- Golem is working with Intel, ITL, UNC, and Texas A&M University
- The Graphene Project is a production-grade solution for application portability and security
- The project’s first stable release is slated for Q2/Q3 2019
Blockchain project Golem (GNT) has added another feather to its cap as it announced on April 10, 2019, that it is working with the likes of Intel, ITL, and researchers Don Porter and Chia-Che Tsai to develop a production-grade solution for application portability, security, and data integrity.
Update on Graphene Project
In a bid to expand use-cases for decentralized applications, Golem is set to introduce some new data protection solutions.
The blog post talks about Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) which are, essentially, isolated hardware spaces in the Software Guard Extensions (SGX) infrastructure called “enclaves.” In these enclaves, program codes can run protected from the host which ensures that the data remains confidential and preserves its integrity, even if the enclave is located on a compromised machine.
These enclaves differ from regular security containers in that they protect the host from the container – but don’t protect what’s inside the container from the host.
According to the post, SGX, the technology developed by Intel, is the most mature option out of the existing TEEs. And although the SGX has faced many challenges to date, Golem’s Graphene project has been largely successful in overcoming the majority of those.
Where Does Golem Fit In?
Per the blog post, the team at Golem began working towards the goal of developing a production-grade solution for SGX in 2017.
SGX was recommended to the Golem project by Invisible Things Lab (ITL). Later, in a bid to speed up the development of production-ready solutions, the team at Golem decided to fork the Graphene project. The blog post reads in part:
“Our goal was (and still is): to make it (SGX) truly useful, especially for users, not just vendors, we really need to find generic ways of how to run whole, unmodified applications within SGX enclaves. Pretty much like if they were “VMs” of some kind.”
Since then, Golem has added features to the solution offering to make it more decentralized in nature.
At present, the team is working towards building the contributors’ community for the project. The first stable release is slated for Q2/Q3 2019, featuring Docker integration. The team is also contemplating the introduction of protected network and file system, support of static binaries, and Go and Java runtimes. Concluding, the post notes that the team is mulling a Q4/2019 or Q1/2020 launch of the platform on Windows.
