, several clear next steps emerged during the discussions:

Fundraising for Key Projects:
- Support for Simple-crypto.org to create a PUF signature oracle. (Please send us an email if you want to know more about this proposal.)
- Fund and create concrete ties with IC3 to support open TEE researchers..
Open-Source Development:
- Focus on developing open-source CPU architecture with a separate TEE module paired with mainstream hardware.
- Collaborating with manufacturers who are providing open source manufacturing process.
- Evaluating the feasibility of various strategies to determine the best path forward in building open TEEs.

Upcoming Meetings:

In order to swiftly act on organizing these suggestions and the roadmap, we will have a dedicated in person work session during Devcon 2024 as well as continue to organize the online meetings. Here are our upcoming meetings:

In-Person: We will hold our next in-person stakeholder meeting during Devcon 2024 in Thailand, on Monday, November 11, from 17:00 local time in Bangkok. The exact location will be announced soon on our X account (@Poetic_Tech).
Online: We will announce the details on our next virtual meeting soon.

Resource Map:

A board was used throughout the meeting to map out resources, funding opportunities, and ongoing projects across the TEE ecosystem. The resource map outlined the key players and initiatives in the following areas:

Fundraising: Contributions from organizations like Flare, Automata Network, T1 Protocol, and Reverie in supporting TEE research and development.
Engineering: Efforts by Simple-Crypto, Poetic Technologies, Technical University of Munich, Flare, and Automata Network on building TEE systems, infrastructure, and attestation protocols.
Communication and Marketing: Educational initiatives led by Poetic Technologies, IC3, Bitspossessed, T1 Protocol, Technical University of Munich and Nillion, including confidential computing, reproducible builds, MPC/HE, and abstracting PETs.

Call to Action:

As we move forward, we invite all stakeholders and contributors to join us in shaping the future of TEEs. Your insights and expertise are crucial in driving innovation and building secure, open-source solutions. Whether you want to help develop the roadmap, collaborate on key projects, or contribute to research and development, now is the time to take action.